■ Telecoms
DoCoMo to offer BlackBerry
NTT DoCoMo will introduce BlackBerry handheld devices in Japan by offering them to corporate customers later this year, Japan's top mobile carrier said yesterday. BlackBerry devices, from Research In Motion, based in Ontario, Canada, have a keyboard for typing with the thumb, and offer wireless connection with software such as Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and other corporate data as well as e-mail. The devices in Japan will operate on the super-fast W-CDMA mobile network, used by cellphones here, and GSM/GPRS networks used abroad to allow for voice and data relay around the world.
■ Aeronautics
Tianjin to assemble A320
Tianjin has been selected as the sole candidate city for an assembly line of A320 mid-range planes, China's state press reported yesterday, quoting local authorities. Citing city planning agency Tianjin Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the official Xinhua news agency said the northern city had won approval to be the location for a potential Airbus assembly line. But it gave no other details in the short dispatch, and an Airbus spokesman said the company was still awaiting a decision from Beijing.
■ Interest rates
ECB raises key rate
The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.75 percent yesterday in a move aimed at keeping inflation at bay. Analysts have said such an increase could help settle the world's stock markets, which have been volatile since the US Federal Reserve Bank head suggested more rate increases could be in the offing in the US. But bank watchers will be waiting to hear if ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet provides any hints about what is ahead for Europe -- possibly another increase as soon as next month. Holger Schmieding, an economist with Bank of America in London had said a quarter of a percent move would settle the world's stock markets, which have oscillated wildly in the wake of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments.
■ Automotive
Hybrid car sales pick up
Toyota Motor Co's energy-saving hybrid Prius car has surpassed the half-million mark in worldwide sales, the Japanese automaker's US subsidiary said on Wednesday. More than half the sales of the world's first mass-produced gas-electric hybrid vehicle -- 266,212 -- have been in the massive US market. The Prius was launched in Japan in late 1997 and entered the US market in July 2000 as a niche market vehicle popular with environmentalists and Hollywood stars. Sales picked up in the fall of 2003 with a second-generation model and grew to more than 107,000 units last year.
■ Entertainment
Disney to link theme parks
A new marketing campaign will link Disney theme parks around the world for the first time, the firm said. The "Year of a Million Dreams" campaign, announced on Wednesday, will be launched in October to replace the 18-month Disneyland 50th anniversary promotion. The Walt Disney Co has hired advertising agencies Leo Burnett and mcgarrybowen to help create and manage the effort linking 11 parks in California, Florida, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. It has also hired photographer Annie Leibovitz, best known for her portraits of rock stars, to create a celebrity-based campaign.
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