■ Telecoms
KDDI in mobile TV venture
KDDI, Japan's second-largest telecommunications firm, said yesterday it will team up with US wireless company Qualcomm with the aim of launching a television broadcast service here for mobile phones. The joint venture will be established on Tuesday. KDDI will hold an 80 percent stake with the balance owned by the Japanese unit of Qualcomm. KDDI did not say when the joint venture plans to launch the service.
■ Agriculture
US to promote beef in Japan
US producers expect to export 100,000 tonnes of beef to Japan next year, just a third of what they sold before a 2003 ban on imports due to the mad cow scare, the head of the US Meat Export Federation said yesterday. "I hope I'm wrong, I hope it's more than that," Philip Seng said in Tokyo while unveiling plans for a public relations blitz to win back wary Japanese consumers. Seng said it would be at least three years before US exporters reach the 2003 level of about 300,000 tonnes of beef sold in Japan.
■ Auto industry
Volvo shuts China venture
Swedish industrial vehicles company Volvo has closed one joint venture in China and another is set to suffer a similar fate due to huge operating losses, state press reported yesterday. Volvo's engine joint venture with China's First Automotive Works Corp was shut two months ago after accumulating large losses, the Shanghai Securities News reported. All three of Volvo's joint ventures in China have suffered significant losses in China's competitive market that is suffering from a major production glut. The report did not provide any loss-making figures.
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