■ Transportation
China OKs new rail link
China has approved the construction of a new US$3.6 billion high-speed Shanghai-Hangzhou rail link using magnetic levitation technology, state media reported yesterday. National planning officials gave the go-ahead for the nearly 170km-long project, to be jointly funded by the central and local governments, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. But the long-expected approval of the rail link appears to be a major coup for Germany's Transrapid International Consortium in its promotion of the magnetic levitation, or "maglev," technology. The consortium, including Thyssenkrupp AG and Siemens AG, developed the world's only commercial high-speed maglev, a link between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the city's eastern suburbs. That US$1.2 billion rail line uses a powerful magnetic field to suspend trains above the tracks. Its top speed is 430kph.
■ Entertainment
Nintendo Q3 profit falls
Nintendo Co, the world's biggest maker of hand-held game machines, reported fiscal third-quarter profit fell 43 percent. Sales gained on demand for the DS, the company's new dual screen hand-held game player. Net income was ?21.3 billion (US$205.8 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with ?37.4 billion a year earlier, according to a Tokyo Stock Exchange statement. Sales rose to ?231.4 billion from ?228.2 billion. The maker of video game characters such as Super Mario Brothers is fending off Sony Corp's challenge to its control of the almost US$4 billion market for hand-held games. Sony's PlayStation Portable game player started sales in Japan on Dec. 12 and will reach stores in the US and Europe by March.
■ Entertainment
Google expands to TV
Internet giants Google and Yahoo moved into a new battleground in the search business on Tuesday -- video and television content. Google unveiled a service that allows users to search for the content of TV shows, allowing searches of shows on the Public Broadcasting System in the US, Fox News, C-Span and the National Basketball Association. "What Google did for the Web, Google Video aims to do for television," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products. "This preview release demonstrates how searching television can work today." Google said the service can increase viewership by providing Google users with information on future airings of relevant programs. But it does not provide a direct link to video. Instead, based on the search request, it offers a list of relevant TV programs with still images and text excerpts. Yahoo has also launched a test service that lets its users search for content on Bloomberg TV, BSkyB and BBC.
■ Aviation
Alitalia link-up urged
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday that he wanted to see Alitalia tying up with Air France-KLM once the Italian airline resolves its current financial troubles. "Alitalia has its problems to resolve and we will resolve them and we will go in the direction of one big airline company that puts together our two companies," he said at a news conference after a Franco-Italian summit. Air France-KLM, which holds a 2 percent stake in Alitalia, indicated in the middle of last year that it would be willing to acquire the Italian carrier if a restructuring plan rescues it from financial distress.
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