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Like hundreds of other CFOs in Asia, Oh Se Kang has spent a good part of this year assessing the merits of a new investment in China. In particular, he's looked at whether or not to build a US$300 million paper mill in Hebei province, 280km southwest of Beijing, to feed the local market with newsprint. Oh's analysis was exhaustive but, in the end, positive. On September 10, his firm, Singapore-based Pan Asia Paper, decided to go ahead. When the plant opens in late 2005, it will make the company the biggest producer of newsprint in China. The business case...

Going into earnings season, the time of year when most companies declare their quarterly revenues and earnings and make projections about what they'll do in the future, investors watched Yahoo, the Internet portal, very closely. Along with eBay, Amazon.com, and a few other names, Yahoo had survived the Internet bubble market of the 1990s, become a real company, and started earning real money. Its market capitalization is $27.7 billion, it has 650 million or so shares outstanding, and it trades an average of 12.7 million shares a day. Granted it trades at 100 times earnings, but that's an Internet stock...

Marin woman dubbed 'mother of the recall' Her San Francisco radio show ignited move to oust former Gov. Davis By Con Garretson It was the conversation heard around the state. The chairman of California's Republican Party was being interviewed on a KSFO talk radio show last January about the state's economic ills. Asked what could be done, he suggested an idea that had been bandied about privately among political insiders: attempt a recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Radio personality Melanie Morgan, who was working without her regular co-host that day, immediately lent her support to the idea and made it...

<p>The nation's long run of rising joblessness might finally be coming to an end.</p> <p>For workers who have been locked out of the job market during this plodding 23-month recovery, this could mean a long-awaited chance to get back in. But it won't be an easy task: The labor market is changing dramatically in many industries, even as the overall level of employment inches higher.</p>

His Dreams Go Up in Smoke Smoking ban forces tavern owner to sell a family institution By Merle English STAFF WRITER October 12, 2003 In the horse-and-buggy days of the early 19th century, when a tavern was the mainstay of many a man's social life, men tied up their rides outside Petersen's, then a two- story saloon at the intersection of what is now 20th Avenue and College Point Boulevard in College Point. Petersen's was a place for drinking, eating, smoking and camaraderie, and so it remained when Theodore Lauterborn's stepgrandfather, Otto Roesch, bought the establishment in 1902 and changed...

New York Just $6 bn needed for Iraq in 2004 Reuters (Reuters) - Iraq can absorb only $6 billion in infrastructure aid next year, World Bank economists said, a target that the US and its international allies can likely meet, according to a New York Times report last Thursday. A World Bank report has concluded that Iraq can only take in about that amount since it takes months or years to plan projects, the Times said. Some international organizations have said Iraq needs a total of $55 billion over the next four years. Bush administration officials said on Wednesday that...

WASHINGTON The persistence of a quotation he insists is an "urban legend" is evidently infuriating Howard Dean. At lunch last week in the Washington bureau of The Times, the reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg identified herself and started to ask a question. Dr. Dean immediately interrupted: "I want to quickly jump on you for a sec here," he said sharply, and referred to an article she had written based on an interview with Senator John McCain in which yesteryear's maverick took issue with a reported remark of Dr. Dean's. "I never said that. I never said that," the man from Vermont...

This is the place for Freepers and Lurkers to get suggestions from others on how to get and stay free of all or any chemical substances including, but not limited to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, pain killers, nicotine, you name it.

Three-year-old toddler injured in the Haifa bombing is still in critical condition in the hospital (Haaretz)

Democrats Gather In Phoenix To Pander, Mislead And Get The Facts Wrong CLARK ON MILITARY FAMILIES Clark Claims: Clark Claims Military Personnel Do Better Under Democrat Administrations. "I think there's a fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats on this issue, because it's simply true, the Republicans do like weapon systems and Democrats like people. And so, I can tell you, and I would speak for anybody up here, when we take this government back in 2005, we're going to look after pay." (Wesley Clark, CNN's Democrat Candidate Debate, Phoenix, AZ, 10/9/03) But Fact Is: President Bush Has Provided Historic Increases...

SAN FRANCISCO - Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking office with a clear mandate from millions of people in Southern California's suburbs and the state's vast interior, where 70 percent of voters favored recalling Gov. Gray Davis. But liberals are mourning along the state's northern coast, particularly San Francisco, where 80 percent voted against the recall. In the city that nurtured beatniks in the '50s and hippies in the '60s, Schwarzenegger came in a distant second to Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante among the replacement candidates. Some residents joke darkly about forming a separate state, with San Francisco as the capital. Others...

China is ready to make joint efforts with the United States to maintain and carry forward the good momentum of the Sino-US ties and effect still a greater growth for the constructive partnership of cooperation, President Hu Jintao said Thursday. During a meeting with George Bush, former president of the United States, Hu appreciated Bush's prolonged attention and dedication to improving and developing Sino-US relations. In recent years, Hu recalled leaders of the two sides had maintained close contacts and consultations, and had a frequent exchange of views on issues of common concern, which played an important role in boosting...

Prime Minister Chretien of Canada has been replaced as leader of the Liberal Party by Paul Martin. Still Chretien is not leaving office till next year. He continues to travel the world at taxpayers' expense although he has visited almost every city in the world at least three times.

Hermit North Korea is open for investment and Primorye is ready to cooperate with its neighbor if the issue of bank guarantees is settled, Primorye Governor Sergei Darkin told a press conference Monday returning from a four-day visit to North Korea that started October 1. "North Korea is a reclusive country and wants to stay that way," Darkin shared his impressions of the country that he toured by train, seeing northern border territories where 22 million people live. "North Korea builds its own economy that is military-oriented and does not want to depend on anyone," Darkin said. According to him...

Mercury use rings alarms By Tim Wacker Staff Writer LAWRENCE -- One of Earth's most toxic elements is being used as a tonic and spiritual salve by an alarming number of the city's Latino residents who believe it holds magical powers, according to state local health officials who want the practice stopped. Through sales in small city stores catering to secretive Caribbean religions, mercury is being marketed as medicine and a good-luck charm that can cure a stomachache or protect a newborn baby. A recent state-funded study showed mercury, known in these religions as Azogue, is being rubbed, sprinkled, and...

FRN Columnists' Corner "The Ten Commandments" By Terry SilvaThe flap over the Ten Commandments monument has got me wondering just what about them would be so offensive to the lawyers that filed the lawsuit to remove the Ten Commandments monument. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Gee, that’s a tough one, especially for those who worship the almighty dollar or the newest superstar. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Yep, that one violates free speech. But how come we allow all sorts of profanity in our schools, even in the books...

"I came, I saw, I conquered" could well have been Arnold's secret campaign motto, for, indeed, the Terminator terminated, and California and the nation will never be the same again. Not since the tax-cutting revolution of Proposition 13 have the vibrations of a California earthquake reverberated so strongly across the nation. He Came Arnold entered the race on the deliciously succulent "Tonight Show." Would any other Hollywood star have done it differently? The Republicans had been fielding terrible candidates and had had a hard time connecting with voters. They couldn't get a foothold in a state that was voting more...

FRN Columnists' Corner "FAVORS FOR SALE OR RENT" By Joe Klock, Sr.As regular readers of this column (certifiable masochists in the view of some) know, I have long been bathroom-sick of the way our government at all levels is run by self-serving politicians, special interests and the lobbyists/influence mongers who operate the whorehouses of power. I refer not exclusively to any political party, nor only to those currently running the show. There is more than enough sleaze to taint every partisan banner, and those drooling hungrily outside the gates of control offer little promise of improvement. I exclude only those...

RARE COW IS A SIXY BEAST Monks in Cambodia have been knocked for six by an unusual present - a cow with two extra legs. The farmer who donated the bovine rarity feared her extra set of pins would bring him, bad luck. Two-month-old Cham Leck, which means "Strange" in the Khmer language, is being cared for by monks at the pagoda near the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. As well as her standard four legs, Cham has two extras hanging from her neck. Some locals in the heavily superstitious country have been treating the calf with some caution. One said:...

By Dan Tuohy Staff Writer EXETER -- A teacher-turned-lawyer by the name of Amos Tuck, disgusted with his party for condoning slavery in the 19th century, first turned from a Democrat to an Independent Democrat. And then, 150 years ago today at Major Blake's hotel in Exeter, Tuck set the foundation for what became the Republican Party. The anniversary is marked by a somber note, coming two weeks after former Gov. Hugh Gregg died at 85. Besides being the caretaker of New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary, Gregg successfully championed recognition for Exeter as the birthplace of the Republican Party. Decades...