■ Philips
Female managers to rise
Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest consumer-electronics maker, plans to double its quota of senior women managers to cast off its "male, Dutch" image, the Financial Times said, citing a Philips director. "We recognize that our company is too male, too Dutch and too gray, particularly at senior management level, and we don't like it," said Arthur van der Poel, the board member in charge of the plan, according to the newspaper. Philips will tell its annual shareholders' meeting tomorrow that the proportion of women in its 780-strong executive group will rise to at least 10 percent from 4 percent, the newspaper said. Low representation of women at the top of large Dutch companies is a concern among the country's political and business leaders, according to the newspaper.
■ PC Displays
Shipments up 54% in Q4
Shipments of flat-panel liquid crystal computer displays rose by 54 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago after lower prices tempted consumers to replace bulkier glass-tube-based monitors, a market researcher said. Shipments totaled 9.9 million units, a gain of 30 percent from the preceding quarter and broadly in line with the 29 percent forecast by suppliers, Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch said in an e-mailed report. Price declines of up to 30 percent and promotion by Dell Computer Corp and other sellers persuaded more PC users to switch to the screens, which measure up to 30 inches diagonally but are thinner than a cigarette packet. "Driving the fourth-quarter growth was strong seasonal demand, stand-alone cathode-ray tube replacement demand and lower prices," the researcher said in its report.
■ Easy money
Chain letters hit e-mail
Consumer-protection organizations are warning about an increase in e-mail chain letters which make promises of quick money. Some letters lure people with promises of 250,000 euros in less than six months, says the Consumer Center in Berlin. To make this sort of money, participants are required merely to be "consistent" and faithfully follow the requirements. The center warns that behind the mails is a snowball system in which is is almost impossible to make money. Participants are required to, for example, pay 30 euros for six books of supposedly great value which are then to be sold on to other people. The large amounts of money can be made by using a list of links which the Internet user can download free of charge.
■ ReinsurerS
Munich Re profit rises
Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said Thursday its net profit more than quadrupled last year after the year-earlier figures were hit by the effects of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. Munich Re booked net profit of 1.1 billion euros (US$1.2 billion) compared with the 250 million euros in 2001, the group said in a statement. The figure was partly boosted by the sale of a number of assets, but was not quite as high as analysts had been expecting. Despite the sharp rise in earnings, Munich Re said it would pay shareholders an unchanged dividend of 1.25 euros per share. Gross premium income rose by 10.8 percent to 40 billion euros last year, the statement said. Munich Re said that business is good after the renegotiation of its reinsurance contracts this year.
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