■Record labels
EMI reports first-half profit
EMI Group Plc, the world's third-largest recorded music company, reported a fiscal first-half profit, helped by job cuts and a gain on asset sales. Net income in the six months ended Sept. 30 was ?138.4 million (US$219 million), EMI said in a PR Newswire statement. Revenue fell 9.9 percent to ?961.5 million. Sales at the recorded-music unit, the company's largest, will fall in the year ending March, it said. In May, EMI forecast revenue would be about unchanged at the division. First-half revenue at the unit slumped 12 percent to ?759.3 million.
■ Test equipment
Agilent has loss in Q4
Agilent Technologies Inc. had a fourth-quarter loss on higher costs and plans to cut as many as 2,500 jobs. The testing equipment-maker's shares surged as sales rose for the first time in six quarters. The net loss in the quarter ended Oct. 31 was US$236 million, or 51 cents a share, partly on severance costs, compared with net income of US$197 million, or US$0.43, a year ago, Agilent said in a statement. Sales rose 8.1 percent to US$1.74 billion from US$1.61 billion. Agilent has been paring expenses over the past year as sales tumbled partly because of slack demand for gear used to test telecommunications equipment. The job cuts, which represent as much as 6.9 percent of Agilent's workforce, are in addition to 8,000 eliminated positions announced last year.
■ World markets
Vietnam still restrictive
The US says Vietnam's economy remains too much under government control, a finding that may hinder efforts by companies such as Citigroup, Unilever and New York Life to expand business in the 13th most populous nation. The Commerce Department's finding hands a victory to US catfish farmers. Their dumping complaint led Vietnam to make its failed attempt to seek designation as a so-called market economy and avoid the highest possible tariffs when that case is decided. Many US corporations took Vietnam's side, since a market economy finding may ease Vietnam's entry into the WTO, further eliminating market barriers after a US-Vietnam trade agreement in July 2000 opened the door a crack. "We are disappointed that this has been the outcome of the ruling," said Virginia Foote, president of the US-Vietnam Business Council, whose members include Boeing Co, Nike Inc and Motorola Inc. "The effect could be fairly serious for Vietnam's catfish farmers."
■ Inventions
Human transporter on sale
A "human transporter" unveiled with great fanfare a year ago by inventor Dean Kamen went on sale to the public Monday through online retailer Amazon.com The two-wheeled, self-balancing Segway Human Transporter -- with the appearance of a T-shaped scooter -- has been touted as a revolutionary urban transport vehicle, using a system of coordinating gyroscopes, computers and electric motor. The cost was set at US$4,950. Deliveries are set for March. The device was unveiled last December, but had not been on sale to the public. The US postal service and some public safety officials signed contracts for the devices.
The Segway attains speeds of about 19kph. "Since the Segway HT was introduced nearly a year ago, tens of thousands of people have asked how they can get one," said Dean Kamen, the inventor who is chairman of Segway LLC.
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
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
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
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