■ Broadcasting
HK plans digital TV licenses
Hong Kong plans to issue permits allowing as many as four digital television broadcasters to challenge the city's free-to-air duopoly of Television Broadcasts Ltd and Asia Television Ltd. The licenses are part of the government's plan to introduce digital broadcasting technology, which transmits programs at higher resolution using less airwaves than the current analogue standard. Television Broadcasts and Asia Television will be asked to start broadcasting digital programs in 2006, the government said in a statement. The licenses will "provide opportunities for newcomers to enter the market, provide a business-friendly environment," the statement said. The government today began a three-month consultation to seek views from the industry and the public.
■ Automobiles
Toyota pulls Chinese ads
Japan's Toyota Motor Corp pulled two magazine ads in China after local readers complained they insulted the country, the company said yesterday, the latest gaffe by a Japanese firm in China. Toyota, which apologized publicly for any offence it may have caused, ran two advertisements for its Land Cruiser and Prado sport utility vehicle models. One featured a Land Cruiser towing a truck that bore a striking resemblance to a Chinese military vehicle. A second showed a stone lion -- a traditional Chinese authority symbol -- saluting a Prado, which translates into "heavy-handed." State newspapers said readers had protested the pictures implied Japanese vehicles were more hardy than Chinese military equipment, or that Japanese products were superior to Chinese.
■ Music Industry
Virgin opens megastore
Signaling a fight back against the growing threat of online music, Richard Branson, the head of the Virgin chain of companies, has unveiled a new megastore in San Francisco, where sex toys, clothes and electronics feature almost as prominently as CDs and DVDs. Customers entering the refurbished store in the trendy Californian city now see an array of clothing racks, rows of US$70 Hello Kitty backpacks, a pair of motorcycles on the second floor and an electronics section packed with MP3 music players and mobile phones. Of course there are expanded sections for DVDs and CDs, including an innovative system that lets users listen to 30-second clips of any album by scanning the bar code. They can also download clips onto their own memory cards at specially designed stations.
■ Outsourcing
Asia ranks high on survey
Asia emerged high on the list of global financial services firms as a region for outsourcing their business functions, a survey said yesterday. Senior executives from 123 financial services institutions took part in the on-line poll conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Economic Intelligence Unit. Some 47 percent picked China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and India as areas where they expect to expand outsourcing activities. In terms of business functions to be outsourced, IT infrastructure and applications, 75 percent, human resources and training, 42 percent, and customer contact centers, 39 percent, were the top three functions identified. Firms rated outsourcing as far more effective than mergers and acquisitions at cutting costs.
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