■ Tourism
Holiday travel predictions
Chinese authorities expect tourists to take 2.2 billion trips over the Lunar New Year holiday in February, a news report said yesterday. Tourists are expected to take nearly 2 billion trips by road during the 40-day travel season that begins Feb. 3, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's main planning agency. Travelers will take 155 million trips by train and more than 19 million by air, Xinhua said.
■ Automobiles
Carmaker chiefs meet
Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp confirmed that Chairman Fujio Cho met Ford Motor Co President and CEO Alan Mulally in the wake of media reports of talks last week in Tokyo, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. Toyota spokeswoman Yasue Kato said Cho and Mulally "met and exchanged greetings," but refused to offer any further details, including when and where the talks took place. The meeting was held at Ford's request, the Kyodo news agency said yesterday, citing an unidentified Toyota official. The talks appear to have focused on how the two companies can strengthen cooperation in environmental technology, Kyodo and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
■ Electronics
New DRAM chip released
Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday it has developed a new mobile memory chip that is thinner and uses less power than its predecessor. The 1-gigabit mobile DRAM is at least 20 percent thinner than the existing product, which stacks up two 512-megabit chips and uses about 30 percent less power than the predecessor, Samsung said in a release. The new product can be used for a wide range of advanced handset applications as well as for digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products, the company said. "Samsung plans to mass produce the new device beginning in the second quarter of 2007," the company said.
■ Cellphones
Essar to buy partners
India's Essar group, which owns a 33 percent stake in mobile phone firm Hutchison Essar, has offered to buy out its partners in the company, a report said yesterday. The Essar group has the first rights to buy the 52 percent stake owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. The remaining 15 percent is held by two individuals. Analysts said the company is worth approximately US$15 billion. The Essar group made the offer through its advisors, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns, who met senior Hutchison officials in Hong Kong on Tuesday, the Economic Times said yesterday.
■ US economy
Retail rises moderately
US retail spending rose modestly over the Christmas holiday season, helped by a late surge from last-minute shoppers, surveys showed. The data suggested the world's biggest economy continued to grow, but at a less than spectacular pace. A report on Tuesday by MasterCard research arm SpendingPulse showed overall spending up 6.6 percent excluding automobiles. But adjusted for an extra shopping day this year, the growth was only 3 percent. That compared with 8.7 percent growth last year, or 5.2 percent after adjustments. The report noted that electronics and luxury retail sales were generally strong, while apparel spending lagged.
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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