■ Search Engines
Google may need help
Google, the highly touted Internet search firm that offered shares to the public this month, has weak corporate governance policies, according to a report by a shareholder service organization. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), in a report obtained Tuesday, said Google's overall ranking on corporate governance is just 0.2 percent in comparison with Standard and Poor's 500 firms -- in other words, it outranked just one of the other companies. ISS, which rates some 7,500 companies on issues of responsibility to shareholders, cited in its report, dated Aug. 19, "lingering questions about the company's substandard governance structure."
■ Software
Windows gets update
The software giant Microsoft Corp announced that it will release its corporate update for Windows XP on Wednesday. Tuesday's announcement came after the Seattle-based company delayed the automatic release of the so-called Service Pack 2 to allow technology administrators at companies, enterprises and other large organizations to assess the update and possibly block its deployment. The array of software updates is the largest ever released by Microsoft and was primarily designed to improve security, and block pop-up ads and spyware. Security experts have already found holes in the software update while corporate information-technology managers worry that it will clash with existing applications.
■ Photography
Kodak eyes imaging firm
Eastman Kodak Co, the world's largest photography company, agreed to buy National Semiconductor Corp's imaging business for an undisclosed price, to expand its line of sensors for products such as camera phones. The transaction will be complete in the next few weeks, the companies said in separate statements. Kodak, based in Rochester, New York, said it will open a new office in Sunnyvale, California, and hire about 50 of National's employees. National's business that makes image-sensing chips will become part of Kodak's group that designs sensors for professional and industrial customers. The deal will help Kodak as it tries to boost sales of parts for electronics such as digital cameras. Chief Executive Daniel Carp has been making acquisitions to add digital products and services as sales of consumer film decline.
■ Investing
Multimanager funds gain
Multimanager mutual funds are gaining in popularity, the Wall Street Journal said in its "Fund Track" column, citing a study to be released this week by Cerulli Associates, a US research firm. Global assets in accounts with multiple managers grew 28 percent, to US$678 billion, in 2003 and are likely to go on growing at a 14 percent compound annual rate until 2008, the newspaper cited the study as saying. The multimanager category includes both funds of funds, which buy shares of other funds, and manager-of-manager funds, which use several fund managers to handle different portions of their total assets, the Journal said. Multimanager funds offer diversity and expert advice in choosing funds.
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