■ Airlines
AirAsia offers US$11 tickets
When Malaysia's no-frills carrier AirAsia starts operating out of Senai Airport in Johor by early November, people in Singapore will be able to get to Kuala Lumpur for under S$20 (US$11) in less than two hours, the Straits Times reported yesterday. The price will include a S$10 bus ticket from Singapore to Senai which AirAsia plans to get bus companies to provide, and a plane ticket which will cost from RM$19 (US$5), the airline's chief executive, Tony Fernandes, said Wednesday. It currently costs S$115 to fly from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur on Singapore Airlines.
■ Mobile phones
China caps mobile imports
China may take steps to limit imports of mobile phones to China by local producers, a move that would benefit companies such as Motorola Inc, the No. 1 seller of cell phones in China, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing officials at the Ministry of Information Industry. Chinese mobile phone makers often buy and re-label phones from overseas, mainly from Korea and Taiwan, the Journal said. Domestic companies have captured almost half the local market in the past two years, the Journal reported. Wang Bingke, director of the ministry's economic-operation unit, told state-run Xinhua news agency last weekend that there should be fewer imports of handsets, the Journal reported, adding that it's not clear what this might entail. It's also not certain how this would tally with a broader move by China to open trade with foreign countries, according to the newspaper.
■ Internet
`Homeless hacker' gets cell
The so-called "homeless hacker" who gained notoriety for breaking into computers networks of the New York Times and others, surrendered to authorities to face criminal charges, officials said Wednesday. Adrian Lamo, 22, surrendered to authorities late Tuesday in Sacramento, California, said FBI spokeswoman Karen Ernst. He has been linked to computer intrusions at Yahoo, Microsoft and other companies, according to an FBI document. Lamo had no permanent address and according to Internet media he moved frequently among homes of friends and traveled on Greyhound buses. He is believed to have carried out many of his attacks using a laptop at stores offering Internet access, the FBI said. The charges filed in federal court in New York allege that Lamo broke into the New York Times network on several occasions in February last year.
■ Banking
US$70 million award lost
JP Morgan Chase & Co and five other banks lost a US$70 million verdict on appeal because the judge in the case was a shareholder and didn't know it. An appeals court reversed the award by US District Judge Milton Pollack, who's regarded as a top securities law expert. The case was brought in 1987 by Chemical Bank, which later took over Chase Manhattan, though they kept the better-known Chase name. After issuing a favorable ruling for Chemical in 1997, Pollack, who owned US$250,000 in Chase shares, said he didn't know the two had joined in one of the largest US bank mergers. In issuing a US$92 million judgment -- later reduced -- for Chemical and other banks, Pollack violated conflict of interest rules, the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said.
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