■ Insurance
Sanyo cuts premium costs
Sanyo Electric Co will cut its total insurance premium costs by about 20 percent by setting up a subsidiary in Hawaii to handle insurance for the company's 160 units, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Osaka-based Sanyo is the world's biggest maker of digital cameras. The company's affiliates and subsidiaries currently use different insurers and take out policies separately. The insurance subsidiary will handle about ¥200 million (US$1.89 million) of insurance policies in its first year, the paper said.
■ Communications
Postal service boosted
Japan may pump ¥1 trillion yen (US$9.5 billion) into the state-run postal service planned for privatization in April 2007 to short up its capital, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. The Japanese government and the ruling coalition parties began discussions on the plan aimed at helping Japan Post, whose liabilities exceed assets by more than ¥500 billion, the paper said, citing sources it didn't identify. While the plan is aimed at strengthening the financial base of Japan Post after privatization, financial institutions including banks may oppose it, insisting it will hinder private-sector businesses, the paper said.
■ Legal issues
Microsoft investigated
South Korea's antitrust watchdog said yesterday it has expanded an investigation into Microsoft Corp, after local competitors accused the company of using its dominant position to unfairly shut out rivals. "RealNetworks has raised a complaint against the US headquarters and the Korean unit of Microsoft for the alleged violation of antitrust laws," the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said in a statement. The antitrust watchdog aims to complete the investigation into Microsoft Korea by Dec-ember, an FTC official said. The FTC has already been conducting a probe into allegations raised by South Korea's Internet portal, Daum Communications Corp, in September 2001 that Microsoft breached antitrust laws by selling a version of the Windows system that incorporated its instant-messaging software. The move to expand the investigation comes after European regulators had fined Microsoft a record US$611 million in March for breaking antitrust law and ordered it to strip Windows Media Player software from its operating system.
■ Economy
Warnings of collapse
Former Cabinet officials yesterday issued an open letter to President Gloria Arroyo, calling for emergency measures to avoid an economic collapse. The measures suggested include politically-risky moves such as raising some taxes, imposing a three percent surcharge on imports and withholding about 10 percent of revenue allotted to local govern-ments. Among those who signed the letter carried in the Philippine Star newspaper were former finance secretaries Jose Isidro Camacho, Vicente Jayme, Ramon del Rosario, Ernest Leung and Jesus Estanislao and former central bank governor Jose Cuisia. They praised Arroyo for admitting in August that the country was in a fiscal crisis and for taking measures to raise revenues and cut expenditures. But the letter warned that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had found the government's efforts to be "insufficiently ambitious," while credit rating agencies were considering down-grading the Philippines.
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