■COMPUTERS
Ballmer meets Bostock
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer met Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock in New York this week, according to a report in the New York Times. The newspaper cited an unnamed source who had been briefed on the meeting, but no details of the conversation have been released. Yahoo’s appointment of Carol Bartz as chief executive has heightened speculation that the companies may be able to agree on a takeover, with Microsoft possibly acquiring Yahoo’s search engine business. The news follows reports of an informal conversation between Bartz and Ballmer after she was selected by Yahoo’s board.
■ECONOMY
Japan offers financing
Japan Bank for International Corp will lend about ¥1 trillion (US$11 billion) to Japanese manufacturers including automakers operating in the US and Europe, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The government will set up the emergency financing facility this month to help Japanese companies facing funding difficulties abroad because of the global credit crisis, the newspaper said without citing anyone. Automakers, namely Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co, have requested such loans, the report said, quoting an unidentified government official. Makers of chemicals, electronics and steel can also tap this financing facility, the Yomiuri said.
■CHINA
Toy exports fall
Toy exports have taken a beating from the global financial crisis, with demand shrinking in the key US and European markets, state media reported yesterday. In the period from January to November last year, China’s shipments of toys abroad totaled US$8 billion, an increase of just 2.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, the People’s Daily said on its Web site. This compares with the first 11 months of 2007, when toy exports had increased by a blistering 20.3 percent, the paper said, citing customs authorities. In November alone, toy exports declined 8.6 percent from the same month a year earlier, the paper said.
■COMPUTING
Satyam in talks with banks
The new board of embattled Satyam Computer Services said on Saturday it was in talks with banks and financial institutions over funding, and was doing all it could to ensure staff were paid on time. The government-appointed board met on Saturday, saying it was still looking for a new chief executive and chief financial officer for the outsourcing firm at the center of India’s biggest corporate scandal. But it said it had received expressions of support from customers. Satyam, India’s No. 4 software services exporter, has been battling for survival since Ramalinga Raju resigned as chairman earlier this month, revealing profits had been falsified for years and that US$1 billion of cash on the books did not exist.
■COMPUTERS
Logitech plans game board
Logitech plans to produce a computing keyboard especially for gamers. The G19 keyboard was designed with input from the gaming community, meaning it is designed to meet the needs of passionate computer and online gamers, the company said. The new keyboard is due out in March. The features include 12 programmable buttons, two high-speed USB ports and a color LCD display. The display shows information relevant to the game being played or a variety of other data not necessarily related to a game, including the time, Internet phone calls, or videos.
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