■ Telecom
DoCoMo offers new service
NTT DoCoMo Inc, the world's second-largest mobile-phone company, said it will start providing international video-phone services in the UK for users of its high-speed wireless Internet access phones. Tokyo-based DoCoMo plans to begin providing the new service on Oct. 1 in the UK in cooperation with partner Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd, the company said in a statement. DoCoMo owns a fifth of Hutchison 3G UK. The service will enable users of DoCoMo's FOMA high-speed service to make video-phone calls and transmit data at speeds of 64 kilobits per second to the UK, the company said. The company said it expects to expand the international video-phone and data service to other countries. DoCoMo's shares rose ?14,000, or 4.8 percent, to ?305,000 as of the 11am morning close in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading.
■ Semiconductors
Infineon to double share
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's No. 2 semicon-ductor maker, said it will invest US$1.2 billion in China by 2007 as it seeks to double its share of the country's chip market to 10 percent within five years. "That's a signif-icant part of our spending," chief executive Ulrich Schumacher said in Shang-hai, site of the company's new China headquarters. The Munich-based company is stepping up investment in a Chinese chip market that's forecast to triple to US$80 billion by 2007, according to researcher iSuppli. Infineon said today it has held talks with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (宏力半導體), a rival of its main Chinese partner Semiconductor Manufac-turing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路), after its China sales rose 30 percent in the nine months ended June 30.
■ Development
Indonesia signs LOI
Indonesia has signed a supplemental agreement to its Letter of Intent with the IMF, which will pave the way for another US$450 million loan disbursement, Mahendra Siregar, an assistant to the coordinating minister for economic affairs, said yesterday. The Letter of Intent (LOI) with the IMF contains the government's economic reforms targets for the year. Compliance with the LOI is mandatory to receive IMF loan assistance. A supple-mental letter is signed every quarter, highlighting prog-ress and possible changes to the targets under the orig-inal LOI. Tuesday's supple-mental pact followed the completion last month of an IMF review on the country's reforms progress. Pending approval from the IMF's board of directors, the latest supplement should allow Indonesia access to around US$450 million in loans.
■ Transportation
Catch a Hello Kitty cab
How's this for a relaxing cab ride: slide into the back seat of a pink and baby blue sedan with two Hello Kitty characters painted on the side, sit on a Hello Kitty blanket and listen to Hello Kitty music piped in through the sound system. This mobile paradise for fans of the popular kitten character is the latest service offered by a Japanese taxi company, Kanachu. The 10 Hello Kitty cabs -- equipped with Hello Kitty umbrellas, ponchos, and kleenex for customers -- have been operating since April. Kanachu integrated the new taxis into their fleet of 500 cabs serving suburban Tokyo after deciding they needed a special service targeting children. They also figured there was also no danger of alienating anyone with the cute cat, said Katsuo Habu, a manager at Kanachu.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
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