Best holiday wishes for all along with some news from North Korea, Ireland, Canada, California, Colombia, Singapore, Brazil, China, and Japan.

*Thanks to Asia hand reader BM who subscribes to Chad O'Connell's NKNews.com, we learn that Paddy Power plc has dropped its support of Dennis Rodman's basketball diplomacy with North Korea. PDYPF's spokesman told the site that "with the benefit of hindsight, we probably got this one wrong." He added: "there has been worldwide scrutiny of the North Korean regime, probably more in the past month than in the past couple of years. There has been almost total condemnation of North Korea worldwide, and we're really responding to that." PADDY is going honest.

*The Brazilian telco watchdog crackdown on market dominance by Telefonica of Spain following TEF taking control of Telecom Italia, may offer another chance to Portugal Telecom. PT sold its Brazil sub Vivo to TEF and then bought into Oi to still have a presence in the largest country in the world where they speak Portuguese.

Also benefiting from the Brazilian taste for competition in phone networks is Nokia, parent of NSN which was selected by Oi for build LTE base stations.

*More global is the new tactic at Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) according to a Toronto Globe and Mail interview with new CEO Brian Porter. BNS will offer wider lists of products to foreign customers, similar to its offerings in Canada. This means capital market, and pension and wealth management services, building on Scotiabank's retail and commercial banking presence. "It's a continuation of our strategy here in Canada," Mr. Porter told the newspaper.

Now BNS gets 47% of its profits from outside Canada, mostly from Latin America and Thailand. But upping its offerings could bring the level to over half of profits in a year or two. While not known for US positions, BNS does have an energy business south of the border, Scotia Waterous. And it can build on its Canada mining experience in markets like Colombia or Peru.

And unlike the situation in Canada where the government runs pension programs, in Latin Americna countries like Peru, Chile, Colombia, or Dominican Republic, a part of every paycheck goes into defined contribution plans such as the ones BNS offers and manages.

Separately Scotiabank's commodities expert Patricia Mohr forecast that after a month decline of 5.8% commodities prices will bottom in 2014 and return to a bull run later in the decade as growth picks up. Presumably by then the new services will be offered in raw materials countries.

*Iam Gold (IAG) did a 70% opt-in deal with fellow-Canadian Solvista Gold Corp (SWZF OTC)to snatch control of the latter's Caramanta Project in Colombia's Cauca Belt. IAG will invest US$18 mn over the next 5 years, including $900,000 paid directly to SWZF to develop the mine, earning a 51% interest in it if some conditions are met, among them spending half the money in year 1 (2014). Thereafter is can earn another 19% stake over the following 3 years by investing another US$18 mn. In either case after 5 years, a jv will be created controlled by IAG. If the 51% stake is all IAG wants to get into it will be diluted and wind up with a 2% net smelter royalty.

*Canadian Solar (CSIQ) did another fun deal, selling take off rights 4.4 megaWatts of DC power plants (equivalent to 3mW AC) to Public Services Electricity & Gas's PSEG Solar Source for 20 years. The solar plants are in northern California between Mounts Shasta and Lassen. PSEG is best known as a New Jersey ute with other operations in Delaware, Ohio, Florida, and Arizona. The solar plants, built starting last summer by Blue Oak Energy for CSIQ, will go live early next year. The value of the contract was not given but it clearly frees up capital for Canadian Solar to invest elsewhere.

It amounts to nearly 15,000 CSIQ solar modules which will power 725 homes in the Cascade Range, offsetting c6.3 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

*Our Singaporean warehouse and logistics stock, Global Logistics Properties, did a friendly deal with Japanese shareholder Kobe Nishi Pte Ltd. whereby control and management of a Chinese facility called Tianjin Puning Logistics was transferred to GBTZF. I assume this has something to do with the Sino-Japanese dispute over islands seemingly less significant than Singapore.

*Investor's Chronicle writer Simon Thompson noted our pick up of his tip for Raven Rus. "It was difficult not to be impressed by this week's trading update ... Other investors are clearly thinking the same way as the shares have moved back to their 80p 5-yr high." Your editor has no idea what the trading alert he mentions may have been as there is nothing on the website since H1 closed, not even in Russky. However, at a Christmas Party I met a college classmate who also took Russian (back when we sought to know our enemies) and he started talking about the usefulness of logistic sites in former military centers for example to distribute German books. GB:RUS is at 80.5 pence today, a new high.

*Being the easy buy in Tokyo, Fanuc Corp again hit a new high in Tokyo. I tipped the robot-maker to tease our small-stock expert in Japan, Chris Loew. But it is paying off at Y19,370 this morning and will do better if the yen steadies rather than being pushed down further. JP: 6954 is my largest Tokyo holding but I didn't add it to the model portfolio because I bought in based on an old company visit from when I lived in France.

*In reply to DC reader GH, on my last article about bullionvault.com, the company charges all of 0.12% per annum for storage and insurance of gold, less than a third of what you pay with a gold exchange-traded fund. Silver is more expensive. But the minimum for gold is $4 per year and for silver $8/yr, easily cheaper than GLD or IAU.

Bullionvault doesn't use banks to store the precious metal; it uses vaults run by outfits like Brinks.