■ ELECTRONICS
Best Buy expanding in PRC
US electronics retailer Best Buy Co plans to expand more rapidly in China by opening eight to 10 stores there in the next year and a half, the company said yesterday. "We have more opportunity and freedom to speed up the process," said Robert Willett, chief executive of Best Buy International, citing the success of the company's Shanghai store. He did not provide financial details. The company said in February it was planning to open two to three Best Buy stores in China in the next 12 to 18 months.
■ ELECTRONICS
iPhones to stream YouTube
Apple Inc announced on Wednesday that YouTube videos will stream directly to iPhones so that users of the soon-to-be-launched devices can watch video clips on the go. Apple said it tailored iPhone software to receive content from the popular video-sharing Web site and play it on the device's 3.5-inch (8.9cm) wide display. iPhones go on sale at US Apple and AT&T stores next Friday. AT&T is the exclusive service provider for the eagerly awaited devices. Apple also released an Apple TV software update that lets users of the boxes wirelessly route YouTube videos to their televisions.
■ INVESTMENT
Chinese prefer stocks
Shares and funds have replaced banks as the top investment option for people living in Chinese cities, thanks to the stock market boom and low savings deposits interest rates, the central bank said. A record 40.2 percent of respondents in the latest quarterly survey by the bank ticked buying stocks and funds as the most lucrative way to investment. The figure was up 9.9 percentage points from the first quarter, according to the survey, which covered 20,000 residents in 50 cities and was posted on the bank's Web site on Wednesday.
■ EQUITIES
SGX wants foreign firms
Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX), which operates the local stock market, aims to have more than half of its listings be foreign firms by 2012, a top executive said in remarks published yesterday. The push to have more foreign firms listed -- principally from China and Southeast Asia -- is aimed at boosting the city-state as a regional financial center, SGX head of listing Lawrence Wong told the Financial Times. SGX aims to attract firms with a market capitalization of up to S$3 billion (US$1.95 billion) to list on the exchange. Aside from China, Southeast Asia's fast growing economies such as Vietnam and Indonesia are also targeted by SGX, Wong said.
■ TAXATION
Public stake sale mulled
The Philippines plans to increase tax collection and is ready to fill revenue gaps with proceeds from the sale of government stakes in major companies, the finance secretary said yesterday. Margarito Teves spoke a day after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo asked the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to resign over a five-month budget deficit blamed on poor collection. Commissioner Jose Bunag quit on Wednesday and said he declined Arroyo's offer to be an ambassador overseas. He complained he was made a scapegoat by what he called unrealistic targets set by the finance department. The January to May budget gap of 41.8 billion pesos (US$908 million) rekindled concerns over the 63-billion-peso deficit ceiling this year.
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