■ FINANCE
Lone Star head questioned
Lone Star Funds chairman John Grayken is being questioned by South Korean prosecutors as a suspect in a case on whether the US fund bought Korea Exchange Bank at an artificially low price, Yonhap News reported. The investigation will also look into whether Grayken was involved in illegally manipulating the stock price of the South Korean bank's credit card unit in 2003 to acquire it cheaply, the news agency reported, citing Song Hae-eun, a spokesman for the investigation.
■ ELECTRONICS
Toshiba cuts prices in US
Toshiba Corp, the main backer of the HD DVD standard for new video-disc players, has cut prices of its HD DVD players by as much as 50 percent in the US. The new prices follow an announcement two weeks ago by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros Entertainment that it will stop selling movies with Toshiba's HD DVD format. By the end of May, the studio will only sell high-definition DVDs in Sony Corp's Blu-ray standard. The decision gives Sony a boost in the industry's biggest format war since VHS beat out Betamax in the 1980s. The new prices "are designed to meet the potential demand for HD DVD players in the US market," the US unit of Toshiba said in a statement.
■ ENERGY
Suntech receives boost
Suntech Power Holdings Co (尚德), the world's fourth-largest maker of solar-power modules, is Merrill Lynch & Co's top pick among its Asian peers because of an ability to overcome increased obstacles to raising funds. Merrill has a price target of US$100 for Suntech Power's stock, suggesting a potential 50 percent gain this year, analysts led by Lu Yeung wrote in a report yesterday. New products Suntech Power plans to market should position the company as the "technology differentiator" among other global leaders, the analysts said. The "rising difficulty of financing may squeeze out small vendors," the Merrill analysts wrote. "The ones who could not get investors' attention will face severe challenges in seeking additional funding and will be forced to go out of business in a few years."
■ BANKING
Macquarie hires Rohner
Macquarie Group Ltd, Australia's largest investment bank, appointed Anton Rohner as head of Asia renewable energy to step up its expansion in the US$20 billion market, the company said in a press release. Rohner will report to Andrew Low, Asia head of Macquarie Capital Advisers, and Oliver Yates, an executive director, the release said. Rohner joins from Roaring 40s, a venture between CLP Holdings Ltd, the bigger of Hong Kong's two electricity producers, and Hydro Tasmania, which provides half of Australia's electricity from renewable energy sources.
■ PATENTS
Eco-friendly technology
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), the leading recipient of US patents, is joining Sony Corp, Nokia Oyj and Pitney Bowes Inc in offering the rights to environmentally friendly technologies for free. The effort, called the Eco-Patent Commons, is designed to help companies save energy and water and curb pollution IBM said yesterday in a joint statement with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva. The Eco-Patent Commons is the first forum for sharing intellectual property with environmental uses.
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