■Mobile phones
Sales to jump 4 percent
Global mobile-phone sales are expected to rise 4 percent next year, boosted by demand in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, Die Welt reported, citing a study by research company Gartner Inc. Handset makers including Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG are expected to sell about 420 million wireless phones next year, the newspaper said. Nokia sold the most phones in the quarter and controls 36 percent of the mobile-phone market. Motorola Inc came second with a 14 percent market share, followed by Samsung Electronics Co and Siemens, the study by Gartner said.
■ Communications
NTT kept Japanese Yen 150m off books
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) Corp's international phone service unit said it kept about ?150 million (US$1.2 million) off its books from May 1999 to March last year by padding payments to subcontractors. NTT Communications Corp dismissed three employees in March for deception for receiving the inflated amount from the subcontractors, company spokesman Kei Hashida said. The employees face criminal charges filed by NTT Communications.
■ Airlines
2,500 jobs to be cut
US Airways Group Inc will cut another 2,500 jobs, or 7.1 percent of the workforce, and close a maintenance base and a reservations center in Florida as the airline tries to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The job reductions during the next three months are part of cost cuts intended to keep the company on schedule to end its bankruptcy in March, the airline said in a statement. US Airways also seeks unspecified work-rule and benefit changes from its unions to help compete with low-fare rivals.
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