■ Economics
Bank inks research deal
The World Bank and the organizers of a regional Chinese forum agreed yesterday on a three-year research program to pro-mote economic cooperation and integration in Asia, the bank said in a statement. The World Bank and the Boao Forum for Asia want to foster "a more intense network of expertise" providing "robust intellec-tual underpinnings" for decisions on economic integration, regional poli-cies and institutions, it said. "Economic integration has become a necessity for all regions to cope with the challenges of the world economy today and we would like to ensure its success in Asia," said Long Yongtu (龍永圖), the forum's secretary general. China wants the forum to become an Asian version of the World Economic Forum, bringing together decision makers and opinion leaders from government, business and academia. However, the first meeting, in April last year, was widely criticized for poor preparation and logistical chaos.
■ Telecoms
Singapore market growing
Singapore's saturated mobile-phone market keeps expanding with the penetration rate up to 80.6 percent of the population, official figures showed yesterday. Total mobile subscribers for the three operators stood at 3.36 million in July compared to 3.34 million in June and 3.27 million in January, accord-ing to the Infocomm Devel-opment Authority (IDA), the industry regulator. The increase was attributed to attractive offers from Singa-pore Telecom, MobileOne and StarHub. The penetra-tion rate at the start of this year was only 78.6 percent, the IDA said. Paging sub-scriber numbers continued the downward trend as more people turned to cellular phones, dropping from 222,100 in June to 210,600 in July. There was a sharp fall in the Internet dial-up subscriber base to 1.76 million in July from more than 2 million at the start of the year.
■ Tourism
Seoul mulls charters
South Korea will likely allow charter planes to fly to North Korea, possibly as early as this month, in what would be the first commer-cial flights between the rival countries, an official said yesterday. The decision stems from a travel agency's application to take 2,000 South Koreans to Pyong-yang between Sept. 15 and Dec. 25. The application was approved by the Unifi-cation Ministry, whose permission is needed by all South Koreans to go to North Korea. "As it [the tour] has already been approved by the Unification Ministry, we plan to give approval for the flights," an official of the Construction and Transport Ministry said on condition of anonymity. He said Korean Air and Asiana Airlines and the north's Air Koryo will likely receive permission to start chartered flights between Seoul and Pyongyang. A total of 40 flights are envisaged, the official said.
■ Tires
Fire hits Bridgestone plant
A huge fire at a tire plant owned by Bridgestone Corp in north-eastern Japan was burning fiercely eight hours after it broke out yesterday, forcing 5,000 people to flee their homes. There were no injuries, but more than 80 fire engines were trying to bring the blaze under control. A company spokes-woman said it was unclear when production could resume at the plant, the company's main tire-making facility in Japan. The fire broke out in the plant's rubber mixing area.
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