■ Wireless
Nokia works with China
Nokia Oyj, the world's largest mobile-phone maker, and Beijing Just Top Network Communications Co won an order to build a wireless network that will be used by officials of Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. The network will serve officials such as emergency workers at the games. The network covers all venues for the Olympics, Nokia said in a faxed statement. No financial details were provided.
■ Flash Memory
AMD and Fujitsu cooperate
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Fujitsu Ltd agreed to combine their flash-memory chip operations, creating a company lagging only Intel Corp in producing chips to store data in cellular phones and digital cameras. Advanced Micro will have a 60 percent controlling stake, with Fujitsu holding the remainder of the venture, which extends an existing partnership to develop flash-memory chips. The venture will have combined sales of US$1.38 billion, will be capitalized at as much as US$1.7 billion and will be headed by Bertrand Cambou, an Advanced Micro senior vice president. Advanced Micro and Fujitsu are merging amid stiffer competition from companies such as Samsung Electronics Co, which said in January it will more than double flash production next year.
■ Analog Chips
Sony to shut Texas plant
Sony Corp, the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker, will close a computer chip plant in San Antonio, Texas by the end of September and fire about 600 workers because of slowing demand for its products. Demand for the chips produced by the plant -- used in less- advanced analog products -- is waning while demand for digital-format devices is growing, said Yoshikazu Ochiai, a Sony spokesman. The Texas plant started operations in 1992, producing integrated circuits for Sony and its clients for use in analog audio and visual products and telecommunications equipment. Sony's chip business helped the company double profit in the three months ended Dec. 31. Sales at its chip operations rose one- third in the period from a year earlier. For the year ended yesterday, Sony expects chip sales of Y340 billion (US$2.9 billion). Sony will integrate the Texas plant's production into a factory in Kagoshima prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu, Ochiai said.
■ Manufacturing
Japanese sentiment bad
Business sentiment among major Japanese manufacturers worsened in the January-March quarter as worries grew that falling stock prices and the war in Iraq may hurt economic recovery, a central bank survey released Tuesday said. The Bank of Japan's "tankan" survey of business sentiment showed that confidence of major manufacturers slipped to minus 10 from minus 9 in the October-December period, ending three straight quarters of improvement. The index represents the percentage of companies saying conditions are bad subtracted from those reporting conditions are good. Negative numbers show that corporate sentiment is grim. Japan has been struggling in a decade-long slowdown, with banks burdened with massive bad debts and unemployment at a near record high. The March survey is closely watched because it gives the first comprehensive look at corporate expectations for the new fiscal year beginning April 1.
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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