■ELECTRONICS
Slim ‘watch phone’ unveiled
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics yesterday unveiled what it claims is the world’s slimmest “watch phone.” The handset is 11.98mm thick, compared with the 13.9mm of a model by rival LG Electronics, Samsung said in a statement. The firm plans to sell the new phone, priced at around US$639, first in France this month and then other European markets. LG Electronics said its version will go on sale no later than next month.
■FRANCE
Workers ransack office
Workers at a Michelin tire plant in eastern France briefly locked up four managers and ransacked offices in a labor dispute amid tensions over layoffs, a company official said yesterday. About 50 workers at Michelin’s plant in Montceau-les-Mines locked up four managers, including the director, on Tuesday night. Unions say the dispute stemmed from a worker being punished for refusing to use machinery he wasn’t trained on. The managers were released early yesterday and negotiations began at the plant yesterday morning.
■ELECTRONICS
TomTom profits drop
TomTom NV, the Dutch maker of navigation devices for cars, reported yesterday a 61 percent fall in net profit for the second quarter, better than analysts had feared. Net profit was 20 million euros (US$28.4 million), down from 52 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Sales fell 19 percent to 368 million euros. Both figures were significantly better than in the first quarter of this year, when the Amsterdam-based company posted a 39 million euro loss on sales of 213 million euros. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast profit of 13 million euros.
■BEVERAGES
Starbucks beats forecast
Shuttering stores, laying off workers and cutting other costs helped Starbucks Corp beat Wall Street’s profit expectations for its fiscal third quarter on Tuesday, but the recession continued to drain sales away from the gourmet coffee chain. The Seattle-based coffee chain earned US$151.5 million, or US$0.20 per share, compared with a loss of US$6.7 million, or US$0.01 per share a year earlier. Revenue fell 7 percent to US$2.40 billion. CEO Howard Schultz said on a conference call with investors that the quarter’s results showed “positive momentum,” but “a lot of hard work lies ahead.”
■ELECTRONICS
AT&T to use Plastic Logic
Following in the footsteps of Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle, another e-book reader is set to get a wireless connection from a cellular carrier, letting it access books anywhere there’s a signal. AT&T Inc planned to announce yesterday that it will support an e-book reading device early next year from Plastic Logic Ltd, a Mountain View, California-based startup based on British display technology. It marks the second significant announcement of the week for Plastic Logic, which said on Monday that Barnes & Noble Inc will supply digital versions of books for its device.
■COMPUTERS
AMD narrows losses
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc narrowed its loss in the second quarter, though not by as much as Wall Street had hoped. Its sales slumped 13 percent. AMD’s shares plunged 12 percent in extended trading on Tuesday on signs the chip company isn’t being buoyed like rival Intel Corp by the beginnings of a turnaround in the personal computer market. AMD lost US$330 million, in the latest period.
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