■ Tourism
N Korea gives one way tours
PHOTO: AFP
North and South Korea opened inter-Korean commercial air services on Monday with the first commercial flight lifting off in more than 50 years. The North Korean Koryo Airline plane flew into South Korea's Incheon International Airport over the Yellow Sea and returned to Pyongyang carrying 114 South Korean tourists, airport officials said. The maiden flight launched a commercial charter service for South Korean tourists wishing to visit the North. There are no plans to bring North Koreans to the South, organizers said. The tourists are scheduled to return home on South Korea's Asiana Airline flight on Friday on the same inter-Korean air route after touring the North Korean capital. The five-day Pyongyang tours costing US$1,900 per person will run until Dec. 25.
■ Labor
UAW confirms settlement
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union said early yesterday it reached a tentative, four-year contract agreement with automaker DaimlerChrysler AG and will continue to negotiate with General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co. Details of the tentative agreement weren't immediately released. The UAW had hoped to reach simultaneous pacts with the Big Three automakers, but General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. haven't reached an agreement. Current worker contracts expired at midnight Sunday. The union typically chooses one carmaker as the lead negotiator and uses that pact as a model for the other two. They negotiated on issues such as wages, jobs, health care and pensions that affect 300,000 workers and nearly a half-million retirees and their spouses.
■ Music industry
Lawsuits discourage piracy
More than half of music consumers say they are less likely to download songs because of the recording industry's move to sue people who get music off the Internet without paying for it, according to the results of a Newsweek poll. If CD prices were reduced by one-third, 48 percent of online music consumers say they would more likely buy CDs instead of downloading, Newsweek said. About 42 percent of online users say the industry crackdown won't make them less likely to download. About 25 percent of music consumers who go online said the most they would be willing to pay per song is about US$1, according to the poll. About 15 percent would pay at most about US$0.50 per song. The poll surveyed 1,004 adults aged 18 and older on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.
■ Macroeconomics
Thailand raises forecast
Thailand's government raised its forecast for economic growth this year to as much as 6.2 percent after exports and consumer spen-ding helped the economy expand more than expected in the second quarter. South-east Asia's second-biggest economy will probably grow at its fastest pace in eight years, the government said. The economy grew 5.3 per-cent last year and the govern-ment earlier forecast it to expand 5.5 percent this year. A housing boom, driven by interest rates at a record low, plus higher exports helped the economy expand almost double the pace forecast in the second quarter.
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