■ Games
Nintendo pushes portable
Nintendo Co, the world's biggest maker of handheld video-game players, is targeting sales of its DS portable to reach 10 million units in Japan by year-end, helped by new features such as a Web browser and digital TV tuner. The DS handheld, which allows users to play games by touching one of the gadget's two screens, has sold more than 6 million units in Japan since it was introduced in December 2004, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata at a news conference in Tokyo yesterday. The company on March 2 will begin Japan sales of a new model, the DS Lite. Nintendo is betting on the product to fend off Sony Corp's PlayStation Portable. Offerings including an Internet browser, slated for June, and interactive software for brainteasers and recipe programs will broaden the appeal of the video-game device, Iwata said. The DS Lite is 20 percent lighter than its predecessor and weighs less than Sony's player. It will retail for ¥6,800 (US$140). A new version of Nintendo's Super Mario game will also be introduced.
PHOTO: AP
■ Telecoms
France Telecom cuts jobs
France Telecom is to cut 17,000 jobs worldwide, including 16,000 in France, in a new drive to slash costs, boost earnings and adapt to the new world of Internet-based telephony and digital communication, it announced on Tuesday. The job cuts -- about 8 percent of a global staff of 206,000 -- follow Deutsche Telekom's decision to axe 32,000 posts. Executives said the job cuts would come through natural wastage over the next three years, with 22,000 due to leave and only 6,000 staff recruited, mainly in new product areas. A further 1,000 positions overseas, including in Britain, would go. It is the first time that France Telecom has failed to replace retiring employees.
■ Telecoms
Virgin Mobile offers live TV
Virgin Mobile became the first European cellular network to launch a live digital TV service on mobile phones, in a deal announced on Tuesday with BT Group PLC. The mobile operator will begin selling handsets equipped to receive the BT Movio digital TV and radio services later this year, both companies said. The launch was announced on the second day of the 3GSM World Congress in Spain, one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications trade shows. Virgin and London-based BT also unveiled a new handset designed to deliver the service, offering one-click access to the digital TV and radio tuner. "It's not downloaded, it's not looped," said Graeme Hutchinson, sales and marketing director at Virgin Mobile. "It's real TV just like you get at home."
■ Corporations
Buffett leaving Coke
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will not stand for re-election to the Coca-Cola Co's board of directors, the company said on Tuesday. Buffett has been on the board since 1989. He told Coke he made his decision because of increased demands on his time resulting from acquisitions by his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. He said Berkshire Hathaway intends to retain its holdings of Coca-Cola stock, which amount to more than 200 million shares, or about 8.3 percent of the outstanding shares, as of last year.
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