■ ACCOMMODATION
Partners plan budget hotels
Malaysia's Tune Hotels.com said yesterday it had set up a US$50-million joint venture with the Dubai government and a Singaporean business tycoon to open 30 budget hotels in Southeast Asia. The joint venture will expand the no-frills model of Tune Hotels.com, which was founded by a group of investors including AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes, and aims to open hotels under the Tune Hotels.com brand in popular Southeast Asian destinations over the next 24 months. Offering a bare-bones service and an Internet-based reservations system, the Tune Hotels.com Web site said room rates start from 9.99 Malaysian ringgit (US$2.85) a night excluding taxes.
■ INTERNET
Artprice strikes rights deal
French art auction database Artprice.com said it had struck a ground-breaking agreement on digital rights management paving the way for it to put images online, sending its shares sharply higher. The company said on Monday the agreement with author rights-management group ADAGP would open the way for it to launch a new subscription service in September using a database of 370,000 artists' paintings and other art works. "This is the first time anyone has done a contract like this. It's revolutionary," Artprice chairman and CEO Thierry Ehrmann said. "It shows you can have a digital economy while respecting authors' rights."
■ AVIATION
Boeing lifts list prices
Boeing Co has raised list prices about 5.5 percent for all of its airplanes, including the 787 Dreamliner set to debut next month, to keep up with the costs of labor and materials. The price increase is "generally consistent with the inflation rate for manufactured goods," Boeing spokesman Jim Condelles said. He said rising labor costs were a bigger factor in the price hike than the cost of raw materials.
■ BEVERAGES
Wahaha to sue Danone
China's largest drink maker, Wahaha Group (娃哈哈), confirmed yesterday it intends to sue its French partner Groupe Danone for up to 5 billion euros (US$6.7 billion) for conducting illegal business. "We will countersue Danone, asking for 2 billion to 5 billion euros in damages," the company said in a statement first issued on Monday. It did not specify where or when Hangzhou-based Wahaha would sue the French firm it has partnered with since 1996. Danone and Wahaha are in the midst of a bitter feud in which the French firm has alleged the Chinese drinks giant set up 20 independent companies selling products identical to those sold by the joint venture.
■ SHIPPING
COSCO shares soar on debut
China's flagship shipping firm, COSCO Holding (中國遠洋控股), jumped 83 percent on its trading debut in Shanghai yesterday after raising net proceeds of 14.88 billion yuan (US$1.96 billion). COSCO shares opened at 15.52 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, in line with broker estimates, against its IPO price of 8.48 yuan. The opening represented a 40-percent premium to Monday's close of its Hong Kong-listed H-shares of H$11.40 (US$1.46). The offering by COSCO attracted strong interest from investors, pulling subscription funds of 1.63 trillion yuan for the offering of 1.784 billion A-shares or 20 percent of its enlarged share capital.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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