■ ECONOMY
Euro zone recovering
The euro zone services economy jumped back almost to recovery last month, with Germany powering back to growth and France just an inch away too, a PMI survey showed yesterday. The data should reassure the European Central Bank as it meets that the worst of a severe recession is over even though a return to economic growth may be slow while unemployment remains high. It is widely expected to leave rates on hold at a record low of 1.0 percent later in the day. Markit’s Eurozone Flash Services Purchasing Managers’ Index of about 2,000 companies rose to 49.9 last month from 45.7 in July and was even higher than the 49.5 recorded for the flash.
■ JAPAN
Strong yen good for nation
The country must not step into the foreign exchange markets to curb the yen’s rise unless currency rates move abnormally, a senior lawmaker in the new ruling party said, adding that a strong yen was basically good for the domestic economy. “We should be neutral on currency policy at least. There’s no need to take policy to help the yen rise but it’s wrong to try to boost exports by driving the yen low,” said Hirohisa Fujii, a 77-year-old top adviser to the Democrats. “Basically, a strong yen is good for Japan,” Fujii said, adding that it would help reduce import costs and boost consumers’ purchasing power.
■ ELECTRONICS
Tie-up to develop chips
NEC Corp and Renesas Technology Corp are among Japanese companies planning to jointly develop processor chips that run electronics ranging from televisions to cameras, Nikkei English News reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The group, which includes Fujitsu Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Panasonic Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Canon Inc, intends to create a standard of power-saving processors by the end of March 2013, the Nikkei said yesterday. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide between ¥3 billion (US$32 million) and ¥4 billion to help fund the project, the report said.
■ INTERNET
Costolo named Twitter CEO
Twitter Inc, owner of the site that lets people post short messages, hired Dick Costolo, a former Google Inc executive, as chief operating officer. Costolo will start next week, Jenna Sampson, a spokeswoman for Twitter, said in an e-mail yesterday. Costolo was the cofounder and CEO of Feedburner Inc, a news feed service bought by Google in 2007. He is a long-time friend of Twitter cofounders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, Sampson said.
■ CELLPHONES
Nokia on the offensive
Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, said it was slow to react to the rise of new devices, such as the iPhone, and has launched a major offensive to win back market share from its rivals Apple and Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device. The company is hoping to capitalize on its unlimited music service with the launch of three new products yesterday: Two revamped devices that use the music service and a “lite” version of the touchscreen N97. They follow last week’s launch of the N900, the first smartphone ever made by Nokia, which uses the open-source Linux operating system, and its first ever laptop, the Nokia 3G netbook.
AGENCIES
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
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
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