■ Electronics
Sharp profits take tumble
Profit at Sharp Corp fell 6.9 percent in the six months to Sept. 30 because of the costs of opening new TV plants and soaring prices of raw materials for solar cells, Japan's leading manufacturer of liquid crystal display TVs said yesterday. The Osaka-based company said group net profit fell to ¥43.3 billion (US$263 million) for the period from April to last month, down from ¥46.5 billion a year ago. First half sales totaled ¥1.641 trillion (US$14.4 billion), up 12 percent from the ¥1.466 trillion for the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
■ automobiles
Steering wheel unveiled
Japanese electronics giant Hitachi has developed a steering wheel that enables the driver to use his or her fingers as switches for the engine, car stereo and navigation system. The steering wheel is equipped with a tiny device that reads the driver's finger veins. "If I place my index finger on this reader, it recognizes it's me. If I put the finger again, it starts the engine," Masahide Hayashi of Hitachi's sensor design department explained at the Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, near the capital. "When the middle finger is on the device, it sends a command to play music I registered in accordance to my taste. The ring finger can start the navigation system," he said.
■ Telecoms
Ericsson earnings drop
Ericsson, the world's leading mobile networks maker, presented sharply lower third quarter earnings yesterday in line with last week's profit warning that shocked the market. Ericsson also announced that its chief financial officer, Karl-Henrik Sundstroem, was leaving the company with immediate effect, amid fierce criticism in the media that management was not on top of the situation. The Swedish group reported a net profit of 4 billion kronor (US$620 million) and an operating profit of 5.6 billion kronor, both down by 36 percent from a year ago. Ericsson, like its competitors such as Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks, are seeing growing competition from Asia, such as China's Huawei (華為), which is pressing margins.
■ Banking
Shinsei slashes forecasts
Japan's Shinsei Bank Ltd yesterday slashed its earnings forecasts for the year because of exposure to the troubled US subprime housing mortgage sector. It is the latest Japanese bank to report effects from the subprime crisis, which has rattled global markets and raised fears of a liquidity squeeze. Shinsei now expects to post net profit of ¥62 billion (US$542 million) in the year to March 31, down by ¥10 billion or nearly 14 percent from the previous projection, a statement said. Shinsei said it was taking the action due to revisions by an affiliate and "prudent provisioning related to our exposure in the US residential mortgage market."
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