■ Manufacturing
Sharp eyes smaller LCDs
Sharp Corp will start pro-ducing liquid crystal dis-plays (LCDs) according to size to create extra capacity for high-margin screens used for portable games and mobile phones, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The company, Japan's largest liquid-crystal display maker, also plans to cut production costs by using optimum-sized glass substrates to compete better with Seiko Epson Corp as well as South Korean and Taiwanese rivals, the newspaper said, without saying where it got the information. Sharp expects sales of mid- and small-sized panels at its LCD business to rise 17 percent to ¥401.5 billion (US$3.6 billion) this fiscal year, the report said. Sharp's net income jumped 40 per-cent to ¥39 billion in the six months ended Sept. 30, thanks to increasing sales of LCD televisions.
■ Transportation
Alstom inks China deals
French heavy engineering company Alstom on Satur-day signed contracts worth up to 1 billion euros (US$1.23 billion) in China for the delivery of trains and locomotives, the company said. One contract valued at 620 million euros with the Changchun Railway Vehicles Co (長春軌道客車) was for the delivery of 60 regional trains capable of reaching speeds of up to 200kph, the source said. The deal includes the transfer of technology for the produc-tion in China of 51 trains. Nine other trains are to be delivered complete or in kits. A second contract worth 383 million euros was signed with Datong Electric Locomotive Corp (大同電力 機車), for the sale of 180 double high-pressure loco-motives. Alstom also inked a letter of intent for the 357-million-euro sale in hydro-electric turbine and pump-ing equipment to Hubei, Henan and Guangdong provinces, it said in a statement.
■ Retail
Daiei plan in the works
Two investment groups led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Marubeni Corp will work together to propose a revitalization plan for retailer Daiei Inc this month, the Asahi news-paper said, without saying where it obtained the infor-mation. A group composed of Marubeni, Deutsche Securities and Cerberus Group will ally with Wal-Mart and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to present the plan to Daiei on Oct. 18, the report said. Daiei is Japan's third-biggest retailer. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, plans to introduce its control system to help Daiei's general merchandise stores, Asahi said. Maru-beni will offer space in Daiei's food supermarkets to drugstore and apparel outlet operators, the report said. The Industrial Revitali-zation Corp of Japan and Daiei's lenders urged the retailer on Thursday to seek a government-led reorgani-zation by tomorrow.
■ Entertainment
Apple expands iTunes
Apple is expanding its music download service into more European coun-tries this month. There will be "more than just four or five countries" added in, said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president for Internet applications, at the recent Popkomm music conven-tion in Berlin. The iTunes music store offers close to a million songs in the coun-tries in which it operates, Cue said. All four major labels and around 100 independent companies are represented. Apple's Euro-pean and US branches have sold more than 125 million songs over the Internet through August. More than 4.5 million iPods have been bought as well.
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
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
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
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