■ Beverages
Coke plans mid-calorie cola
Coke is launching a mid-calorie cola that promises half the sugar, carbohydrates and calories of its regular version. The Atlanta-based company said Monday that Coca-Cola C2 will debut first in Japan and then in the US this summer. The company has been researching the idea for a year. There will be subtle packaging differences to distinguish between the new drink and the company's flagship brand. In January, PepsiCo Inc said it, too, was looking at the idea of selling a mid-calorie cola. At the time, spokesman Dave DeCecco said the Purchase, New York-based company had applied for a patent for Pepsi LS, which some have speculated stands for low sugar. The company later named its mid-calorie cola Pepsi Edge and said it would debut in the US this summer, roughly the same time as Coke's version, DeCecco said Monday.
PHOTO: REUTERS
■ Computer chips
Intel considers HK factory
Intel Corp, the world's largest maker of computer chips, said it may set up a packaging factory in Hong Kong to get closer to its customers in China. Intel denied a South China Morning Post report that the company will open an assembly plant in Hong Kong next year to install Intel processing units to motherboards made in China. The factory being considered would only pack finished processors and cooling devices into boxes for shipment to customers, said Colleen Rubart, Intel's spokeswoman for Asia Pacific.
■ Semiconductors
Equipment orders rise 70%
North American companies that sell equipment used to build semiconductors had a gain in orders from February to last month, the eighth-straight monthly increase, and a 70 percent gain from a year earlier, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International said. The book-to-bill ratio for North American chip-tool makers was 1.10 last month, indicating that US$110 in orders were received for every US$100 in sales, the San Jose, California-based trade group said in a statement. The ratio is considered a measure of industry health and was revised to 1.15 in February, compared with 1.19 in January. Above 1 indicates a growing market. The three-month average of worldwide bookings last month rose to US$1.321 billion from US$1.316 billion in February.
■ Internet auctions
Buffet sells tickets on eBay
Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has sold hundreds of tickets to the company's annual meeting in an effort to foil Internet auctions for the passes. Buffett listed tickets to the event, attended by more than 10,000 shareholders and their guests last year, on eBay Inc's Web site late Friday at US$5 a pair after seeing sellers scalp them for as much as US$58 each. As of 4:30pm Monday, he had sold 352. The annual gathering in Omaha, Nebraska is a magnet for admirers of Buffett, 73, who has become the world's second-richest man by spotting undervalued assets.
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