■ Finance
China has more billionaires
The number of billionaires in formally communist China has climbed from three to 10 in just one year, according to Forbes Asia's latest rich list on the fast-rising economic giant. "Brisk economic growth and a huge appetite among foreigners for Chinese investments helped to propel the wealth of China's richest people in the past 12 months," Forbes said in a statement. It said the collective net worth of China's 100 wealthiest reached US$41 billion, up from US$29 billion a year ago. The risks seen by international investors in putting money into Chinese companies have been declining, helping increase the value of assets in China and the wealth of the individuals and companies that own them, Forbes said. Rong Zhijian (榮智健), of Hong Kong-listed CITIC Pacific ranked number one for the second consecutive year with wealth of US$1.644 billion. Zhu Mengyi (朱孟依), a property developer, and his family ranked second with US$1.43 billion and Internet tycoon William Ding (丁磊) was number three with US$1.267 billion.
■ Finance
China shuts bad brokerages
Regulators have closed 14 Chinese stock brokerages and punished one more for heavy debts and financial irregularities in a campaign to clean up the country's securities markets, a news report said yesterday. Zhuang Xinyi (莊心一), vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, speaking at an industry conference Thursday, said many brokerages are deep in debt due to mismanagement and market speculation, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Zhuang didn't identify the brokerages that were shut down or give a timeframe for the closures. But the country's fifth-largest, China Southern Securities, was closed in August after going bankrupt.
■ Singapore
Gas trade looks promising
Competition is triggering more global liquefield natural gas spot deals, a positive sign for Singapore's plan to trade the resource, an official with Norway's Statoil said in a report published Friday. "LNG used to be traded 100 per cent on long-term contracts of 20 years between buyer and seller," The Business Times quoted Statoil's vice-president Richard Ericksen as saying. "Today, 15 to 20 percent is sold spot," he said. Ericksen said Singapore's plan to trade LNG, besides importing it as an additional fuel source for power stations here, could be feasible. Statoil is the world's third-largest oil exporter. It accounts for half of Norway's oil production and more than 80 percent of its gas production.
■ Music
Web site launches label
The social networking Web site MySpace.com has launched its own record label in a joint venture with Interscope Records hoping to capitalize on its broad reach among music-savvy consumers. MySpace Records will feature independent and unsigned artists as well as compilations that include top groups from other labels, the company said Thursday. The label's first release will be a com-pilation of tracks that have become popular among the sites 36 million registered users and will feature songs from groups such as Weezer. MySpace has ballooned since it was created in 1999. The site has struck marketing deals with major Hollywood studios, TV networks and record labels to promote programs, films and musical acts on its site.
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