■ Tourism
Singapore mulls casino
A panel of experts unanimously backed a plan for a resort with a casino and recommended bold steps to keep Singapore a prime tourism destination in the Asia-Pacific region, their report said yesterday. The Singapore Tourism Board said it would review the recommendations from the 17-member International Council for Tourism, which submitted its strategies for keeping the city-state competitive. The government is currently studying the development of a resort with a casino on the island of Sentosa, but no decision has been made.
■ Semiconductors
Intel doubles dividend
Intel Corp, the world's largest computer-chip maker, Wednesday said it doubled its dividend for the second time this year. It also boosted a stock buyback plan by 8 percent, or 500 million shares. A quarterly dividend of US$0.08 a share, up from US$0.04, will be paid on March 1 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 7, Intel said. The Santa Clara-based chip giant had about 150.6 million shares left to buy back under a previous share-repurchase plan. Based on its approximately 6.3 billion shares outstanding, Intel's latest authorization allows it to buy back an extra 8 percent of its total shares. The maker of Pentium chips plans to distribute over US$1 billion in dividends this year, and following the latest boost, about US$2 billion in dividends next year.
■ China's economy
9.3 percent growth expected
China's surging economy will grow by 9.3 percent this year, the government forecast yesterday, amid signs that efforts to tame the economic boom are failing to cap inflation. China's gross domestic product for this year is forecast to increase to 13.4 trillion yuan (US$1.6 trillion), state media reported, citing the State Information Center. Meanwhile, the National Statistics Bureau said that the producer price index, a leading indicator for consumer price movements, jumped 8.4 percent on-year last month. The bureau cited higher prices for crude oil, coal, steel and nonferrous metal prices as major factors behind the rise. China's consumer price index, the country's main indicator for inflation, rose 5.2 percent in September, remaining near a seven-year high. The figure for last month has not yet been released.
■ Global trade
WTO rules against US
Antigua and Barbuda beat long odds Wednesday as the WTO confirmed its ruling that a ban in the US on Internet gambling violates global trading rules. The Geneva-based WTO, in a report released Wednesday, held that the US ban on web gambling is effectively an unfair trade barrier that hurts the gaming industry of the tiny Caribbean nation. US prohibitions on Internet gambling "are inconsistent with US obligations" under the 1995 General Agreement on Tariffs and Services, the WTO panel wrote in Geneva. Richard Mills of the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) called the decision "deeply flawed" and pointed out that Washington "clearly intended to exclude gambling from US services commitments when the Uruguay Round negotiations were completed under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO panel ruling acknowledged that Washington may have intended to exclude gambling from the treaty but that Internet gambling is covered under the services agreement of global trade agreements.
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