■ Health
Production halt damaging
Britain halted influenza vaccine manufacturing at US-based Chiron Corp on Tuesday, wiping out a huge swathe of the world's expected supply for this flu season. British regulators suspended Chiron produc-tion for three months after uncovering unspecified sterility defects in the Liverpool plant, which makes all of the influenza vaccine, Fluvirin(R). US health authorities, who had been counting on Chiron for half of the country's flu vaccine this winter, scram-bled to patch up a plan to protect those most at risk.
■ Banking
Credit-card surge in China
China and India will lead the way in the new credit card surge in the Asia-Pacific region, a study by the London-based Lafferty Group predicted yesterday. China was expected to turn in a 47.5 percent com-pounded annual growth rate in new cards issued for the three years up to next year with India coming in at 29.4 percent, the study said. The total number of credit cards in China will likely hit 77 million next year, up from 52.2 million this year, the study said. In India, the number of cards was expected to grow to 13 million by the end of next year, up from 10 million this year.
■ Financial services
Hynix deal wrapped up
Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners LP, a unit of the world's largest financial service provider, completed the purchase of part of South Korea-based Hynix Semiconductor Inc's busi-ness, Hynix said in a state-ment. Citigroup made the payment to Hynix for its non-memory chip business, the statement said. The company in June agreed to purchase the Hynix busi-ness for 954 billion won (US$830 million) in cash and assumed debt. The move paves the way for Hynix, the world's second-largest maker of computer memory chips, to cut its 4.3 trillion won debt and keep up with Samsung Elec-tronics Co and Micron Tech-nology Inc on spending. The purchase allows Citigroup to invest in semiconductors.
■ Investment
FDI rises 71% in S Korea
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Korea stood at US$3.37 billion in the third quarter to last month, up 71 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday. The figures mark the third consecutive quarterly rise and are the highest since the fourth quarter of 2001, the ministry said. So far this year FDI is up 81.7 percent year-on-year to US$8.42 billion. The ministry said it expected to attain its goal of attracting US$10 billion of FDI this year. Manufac-turing attracted US$1.51 billion in FDI in the third quarter, up from US$319 million a year earlier, while service industries rose to US$1.84 billion from US$1.47 billion.
■ Finance
Soros boosts sons' jobs
Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has given his sons greater responsibility in his firm as part of efforts to return the company to its roots as a hedge fund, a company memo said. Soros, who started Soros Fund Management LLC in 1973, appointed his son Robert chief investment officer on Sept. 14, said the memo, which was sent to investors on Monday. The memo said Jonathan Soros was recently appointed co-deputy chairman of Soros Fund Management. The appointments are part of organizational changes at the company.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique