■ Electronics
TiVo eyes Japanese market
TiVo Inc, a maker of digital recorders that can pause and replay live television, plans to enter the Japanese market by the middle of next year, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, citing Chairman Mike Ramsay. The Alviso, California-based company will probably tie up with a cable television network and Internet access provider to aid the expansion, the Nikkei said. TiVo is also considering a partnership with a consumer electronics maker to supply the hard disk drives needed for the service, according to the report.
■ Auto Market
Peugeot to cut UK workforce
The French automobile group Peugeot-Citroen said on Sunday it was cutting 850 jobs at its Ryton, Coventry plant in central England due to falling sales of the Peugeot 206 compact. "Despite the Peugeot 206 continuing to be one of the best-selling retail cars in Europe, the small car segment has seen a considerable broadening of the product offering. This has impacted on the sales volumes of the Peugeot 206," the company said in a statement. The 850 employees represent one of three shifts that makes the 206 at the Coventry plant.
■ Airlines
Patrick takes majority stake
Transport group Patrick Corp said yesterday it has gained a 50.26 majority share in Australian budget airline Virgin Blue despite opposition to the takeover from the airline's independent directors. Patrick's move above the 50 percent ownership level means its offer period for the carrier will be automatically extended by two weeks to April 1. Patrick has offered Virgin Blue shareholders A$1.90 (US$1.50) a share as it seeks control of the carrier. The low-cost airline's other major shareholder is British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which holds 25.5 percent.
■ Food safety
Dye in other KFC products
The cancer-causing food coloring Sudan I has been found in other Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) products in China, state media said yesterday, as the vastly popular fast food giant suspended sales. The company's New Orleans chicken wings and chicken burgers were found to contain the red dye last week and since then the items have been removed from more than 1,000 of the eatery's outlets in China and destroyed. The banned dye was Friday also found in KFC's spice pickle powder, used in three KFC foods: spiced drumsticks, spiced chicken wings and chicken-flavored popcorn, the Beijing food safety office was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying. Beijing authorities have asked KFC to suspend sales of the three products until they pass inspections.
■ Investment
Hermes under investigation
South Korea's financial watchdogs visited Hermes Investment Management headquarters in London last week to look into allegations that the British fund had rigged stock prices here, officials said yesterday. Four South Korean Financial Supervisory Service investigators held interviews with Hermes officials in London on March 14, they said. British authorities helped the inquiry which focuses on whether Hermes manipulated the stock price of Samsung Corp, they said. Hermes sold a 5 percent stake in Samsung Corp on Dec. 3 last year, just days after issuing a statement saying an "undervalued" Samsung Corp could become the target of a foreign hostile takeover.
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