■ IPR protection
Gillette sues Energizer
Gillette Co, the world's largest razor maker, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Energizer Holdings Inc alleging its new Schick Quattro razor violates Gillette's Mach3 patent. Gillette charges that Energizer used the prop-rietary blade technology of its Mach3 razor, the Boston-based company said in a statement. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Boston, asked for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, monetary damages and other relief. The progressive blade geometry used in Mach3 positions the blades to extend gradually closer to the beard, allowing for the closest, most comfortable shave in a single stroke, said Gillette, which gets more than a third of sales and more than half its profit from razors and blades. Energizer's four-blade Quattro will be in stores next month.
■ Macroeconomics
Prices rise in China
China's consumer prices rose 0.5 percent last month compared with the same month a year ago as services and energy became more expensive, the government said yesterday. Services were 2.5 percent more expensive last month than one year earlier, while prices of consumer products were down 0.1 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a release. It marks the seventh consecutive rise in Chinese consumer prices, suggesting that Asia's second largest economy could be escaping from a vicious spiral of falling prices affecting it since the late 1990s. It appeared, however, that some of July's increase in prices was caused by one-off factors or global trends outside the Chinese policy-makers' control.
■ Publishing
`Penthouse' goes bankrupt
General Media Inc, the publisher of Penthouse magazine, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection so it can restructure debt and operations. General Media is the lead debtor on US$39.9 million in outstanding senior secured notes. That debt totaled US$85 million two years ago when it was restructured. In its bankruptcy petition, filed with US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, General Media said it had between US$50 million and US$100 million in both assets and debts. The document wasn't more specific. General Media is 99.5 percent owned by Penthouse International Inc, which didn't file for bankruptcy. Among its obvious troubles, the publishing schedule of its flagship Penthouse magazine has fallen behind. The August issue will hit newsstands Aug. 19, but industry practice is for a particular month's issue to be published before the month listed on the cover.
■ Agriculture
Japan pushes rice-plastics
Japan's agriculture ministry is considering subsidizing projects to use old surplus rice to produce plastics that dissolve into water and carbon dioxide in the soil, an official said yesterday. The ministry official said the idea was not a formal decision yet due to "budgetary and other issues to clarify." The Asahi Shimbun reported the ministry would ask for a total of ?6 billion (US$50 million) over the three years from next April under the state budget for the project to promote the green plastics. Japan's demand for plastics is roughly 14 million tonnes a year, but only about 20,000 tonnes of the total is for bio-degradable types.
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