■ Banking
Banks leave S Korea
Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc will pull their Internet banking centers out of South Korea and transfer them to Hong Kong and Singapore, Maeil Business Newspaper said, citing unidentified industry officials. Citigroup's lending unit will move its Internet banking center to Singapore in March, and HSBC will complete its move to Hong Kong by the end of the year, the newspaper said. The move suggests overseas financial institutions may consider South Korea's infrastructure for information technology behind those of Singapore and Hong Kong, the newspaper said. Deutsche Bank AG, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas have already moved their Seoul centers to Hong Kong, it said.
■ Media
Reuters moves to Bangkok
Information provider Reuters is to move a third of its software engineers to Bangkok in the latest corporate outsourcing of jobs to the Far East. Reuters' 2,000 employees in 60 software development units around the world will be concentrated in four cities: London, Paris, St Louis and Bangkok. At least 600 employees will be moved to Bangkok by the end of next year. Chief executive Tom Glocer told City bankers last month that each staff member there cost the company £14,000 a year, against £80,000 in the US. The shift will involve redundancies around the world. "It is likely there will be some job cuts in the UK," a spokesperson said. They are part of the 3,000 job losses already announced by the company.
■ Patents
`Shock and Awe' is a hit
From condoms to coffees, a wave of trademark applications using "Shock and Awe" in their names is hitting the US Patent and Trademark Office. Seven months after the most overused cliche of the Iraq War entered American jargon, a Patent Office official said on Thursday it had received 29 "Shock and Awe" applications. There are filings to trademark golf clubs, pesticides, dietary supplements, video games, salsa, energy drinks, yo-yos, lingerie, Bloody Mary mix and "infant action crib toys." "The last thing I can remember like this was for using the terms Millennium or Y2K," said Brigid Quinn, spokeswoman for the Patent Office, which oversees trademark law. None of the "Shock and Awe" applications is registered yet -- not even the five to trademark fireworks brands. "Each will be reviewed one by one on their own merit," Quinn said.
■ Electronics
School sues Sony, Toshiba
Sony Corp, maker of the world's best-selling PlayStation game console, and Toshiba Corp are being sued in the US by a university that says chips in the device infringe on patents filed by two of its professors in 1986. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which owns patents on behalf of the University of Wisconsin, filed suit this week to stop Sony from using the chips, part of the central processing unit, or "emotion engine," of the PlayStation 2 game console, according to a filing submitted to district court in Wisconsin. The foundation seeks an undisclosed amount in damages. The suit comes the same week Sony said operating profit at its games division fell 91 percent during the second quarter ended Sept. 30. Competition from Microsoft Corp's Xbox console has meant Sony's game division contributed 6.6 percent to group operating profit in the quarter, down from 49 percent a year ago.
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