■ Macroeconomics
China's production slows
China's production rose in January at the slowest pace in three years after the government clamped down on investment to help cool inflation and ease power shortages. Output rose 8.9 percent from a year earlier after climbing 14.4 percent in December, the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday on its Web site. The figures were adjusted to allow for changes in the number of working days caused by the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday falling in different months. Economic growth reached an eight-year high of 9.5 percent last year. Exports jumped 33 percent to a record US$63.8 billion in December and retail sales climbed 15 percent, the biggest gain in seven months. On an unadjusted basis, China's industrial production rose 20.9 percent last month to 484 billion yuan (US$58 billion), the statistics bureau said.
■ Electronics
Nvidia doubles Q4 profit
Nvidia Corp, the world's biggest maker of computer-graphics chips, said fourth-quarter profit doubled and sales increased as consumers bought equipment to play the newest video games on personal computers. The shares rose in extended trading. Net income rose to US$48 million, or US$0.27 a share, from US$24.2 million, or US$0.14, a year earlier, the Santa Clara, California-based company said in a statement. Sales in the quarter ended Jan. 30 rose 20 percent to US$566.5 million from US$472.1 million. Stronger-than-expected demand for chips used to produce computer-game graphics cards helped Nvidia increase its market share and led the company to raise its sales forecast on Feb. 1.
■ Banking
NYT to buy About.com
New York Times Co, the third largest US newspaper publisher, will buy Primedia Inc's About.com consumer-information Web site for US$410 million in cash to boost its presence on the Internet. The acquisition is expected to be completed late this quarter or early in the second quarter, The New York Times said yesterday in a statement. The New York-based company said the purchase is likely to boost earnings in 2007. Buying About.com will more than double the current 13 million people each month who visit New York Times-affiliated Web sites, the newspaper company said. The New York Times will put new content on About.com, which currently draws about 22 million visitors a month, the newspaper publisher said. The purchase price reflects a multiple of more than 10 times About.com's revenue for last year, The New York Times said.
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
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
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
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