■ Videogames
New consoles coming
Makers of video-game consoles, including Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp, are rolling-out new hand-held players and games based on Hollywood movies in an attempt to boost lagging sales, the Wall Street Journal said. Both com-panies will each introduce new hand-held systems next year as they vie for control of a worldwide market worth about US$3.7 billion, the paper said. At next week's E3 trade show in Los Angeles, video-game makers will debut games based on movies like Spider-Man as well as some sequels to big-sellers, the newspaper reported. Video-game industry sales fell 1 percent during the first quarter of this year as the sale of consoles slowed, the Journal reported. This may be because Sony and Microsoft will soon replace their machines with newer, more powerful versions, it said.
■ Aviation
Airbus on schedule
Airbus foresees deliveries this year of slightly more than 300 planes this year, chairman Noel Forgeard said in an interview to appear yesterday in the newspaper La Tribune. "At the start of the year we had planned to deliver fewer than 300 planes but we are today looking at slightly more than 300, as in 2003," he said. "If current trends are confirmed, I do not rule out the possibility of step-ping up the pace in 2005." Airbus currently accounts for 57 percent of worldwide civilian aircraft orders, Forgeard said, adding that Airbus and US rival Boeing should deliver around 590 planes this year, as they did last year. He said Airbus had received 129 firm orders for its wide-bodied A380 jumbo jet, adding that "we are in discussions with with four companies, including some in China."
■ Automobiles
Schrempp affirms strategy
DaimlerChrysler boss Juergen Schrempp insisted in an interview released on Wednesday that his com-pany's Asian strategy is "on the right track" despite its decision to cut funding to troubled partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp. That decision raised questions about the future of Schrempp's stra-tegy of turning Daimler-Chrysler into a global auto powerhouse and specu-lation about the chief executive's future. But Schrempp told the Stutt-garter Zeitung daily that he remains committed to seeing through his contract, which will keep him at the German-US automaker until 2008. He renewed assur-ances that DaimlerChrysler will keep its 37 percent stake in Mitsubishi -- although that could be diluted if Mitsubishi's other shareholders go ahead with a capital increase.
■ Automobiles
Mitsubishi ex-officials nabbed
Mitsubishi Motors Corp faced a new scandal yesterday after police arrested seven former executives on suspicion they falsified a report over a fatal accident in which a wheel flew off one of its trucks. Police raided the Tokyo headquarters of Mitsubishi's truck-making affiliate, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp yester-day in connection with the case. The Tokyo-based automaker has been strug-gling to restore confidence in its brand name since it was hit by a scandal four years ago after concealing thousands of owner com-plaints to avoid having to order a recall. Media reports said those arrested include the former chairman of Mitsubishi Fuso and a man who was a Mitsubishi Motors vice president when the accident occurred.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
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