■ Oil industry
`Yes' to CNPC takeover bid
China's state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC, 中國石油天然氣) said yesterday that the board of PetroKazakhstan, a Canadian firm that is a major oil producer in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, has accepted a US$4.2 billion takeover offer. The deal, if completed, would add to a series of foreign acquisitions of oil and gas assets that Beijing hopes will secure energy supplies for its booming economy. The offer is to be put to PetroKazakhstan shareholders at a meeting expected to be held in October, CNPC said. "The Board of Directors of PetroKazakhstan has recommended that its shareholders accept CNPCI's offer," the company said. The announcement by CNPC comes just days after another state-controlled Chinese oil firm, CNOOC Ltd, withdrew a multibillion-dollar bid for US oil and gas producer Unocal Corp.
■ Infotech
SMEs to fuel next IT boom
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to fuel the next boom in infotech (IT) services across the Asia-Pacific region, researchers said in a report yesterday. By the end of 2009, the region outside of Japan will see revenues cross US$17.7 billion on IT services alone from US$11 billion this year, according to Access Markets International (AMI) Partners. Nearly half is expected to come from medium-size business with 100 to 999 employers, said the New York-based firm specializing in infotech research. "SME's already play a major role in the economy of many Asian countries," the Business Times quoted Anurag Agrawal, AMI's chief operating officer, as saying. By 2009, the 27 million SMEs in the region will grow 7 percent, AMI said.
■ Communications
Manga on cellphones
Sony said yesterday it will begin selling comics via mobile telephones in Japan in a move to dominate the small but rapidly growing market in downloading the country's "manga" cartoons. Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of the Japanese electronics icon, has signed with 10 popular Japanese comic artists, letting users of third-generation (3G) telephones download about 300 manga books, a Sony spokesman said. Manga readers would pay ?315 (US$3) per month to receive five stories with added cost for more downloads. He said Sony expected to be the largest provider of comics via mobile telephones, although several other firms have already entered the market such as NTT Solmare, a unit of telecom giant NTT, and Toppan Printing. Sony will offer more comic books than its competitors, who said they hoped Sony's entry would be a boon for the overall market.
■ Internet
Yahoo takes on iTunes
Yahoo Japan Corp launched a new online music service yesterday that allows customers to listen for free to any of 100,000 songs before buying them as the company tries to counter Apple Computer Inc's rival iTunes Music Store. Other Internet music services in Japan offer only 30 seconds from free sampling, making Yahoo's the first to offer free listening to full-length songs, Yahoo Japan spokesman Masaki Hanyu said. The free songs will have sound quality comparable to that of FM radio, but listeners will be able to pay to download and save higher-quality recordings. Users won't be able to choose the free songs or save them on computers.
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