Women a new

Women a new spending powerhouse

SINGAPORE: Women travellers are expected to emerge as Asia's new spending powerhouse, a survey said on Saturday.

The number of female travellers in the region is forecast to equal their male counterparts by 2011 and exceed them in the long run, according to MasterCard's Asian Lifestyles report.

Covering travellers in 13 Asia-Pacific markets, the survey estimates that US$13.4 billion will be spent by women travelling in six years in four shopping destinations -- Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.

Men are likely to spend half that amount based on current trends.

While shopping lists for U.S. and European women consist of momentos, souvenirs and locally produced crafts, Asian women prefer to stock up on branded goods, such as apparel, shoes, handbags, accessories, perfumes and other toiletries, the survey found. -- DPA

;AFP; ANPAf..r.. Money-US-economy Yuan peg 'difficult' for world economy: US official JP/16/money

Yuan peg difficult for world economy

WASHINGTON: China's fixed currency exchange rate "makes things more difficult" for the global economy and for China, a top U.S. Treasury official said in an interview over the weekend.

The comments from John Taylor, the Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, were consistent with earlier remarks from top U.S. officials who have been urging China to revalue to yuan or allow it to float freely.

"The peg makes things more difficult for the world economy, it makes more things difficult for the Chinese economy," Taylor told the financial news channel CNBC.

"And so we have advocated, therefore, a move to a flexible exchange rate and we think it should occur as soon as the Chinese are ready, but we understand they're taking steps." -- AFP

;DPA; ANPAf..r.. Money-S'pore-Fingerprints Breakthrough scored in fingerprint technology JP/16/Money

New method to track fingerprints found

SINGAPORE: A device that captures elusive fingerprints where current methods fail has been developed at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), researchers said on Saturday.

Using a patented optical and signal processing technique, the device has scored a first in fingerprint technology by reconstructing prints that were previously considered too faint, old, overlapping or left on oily surfaces, NTU said.

The research team behind the innovation is from NTU's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, led by Associate Professor Seah Leong Keey.

The system reconstructs a fingerprint by measuring differing wavelengths of light bounced off it under lenses. -- DPA

;AP; ANPAf..r.. Money-US-Merck Federal court invalidates patent for key Merck drug JP/16/money

Court invalidates Merck drug patent

TRENTON, New Jersey: A federal court invalidated the patent for a blockbuster osteoporosis drug made by Merck & Co. over the weekend, sending Merck shares plunging but offering patients with the brittle-bone disease the possibility of cheaper pills in a few years.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., invalidated the patent for the once-a-week version of Merck's Fosamax, which dominates the market for osteoporosis drugs.

Fosamax is the No. 2 drug for Whitehouse Station-based Merck. The company already is beleaguered by its voluntary withdrawal of arthritis blockbuster Vioxx, which is expected to cost the company billions of dollars to settle lawsuits by patients claiming it caused heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems. -- AP