■ Internet
Stars deliver Amazon orders
Clay Aiken lurked outside a house, Emmylou Harris stopped by a university, Nick Lachey dropped in on a stranger's workplace and Moby played with dogs while making special deliveries in honor of online retailer Amazon.com's 10th anniversary. Over 10 days, 23 Amazon customers received a surprise visit from a celebrity associated with their order. American Idol runner-up Aiken dropped off his memoir, Learning to Sing. Lachey delivered all three seasons of MTV's Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica on DVD, while musicians Moby and Harris showed up with their CDs. The moments were captured on tape and the videos are available to view on Amazon.com. Other celebrities who participated in the surprises included Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle, Jeff Bridges, Minnie Driver, Fat Joe and Michael J. Fox.
■ Semiconductors
New Infineon scandal erupts
Following the resignation of board member Andreas von Zitzewitz amid bribery allegations, German chipmaker Infineon now faces a new scandal over the multi-million-dollar contract to build its new headquarters, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported yesterday. An internal audit found that the 500-million-euro (US$610 million) project to build a campus-like headquarters on 150,000m2 of land just outside Munich could have been a lot cheaper, the newspaper reported. The auditors had pointed the finger at Infineon's former chairman Ulrich Schumacher, who had turned a blind eye to the "overly generous" architects' bills. Indeed, "the immensely high costs of the project played a key role in the removal of Schumacher from his position as chairman" in 2001, the paper reported.
■ Oil industry
Marshall Islands face crisis
The Marshall Islands has appealed to the US for help in a dispute with its sole fuel oil supplier, ExxonMobil, that could lead to power cuts in the capital Majuro next month. The Marshalls Energy Company (MEC) and local businesses said they wanted the US to intervene before the dispute leaves the capital's 25,000 people without power. A diesel supply contract between ExxonMobil subsidiary Mobil Oil Micronesia and the MEC expired last year and negotiations for a new contract have stalled. Mobil told the MEC in June it will raise prices and expect shipments to be paid for in advance. It says the hike is necessary because of higher global prices. But the MEC says it cannot meet the prices being asked, alleging Mobil's action amounts to price-gouging.
■ Semiconductors
Chartered limits loss
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許), the world's fourth-largest contract chip maker, said yesterday it swung to a smaller-than-expected loss of US$67.1 million in the second quarter of the year on communications and computer segments sales. Chartered Semiconductor customers include Motorola Inc and Broadcom. The chipmaker said its net loss for the quarter ending June 30 was better than its losses in the first quarter of US$84.5 million. It had made a US$15.3 million net profit in the same period a year earlier. The chipmaker is 60 percent owned by Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government's investment arm. Its major competitors include Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯).
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