Seoul - Running low on that moisturizer again? Time to stock up on cosmetics? If you are a woman and live in Japan, this may well mean a short trip to South Korea.
For many Japanese it is not so much South Korea's rugged outdoors and beautiful landscapes, but happy bargain hunting that has them hopping a plane for the one-hour flight from Tokyo to Seoul.
A beauty fad and lots of bargains place South Korea as the best place for many Japanese women to shop for cosmetics and beauty products.
Tokyo - Japanese electronics companies Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp began negotiations on a business alliance in semiconductor manufacturing as both are suffering from slowing market demands and severe price competition, Japanese media reported Friday.
Japan's Kyodo News Agency quoted sources familiar with the talks saying that Fujitsu, another Japanese electronics giant, may join the deal.
Oslo - Norwegian aluminium group Norsk Hydro Wednesday said it was to write down assets worth 3.5 billion kroner (520 million dollars), citing "deteriorating market conditions and high input costs."
The cost was to impact the group's fourth-quarter 2008 results, which were due to be published February 18, the group said.
Singapore - Passenger volume at Singapore's Changi Airport increased by 2.7 per cent year-on-year to 37.7 million despite the global economic slowdown towards the second half of 2008, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said Wednesday.
However, the economic impact was felt in the cargo sector, with airfreight movements dipping 2 per cent to 1.86 million tons last year.
Harare - At each till in a large supermarket in the upmarket Avondale suburb of Zimbabwe's capital Harare is a small, much-handled cardboard tray containing boiled sweets, boxes of matches and a few loose eggs.
Most customers in the queue are paying in US dollars. If the change for the purchases is less than one dollar, you can take a sweet, a matchbox or an egg, or a combination of them, in lieu of change in cents. Each egg is worth 50 cents, the matches 20 and a sweet 10 - approximately.
London - The British government Monday launched a second multibillion-pound package to stabilize banks aimed at unfreezing credit markets and softening the blow of a deepening recession.
Among the measures set out by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is a massive insurance scheme to protect banks from so-called toxic assets, a move it is hoped will encourage institutions to restart lending to businesses and households.
It is the second bail-out for the banks in the space of just three months. A banking recapitalization programme announced in October had failed to provide a sufficient platform for normal lending to resume.
Seoul - Running low on that moisturizer again? Time to stock up on cosmetics? If you are a woman and live in Japan, this may well mean a short trip to South Korea.
Tokyo - Japanese electronics companies Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp began negotiations on a business alliance in semiconductor manufacturing as both are suffering from slowing market demands and severe price competition, Japanese media reported Friday.
Oslo - Norwegian aluminium group Norsk Hydro Wednesday said it was to write down assets worth 3.5 billion kroner (520 million dollars), citing "deteriorating market conditions and high input costs."
Singapore - Passenger volume at Singapore's Changi Airport increased by 2.7 per cent year-on-year to 37.7 million despite the global economic slowdown towards the second half of 2008, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said Wednesday.
Harare - At each till in a large supermarket in the upmarket Avondale suburb of Zimbabwe's capital Harare is a small, much-handled cardboard tray containing boiled sweets, boxes of matches and a few loose eggs.
