■SOUTH KOREA
Fitch raises credit rating
Fitch Ratings yesterday raised its sovereign credit rating outlook for South Korea, saying foreign exchange pressure on the country caused by the global financial crisis has eased. The outlook for South Korea’s long-term credit rating was revised to “stable” from “negative,” Fitch said in a statement provided by Seoul’s Strategy and Finance Ministry. Fitch had lowered the sovereign credit rating outlook for six emerging market economies last November, including South Korea, Mexico and Russia, to reflect higher risks to creditworthiness stemming from the global financial crisis.
■INTERNET
Germany opposes book plan
Google Inc’s plan to digitize millions of books would violate German copyright law and the country’s privacy protections for Internet users, the German government said in a US court filing. Germany opposes a proposed settlement, which Google reached with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers Inc among others last October, because Google could digitize books by German authors without their consent, said Johannes Christian Wichard, deputy director-general of the German justice ministry’s Directorate General of Commercial and Economic Law, in a filing on Monday.
■INTERNET
eBay sells Skype holding
Online auction house eBay on Tuesday sold a 65 percent stake in Skype to an investment consortium in a deal that valued the Internet telephony group at US$2.75 billion. The US dotcom group will receive US$1.9 billion in cash and US$125 million in loans. The valuation placed on Skype is roughly comparable to what eBay spent buying the business in 2005. However, eBay will in effect make a profit on the deal because it slashed the value of the business two years after it was bought as it became increasingly obvious that it had little strategic fit.
■AVIATION
SkyEurope goes bankrupt
Budget carrier SkyEurope, which serves Eastern Europe, became the latest casualty of the industry downturn when it filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday. The Slovakia-based airline suspended all flights immediately, disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers. SkyEurope, whose main airports are at Bratislava, Vienna and Prague, warned that a refund “may not be possible” for customers who booked with the airline directly. Abta, the UK travel agents’ association, said the collapse underlined the need for a compensation system for airline passengers. “This airline failure in a tough economic climate, along with several others last year, highlights the need for urgent action by the government and EU to plug this gaping hole in customer financial protection,” CEO Mark Tanzer said.
■AUTOMOBILES
German car program ends
Germany’s car-scrapping premium expired yesterday after 2 million buyers took advantage of a landmark government offer that has boosted the crisis-hit auto sector. The Web site of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control showed that the last contract had been taken early in the day, after demand surged to around 14,000 per day as the program entered the final stretch. But although the plan has succeeded in keeping domestic auto sales afloat, sales next year could slump heavily because many drivers brought forward purchases to benefit from the subsidy. The grant of 2,500 euros (US$3,550) for drivers who scrap old cars and buy new ones spurred sales of small cars in Germany.
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