■Flat-screen TVs
Sanyo to meet demand
Sanyo Electric Co, whose shares have declined 41 percent this year, said it will increase production of flat-screen televisions next year as demand rises. Sanyo wants to sell more than 100,000 liquid-crystal display televisions in the six months to March 2004 from less than 10,000 annually at present, spokesman Atsushi Watanabe said. "The liquid-crystal display television market is growing quite rapidly," Watanabe said. "If we don't have a strong line up there, we'll lose share to rivals." Sanyo, which had a fiscal second-quarter loss, is reorganizing its businesses. The world's biggest maker of mobile-phone batteries and digital cameras for other companies should focus on its core strengths rather than take on stronger rivals in the market for flat-screen televisions, some investors said. "Sanyo is a weak brand," said Yasuo Kamaji, who manages Japanese Yen 300 billion (US$2.4 billion) at Sakura Investment Management Co, including Sanyo shares.
■ Electronics
TI boosts its Q4 forecast
Texas Instruments Inc said fourth-quarter earnings and revenue will top forecasts, as rising sales of chips for wireless devices signal a possible recovery for semiconductor companies. Net income will be about 1 cent a share, up from a forecast of break-even, and sales will drop 7 percent from the third quarter, instead of the 10 percent decline predicted in October, the company said in a statement. Shares of Texas Instruments and other chipmakers have climbed in the last month as investors bet that growing chip sales indicate a rise in technology spending. The Semiconductor Industry Association said Friday that chip sales in October rose 20 percent from the same period a year ago, largely on the strength of sales of semiconductors for wireless phones.
■ Economy
Japan's GDP shrinks
The Japanese government said yesterday its economy shrank 1.4 percent in the financial year to March 2002, less than the 1.8 percent decline announced earlier. The figures were revised due to changes in the measurement of private consumption, private inventories and public demand. The revised GDP figure for last financial year was partly boosted by an increase in private consumption to 1.5 percent from the earlier estimate of 1.3 percent. Economic growth in the year to March 2001 was revised sharply higher to 3.2 percent from 1.7 percent, in what was the strongest performance by the world's second largest economy since the year to March 1997, the Cabinet Office said.
■ Newcastle
First-half profit rises 40%
Scottish & Newcastle Plc, Britain's biggest beermaker, said fiscal first-half profit climbed 40 percent after it added Hartwall Oyj in February to gain share of faster-growing markets in Eastern Europe. The maker of Kronenbourg and Courage beer posted net income of UK Pound 137.9 million (US$215 million), or 25.1 pence a share, in the six months ended Oct. 27, compared with UK Pound 98.2 million, or 23 pence, a year ago. Sales grew 19 percent. "While conditions in many of our markets are less buoyant than a year ago, the fundamentals of the business are sound and our competitive position in all key markets is very strong," Chairman Brian Stewart said in a Regulatory News Service statement. Scottish & Newcastle plans to sell some or all of its UK pubs.
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