■ SEC Chairman
Choice won't be rushed
President George W. Bush isn't in a rush to name a successor to departing Chairman Harvey Pitt at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card. The administration will move "as quickly as we can, but we want to do it right rather than fast," Card said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Pitt resigned Tuesday after disclosure that he failed to tell fellow SEC commissioners that his choice to head an accounting oversight board, William Webster, had been chairman of the audit committee of US Technologies Inc, a company accused in civil suits of accounting fraud. The resignation was the first departure from Bush's economic team, disrupting the SEC and the administration as they try to restore investor confidence by tightening conflict of interest rules for Wall Street firms.
■ UNIX Server
Fastest version to be sold
International Business Machines Corp said next month it will begin selling a new server using the Unix operating system that will be the fastest machine of its type on the market Prices at US$29,000 to US$60,000, the new server is one-third cheaper than a comparable model made by Sun Microsystems Inc and is 25 percent to 40 percent faster than the IBM server it replaces, said Jim McGaughan, director of E-Server strategy. IBM, the world's largest seller of computers and related services, is seeking additional market share in servers, the fast computers that run computer networks. The company currently ranks third behind Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Computer Corp, according to Gartner Inc's Dataquest unit. The new server will be marketed to small and mid-sized businesses, which IBM defines as companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.
■ Video games
Sega lowers profit outlook
Sega Corp's shares declined for a third straight trading day after the maker of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series of video games cut its profit forecast and sales outlook for video-game software for the year ending March. The company's shares fell Japanese yen 62, or 6.1 percent, to 950, their lowest since December 2000. Almost 10.7 million shares traded, more than 10 times the six-month daily average, making them the fourth-most active by volume on Japanese exchanges. Last week, Tokyo-based Sega cut its full-year profit estimate and video-game sales, citing competition from foreign rivals in the US. The cuts triggered concerns among investors over the sales outlook for Japanese game software makers. Investors also sold the shares of Nintendo Co and Capcom Co.
■ Circuit printers
Nikon posts loss for half
Nikon Corp, the world's biggest maker of machines used to print circuitry onto silicon wafers, said it had a fiscal first-half net loss and cut its annual sales forecast because chipmakers are spending less on new factories and equipment. Nikon's group net loss was Japanese yen 3.48 billion (US$29 million), or Japanese yen 9.40 a share in the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with net income of Japanese yen 3.04 billion, or Japanese yen 8.22, in the year-ago period, the company said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. First-half sales fell 8.5 percent to Japanese yen 215.1 billion. Nikon pared its full-year sales forecast 5.9 percent to Japanese yen 480 billion. The company expects to break even for the 12 months ending March 2003.
Agencies
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