■ STEEL
POSCO inks Daewoo deal
South Korea’s top steelmaker, POSCO, signed a final deal yesterday to buy a 68 percent stake in trading and energy firm Daewoo International for 3.37 trillion won (US$2.83 billion), officials said. The purchase is seen as helping POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steel firm, to secure a steady supply of raw materials and develop new revenue streams. The agreement was announced by state debt clearer the Korea Asset Management Corp, which bailed out troubled firms after the 1997 to 1998 East Asian financial crisis. It was the largest shareholder in Daewoo International with a 35.5 percent stake while other creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of Korea, had a combined 32.65 percent.
■ PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi-Aventis takes its time
The head of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis yesterday said he was in no hurry to pursue a bid to acquire US biotechnology firm Genzyme. CEO Chris Viehbacher, in an interview with the French financial newspaper Les Echos, said his intention at the moment was to confer with Genzyme counterpart Henri Termeer. Sanofi-Aventis on Sunday unveiled a US$18.5 billion offer for Genzyme, hinting it might launch a hostile bid. Sanofi said it was disclosing to Genzyme’s shareholders the contents of its offer, which it initially made last month, after the company’s management rejected it on Aug. 11 and declined to enter into talks.
■ ELECTRONICS
End of an era at LG
South Korea’s LG Electronics said yesterday it would no longer produce bulky cathode ray tube TVs for domestic sale due to falling demand and the end of analogue-based broadcasting service. LG, which started manufacturing TVs in 1966, will also stop selling the CRT TVs once existing inventories are gone, a spokesman said. It will stop making the TVs for the domestic market today, but continue to produce them for overseas markets including India, Vietnam, Brazil, China and Egypt where demand is still booming, he said.
■ COMPUTERS
KT seeks to beat iPad launch
KT Corp said it would introduce a tablet computer powered by Google Inc’s Android operating system in South Korea on Sept. 10, before Apple Inc’s iPad device goes on sale in the country. KT, South Korea’s largest provider of telephone and Internet services, aims to sell 100,000 of the handheld computer by the end of the year, Kim Sung-chul, a vice president at the Seongnam-based company, said at a briefing in Seoul yesterday. The device, called Identity Tab, will be made by Seoul-based Enspert Inc, KT said.
■ TELECOMS
China gains 3G users
China added 2.87 million 3G users last month to reach 28.1 million users, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on its Web site yesterday.
■ REAL ESTATE
Seoul easing mortgage rules
South Korea will ease mortgage-lending rules and extend tax breaks to encourage buyers after home sales slumped to the lowest level in almost a year and a half. Shares of builders and banks surged on the news. Banks will be allowed to ease restrictions on mortgage loans for first-home buyers and owners of one residence until the end of March, the government said yesterday. The waiver for taxes on home sales will be extended by two years until the end of 2012, it said.
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
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
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