■ Pornography
UK fastest-growing market
Britain is the fastest growing market for the booming Internet adult pornography business, with one in four adults, including 1.6 million women, downloading images each month, a study suggested yesterday. A survey by Nielsen NetRatings for the Independent on Sunday found that more than 9 million men -- almost 40 percent of Britain's male population -- used pornographic Web sites last year compared with an estimated 2 million in 2000. One in four men aged 25 to 49 -- 2.5 million -- have visited an adult Web site in the last month alone, while some 1.5 million women used Internet pornography in the last 12 months, up from 1 million in the previous year, the survey found. Men and women spent an average 40 minutes each month looking at pornographic Web site while half of all couples watched pornography on the Internet together.
■ Steel
Severstal head lauds merger
The head of the Russian steel group Severstal on Saturday hailed a prospective merger of his company and European steelmaker Arcelor, saying it signalled Russia's entry into the global business arena. "Russian business is coming out into the world arena," Severstal's chief executive Alexei Mordashov told reporters. Arcelor announced on Friday that it planned to buy Severstal in a US$15.3 billion transaction. The merger aims to head off an earlier 25.8 billion euro (US$32.8 billion) offer from the world's No. 1 steelmaker, Mittal Steel, to take over Arcelor. The Arcelor-Severstal merger, which would create the world's biggest steel group, "shows that Russians are capable of taking part in the creation of global companies. It is a precedent," Mordashov said. When the merger is completed, Mordashov is due to become one of the main shareholders in Arcelor, holding 32 percent of the capital.
■ Trade
Uribe wants reversal
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he hopes to persuade Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to reverse his decision to leave the Andean Community of Nations trade bloc. "International commerce is a road to overcoming poverty and the goods we sell need a free-trade pact," Uribe said at a press conference in Bogota. Uribe said he will seek a private meeting with Chavez when the presidents of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, the countries that make up the free-trade association, gather in Quito on June 13 and June 14. Chavez said on April 19 his country would quit the bloc because free-trade agreements reached by Colombia and Peru with the US had made it obsolete.
■ Beverages
Coke eyes booze market
Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd, Australia's biggest soft drink maker, may expand into the alcohol market for the first time to tap new growth as rising commodity prices crimp profit margins. The Sydney-based company will "actively look" at creating an alcohol unit, which may be done through acquisitions or by developing its own products, chief executive officer Terry Davis told the Nine Network's Business Sunday program yesterday. Davis, a former head of Foster's Group Ltd's wine unit, is seeking new sources of earnings growth as increased competition makes it harder to raise prices and recover higher costs for sugar, aluminum and resin for plastic bottles.
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