■ELECTRONICS
Pioneer to make Blu-ray
Pioneer Corp will start selling Blu-ray disc recorders in Japan before March next year, the company said yesterday, the latest in a string of Japanese electronics makers entering the increasingly competitive sector. Pioneer spokeswoman Kayoko Tanaka said the company had decided to enter the domestic Blu-ray market in anticipation of burgeoning demand for products in the next-generation video format. No decision has been made on overseas sales plans, she said. Pioneer will develop Blu-ray DVD recorders with partner Sharp and sell them under the Pioneer brand, targeting high-end consumers, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday.
■TELECOMS
Few recycle phones: survey
Only 3 percent of mobile phone users recycle their old handsets and 74 percent have never even considered doing so, a study published yesterday by the world’s leading cellphone maker Nokia showed. “It is clear from this survey that when mobile devices finally reach the end of their lives ... very few of them are recycled,” Markus Terho, Nokia’s director of environmental affairs, said in a statement. “Many people are simply unaware that these old and unused mobiles lying around in drawers can be recycled or how to do this,” he said. Nokia said people on average owned around five phones each. The survey was based on interviews with 6,500 people in 13 countries, including China, Finland, India and the US.
■EUROZONE
Slovakia to adopt euro
The EU has formally invited Slovakia to join the eurozone on Jan. 1 next year. The EU finance ministers have agreed on an exchange rate of 30.1260 Slovak korunas for one euro, diplomats said. EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said yesterday’s approval was proof of the “great success” of Europe’s monetary union. Slovakia will become the 16th country to adopt the euro. It is the second of eight Eastern European nations that joined the EU in 2004 to embrace the single currency.
■Vietnam
Economy stabilizing: report
The slowdown in imports is an indication that the government’s efforts to stabilize the economy may be working, easing concerns the country is facing a currency crisis, a report by Moody’s Corp said. Vietnam imported US$6.8 billion in goods last month, preliminary government figures showed, from US$7.9 billion in May. Imports may have slowed given a package of official measures, including interest-rate increases, a report dated Monday from Moody’s Economy.com showed. “The slowdown in import growth, albeit mild, is a welcome sign to the Vietnamese authorities,” wrote Sherman Chan (陳穎嘉), a Sydney-based economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
■WAGES
State pay affecting growth
Many developing countries are paying higher salaries to their state employees than they can afford and stunting economic growth in the process, a study by the Asian Development Bank shows. “The higher the relative government pay rates, the lesser the economic growth attained,” the study of 19 Asian, African and Latin American countries said. “The high relative government pay rates cost the country in terms of economic growth, while the higher employment share does not seem to have any economic growth impact,” the report 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
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