■ Electronics
Sony to stop making CRTs
Sony Corp plans to discontinue producing television picture tubes in Japan as early as next year, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Sony, the world's largest maker of television sets, will shift production of cathode ray tubes (CRTs) to the US and China, the report said. Sony will then import them, while increasing production of flat-panel televisions domestically, the paper said. The company currently produces CRTs in Gifu and Aichi prefectures, and doesn't plan to close factories or fire workers when it shifts production overseas, the paper said. Sony produced about 10 million television tubes and 160,000 flat-panel televisions in the fiscal year ended in March, the paper said.
■ Automobiles
China makes BMWs
The first Chinese-made BMW cars went on sale this weekend, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, in another sign of the country's growing manufacturing sophistication and surging demand for luxury goods. The BMW 325Is, manufactured at the company's joint-venture plant in the northeastern city of Shenyang, are priced at 473,850 yuan (US$57,786), about 200,000 yuan (US$24,390) less than the imported version, Xinhua said in a report late Saturday. While that's an astronomical sum for most Chinese, who earn about US$700 annually on average, it is within the reach of many in the growing ranks of state company managers, entrepreneurs, entertainers and others who have benefited from economic reforms enacted over the past two decades.
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
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
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
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