■ Gaming
Sony to launch virtual world
Capitalizing on the rising popularity of social networks and online worlds, Sony will launch its own virtual universe and another 3-D game built almost entirely by players. Home is a real-time, networked world for the PlayStation 3 in which players create human-looking characters called avatars. They can buy clothing, furniture and videos to play on a virtual flat-screen television in their virtual apartments. The concept is strikingly similar to Linden Lab's Second Life, a Web-based phenomenon with nearly 4.5 million residents. But Sony's world will feature heavy doses of video games for avatars to play, as well as virtual arcades, music, movies and other Sony-approved media downloads.
■ China
Foreign tax breaks to end
Chinese lawmakers took up a measure yesterday to end nearly three decades of blanket tax breaks for foreign investors in a step that will raise the tax burden for many companies. The proposed law, which is expected to pass, would unify the tax rate for foreign-financed companies with those of Chinese enterprises at 25 percent. Under the current system, Chinese companies pay 33 percent of profits in tax. By contrast, new foreign investors are exempt from taxes for two years, get a 50 percent cut for three more and after that can receive breaks that keep rates as low as 10 percent.
■ Aviation
787 assembly to start in Q2
Boeing Co will start assembling the first 787 Dreamliner in the second quarter and anticipates the passenger jet's initial test flight at the end of August, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday. James Bell told investors that Boeing continues to devote significant research and development spending to resolving weight and timing challenges with the 787, but said they were typical of a new airplane development program at this stage. The company has received 464 firm orders for the 787 and plans to deliver 112 in the two years after the initial delivery in May next year.
■ Securities
Nikko Cordial rejects Citi
Citigroup's bid for Nikko Cordial has hit a stumbling block after the biggest shareholder in the scandal-hit Japanese brokerage firm reportedly rebuffed the offer as being too low. "In our view, the long-term value of Nikko Cordial is in excess of ¥2,000 billion [US$17.2 billion]," Harris Associates fund manager David Herro told the Financial Times in an interview published yesterday. "Therefore, though we value Citi's interest, we could not accept their tender offer of roughly ¥1,350 billion," he added. Harris Associates owns about 7.5 percent of Nikko Cordial, which is the subject of a US$10.7 billion takeover attempt by Citigroup.
■ Semiconductors
Qimonda to expand JV
Qimonda, a memory chipmaker spun off from German semiconductor giant Infineon, yesterday said it will invest 250 million euros (US$327 million) in facilities in China. The investment over a three-year period will double production at Qimonda's current joint-venture memory chip plant in Suzhou City, a company statement said. "Growth in our front-end capacities, with more than two-thirds of our DRAM bits shipped now produced on 300 millimeter manufacturing lines, clearly requires an increase in our backend capacities," Qimonda's chief executive Kin Wah Loh (羅建華) said.
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