■ Scandals
Enron head pays fine
The former chief accounting officer for failed energy giant Enron agreed to pay a US$500,000 fine to settle fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, officials said Thursday. The SEC said Wesley Colwell, charged with exaggerating profits at the failed energy giant, was barred from ever serving as an officer or director of a public company as part of the agreement. Colwell did not admit or deny the charges, but has agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation into Enron, the SEC said. Enron, the one-time, high-flying energy trader is scheduled to emerge from bankruptcy as two pipeline and utility companies. Enron was the largest-ever US bankruptcy at the time of its demise.
■ Toiletries
Colgate seeks Chinese teeth
US-based Colgate-Palmolive plans to increase its share of the toothpaste market in China to 40 percent by expanding production bases in the country, state media reported Friday. "Our target is to take 40 percent of the market in China in the near future," Chester Fong, vice-president and general manager for the company's China operations, was quoted as saying by a Chinese-language news-paper. Colgate-Palmolive, the largest toothpaste supplier in China since 1999, wants to make China one of its biggest markets in Asia and outside the US. "Following the completion of our production base in [the southern city of] Guangzhou, we are going to further diversify our product lines in the Chinese market from toothpaste to other personal products," Fong said.
■ Music industry
MTV offers downloads
Viacom Inc's music video channel MTV may offer downloads of songs from its Web sites, the Financial Times reported, citing Tom Freston, chairman and chief executive of MTV Networks. The proposed legal music download service would compete with Apple Computer Inc's service and smaller companies such as Roxio Inc, the paper said. A decision by MTV to offer music downloading would signal significant backing for online music as some of the world's biggest entertain-ment companies are fighting legal battles against illegal file-sharing services, the FT said. MTV, which is viewed by 400 million people worldwide, would be in a strong position to compete against other possible contenders for the business such as Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp, the paper added.
■ Electronics
PS2 sales fall one-third
Sales of Sony Corp's PlayStation 2 in Japan fell a third in volume from a year earlier in the six months ended Sept. 28, the second consecutive half-year of decline, a researcher said. Sony, the world's No. 1 maker of game consoles, sold 1.08 million units of the three-year-old game machine this year, according to Enterbrain Inc, a game industry research house. In the same period, overall sales of game consoles in Japan declined 31 percent, Enterbrain said. Sales of Sony's rival, the Nintendo Co GameCube, rose 5 percent on the year to 319,037 units, the researcher said. Kyoto-based Nintendo, also the maker of Game Boy Advance handheld devices, said last week it will cut the price of the GameCube to ¥14,000 (US$129) in Japan effective tomorrow, down from ¥19,800. Among game software developers, Nintendo ranked top in sales volume in Japan with 3.12 million games sold, according to Enterbrain.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source