■ ENERGY
Seoul to hike power rates
South Korea will increase electricity prices for industrial users next month, while leaving average prices unchanged. The price for industrial use will rise 1 percent next Tuesday, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The price for night-time use between 11pm and 9am will rise by 17.5 percent, the ministry said. The government will cut the price for commercial use by 3.2 percent and for some service industries, including research and development centers and information and technology, by 13.8 percent, it said.
■ OIL
Gazprom in Tomskneft offer
Gazprom's oil unit Gazprom Neft is one of two firms to have made an offer to buy a 50 percent stake in Tomskneft from state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday. "We have received two offers to buy Tomskneft," one of which is from Gazprom Neft, said Anatoly Golomolzin, deputy head of the Russian financial regulator. He did not name the second bidder. Rosneft acquired Tomskneft in May for US$6.8 billion during the break-up of privately-owned former oil major Yukos. Critics said Yukos was bankrupted by President Vladimir Putin in order to bring Russia's vast natural resources back under state control.
■ STEEL
POSCO invests in Malaysia
South Korean steel giant POSCO said yesterday it had bought a Malaysian steelmaker as part of efforts to establish a production network elsewhere in Asia. POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, said it had signed a deal to acquire 60 percent of Malaysia's MEGS for US$15.6 million. The South Korean company said it would upgrade the Malaysian firm's facilities, now capable of producing 120,000 tonnes of electrogalvanized coils a year, to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia.
■ TOURISM
Room rates hit record high
Singapore received a record number of visitors last month but hotel rates were also at fresh highs, the city-state's tourism authorities said yesterday. The Singapore Tourism Board said 837,000 visitors arrived in November, the largest number ever for that month. Average room rates for hotels also set a new milestone of S$226 (US$156) a night, the highest ever in any month and up almost 30 percent over last year, the board said. The city-state's hotels earned record room revenues of S$175.4 million, an increase of almost 24 percent from last year, it said. Visitor arrivals were 4.6 percent higher than a year earlier, fuelled by strong arrivals from China, India and Australia, the board said.
■ RETAILING
US sales growth slows
US retailers' sales rose 3.6 percent in holiday shopping, at the lower end of expectations, helped by a late-season spending surge on some items, data released on Tuesday by SpendingPulse showed. The figures, from the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, offer a glimpse at the strength of this year's holiday shopping season, which was expected to grow at the slowest rate in five years. "It's more at the lower end of the expected range but more or less in line with the reduced expectations coming into the holiday season," said Michael McNamara, vice president of Research and Analysis for MasterCard Advisors.
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