■TELECOMS
Nortel stocks tumble
Nortel Networks Corp’s shares tumbled on Wednesday to a multi-decade low after it slashed its business outlook and said it plans another round of cutbacks in the face of a struggling economy. North America’s biggest maker of telephone equipment saw its shares fall by C$2.60 (US$2.45) to C$3.12 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after plunging as low as C$3.00, down from a 52-week high of C$18.96. Management at the Toronto-headquartered company now expects revenue this year to be between 2 percent and 4 percent lower than last year’s. “It is clear that the business environment in which we operate requires additional immediate and decisive actions,” chief executive Mike Zafirovski said.
■ELECTRONICS
Hynix closing factory lines
Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s second-largest computer memory chip maker, said yesterday it would close two of its old chip production lines this month to improve efficiency. Of five eight-inch wafer lines, Hynix closed one in the US last month. It has already decided to stop operations at another eight-inch line in China by the end of the year. The company said it would also close two eight-inch lines in South Korea by the end of this month. It said it would produce only 10 percent of its output from eight-inch lines by early next year, compared to 50 percent at the end of last year. As a result, Hynix said its output of DRAM computer chips would be cut by 20 percent and NAND flash memory output by 40 percent.
■CHINA
Beijing scraps stock tax
China has abolished stamp duty on share purchases in a bid to shore up its sagging domestic stock market, state press reported yesterday. The government’s decision to cancel the 0.1 percent tax takes effect today, Xinhua news agency said. The move is “to encourage market confidence,” it said. In another move to stabilize the stock market, the Chinese government’s investment arm, Central Huijin Investment Co (中央匯金), also began buying shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行), Bank of China (中國銀行) and China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行) yesterday, Xinhua said.
■TELECOMS
Android phone priced
The first mobile phone to use Google Inc’s Android mobile operating software will cost US$199, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Wednesday. The phone, which features a slide-out keypad, is being manufactured by Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電) and will be sold by Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA unit, which plans to unveil the device at an event in New York on Sept. 23. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said T-Mobile USA plans to release new data service plans in conjunction with the Google phone that will be “aggressively priced.”
■WEALTH
Gates still richest in US
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the richest person in the US for the 15th year in a row, but economic woes have claimed some members of Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Dropouts this year include former American International Group chief executive Maurice Greenberg, while among those on the list some 126 fortunes declined — six times more than last year. Investor Warren Buffett came in at No. 2 with US$50 billion, down from an estimated US$52 billion last year, followed in third place by Oracle Corp founder Lawrence Ellison, who is said to be worth US$27 billion.
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