■ World wide web
More Internet cafes shut
China has shut down 8,600 Internet cafes in the last two months as part of an ongoing crackdown on the media, state press said yesterday. "Since our video conference on this issue on February 19, we have banned 8,600 underground Internet bars," the People's Daily quoted Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng as saying. "At present, there still exists many problems with the management at Internet cafes and Internet service providers." Sun suggested the campaign was far from over and urged governments at the grassroots level to crack down on Internet bars providing services to under-age users and to impose stiffer fines on cafes violating regulations. Overseeing the crackdown was a special bureau headed by Sun, which has linked up with 10 other ministries responsible for areas including education, law, finance, civil affairs, youth and telecommunications, the paper said.
■ Labor
Japanese less ethical
Newly hired Japanese workers are less ethical but more loyal to companies as the nation's job market is still severe, a survey showed yesterday. Forty-three percent of employees taken on in this month's annual recruitment round said they would obey orders even if it went against their conscience, the Japan Productivity Centre for Socio-Economic Development said in the survey. The ratio was sharply up from 32 percent a year ago and the highest-ever since the non-profit organization started the survey in 1999. Those who said they would avoid following such orders as far as possible fell to 41 percent from 46 percent. The poll covered 741 newly hired employees, of whom 77.4 percent are university graduates or those with higher education.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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