■ Semiconductors
Chip sales may surge 30%
Global chip sales may surge as much as 30 percent this year on demand for semiconductors used in consumer electronics such as camera-equipped cell phones and digital cameras, technology market researcher Gartner Inc said. Chip sales reached US$177 billion last year and will rise between 20 percent and 30 percent this year, Gartner said in a faxed press release. "Major growth areas for semiconductor consumption in 2003 were wireless and digital consumer electronics," Jeremey Donovan, vice president for Gartner Dataquest's worldwide semiconductor group, said in the release. "These two areas drove amazing growth in demand for NAND flash memory and image sensors." Demand will rise in a wider range of products this year than in last year, Gartner said. Santa Clara, California-based Intel Corp maintained its leading position as the world's biggest chipmaker last year.
■ Trade
Japan alters beef ban
Japan will lower its tariff on chilled beef imports after raising it last year, because its ban on US beef has left many food companies short of supplies, Kyodo News reported. The government will lower the tariff on chilled beef back to 38.5 percent for the three months through June 30, after raising it to 50 percent last July. Japan will also maintain lower import prices for pork because imports of the meat will probably be less than expected, Kyodo said, citing an agriculture ministry official. Some Japanese restaurant chains and retailers have stopped selling beef because the ban on imports from the US -- imposed after a cow was found infected with mad cow disease in Washington state -- cut supplies and caused beef prices to rise.
■ Entertainment
Pixar CFO to retire
Pixar Animation Studios, which this year announced plans to end its film-distribution contract with Walt Disney Co, said chief financial officer Ann Mather will retire in May and will be replaced by Simon Bax. Bax, 45, was formerly CFO of News Corp's Fox Filmed Entertainment unit, where he oversaw finances, information technology and planning for film, television and theatrical distribution, Pixar said in a statement. Pixar said Mather, 43, wants to spend more time with her family. Hollywood studios including Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros and New Corp's 20th Century Fox, expressed interest in distributing Pixar's films after the Emeryville, California-based computer-animation company said in January that it wouldn't renew its deal with Disney after 2005.
■ Aerospace
EADS stakes to be reduced
Shareholders of European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co, Europe's biggest aerospace company, may reduce their stakes from 2006, co-chief executive Philippe Camus told daily Le Figaro Economie in an interview. The stakes may be cut in "a harmonized way" from 2006, when the A380 aircraft comes into service, Camus told the paper. He didn't elaborate. EADS is 30 percent owned by DaimlerChrysler AG and 30 percent owned by French holding company Sogeade, which is in turn half owned by the French state and half by Lagardere SCA. All three have said they intend to remain owners until at least 2006 when the first A380 enters service. Camus said that he aims to develop the company's operations in Asia as a way of avoiding the problems that result from volatility of the euro.
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