■ COMPUTERS
IBM chief eyes India, China
IBM Corp chairman and chief executive officer Samuel Palmisano is on an unpublicized visit to India, where he is meeting clients, government officials and employees, a news report said yesterday. The visit is the result of IBM's focus on India as a strategic growth market and an important talent base, the Hindu Business Line newspaper reported from the southern technology hub of Bangalore. On Wednesday, Palmisano met IBM's customers and shared with them his thoughts on future plans for key markets, India and China ranking high among them, the paper reported, quoting an unnamed IBM official.
■ INTERNET
Google starts library project
Google Inc's Internet-leading search engine yesterday was to begin serving up the entire contents of books and government documents that aren't entangled in a copy-right battle over how much material can be scanned and indexed from five major libraries. The list of Google's so-called "public domain" works -- volumes no longer protected by copyright -- include Henry James novels, Civil War histories, Congressional acts and biographies of wealthy New Yorkers. Google said the material, available at www.print.google.com, represents the first large batch of public domain books and documents to be indexed in its search engine since the company announced an ambitious library-scanning project late last year.
■ AVIATION
Cathay employees complain
Cathay Pacific flight attendants are accusing the airline of infringing on their privacy with new sick-leave rules requiring them to disclose their medical records to the company. But Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Hong Kong's flagship airline, denied the allegation, saying the company has just stepped up monitoring of employees' sick-leave records out of concern for their health and to ensure smooth operations. Under the revised rules, the airline will identify flight attendants who take long or frequent sick leaves. Those employees may be asked to see desig-nated company doctors for their health problems and provide medical records to the company.
■ INTERNET
Yahoo redesigns its maps
Yahoo Inc has redesigned its online maps to make it easier to get driving directions to multiple destinations and find local merchants -- the latest move in the company's duel with Internet powerhouse, Google Inc. The company planned to unveil its latest mapping improve-ments on Wednesday, less than a month after Google upgraded its maps service. Yahoo's service will be available on a test basis at maps.yahoo.com/beta. Yahoo is matching some of Google's features, such as the ability to scroll across a map without reloading a Web page, as well as introducing tools that haven't been available previously on the Internet.
■ BANKING
China must move: Moody's
Chinese state bank reforms have made progress over the past two years but they need to extend beyond just initial public offerings (IPOs), international ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said yesterday. "The state banks need to be transformed into competitive commercial entities which requires much more than just fixing the balance sheets through recapitalization and IPOs," Moody's said in a statement.
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
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
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