■ REAL ESTATE
Hong Kong REIT debuts
The Hong Kong government's US$2.5 billion Link real estate investment trust -- the territory's first and the world's largest REIT -- made a strong debut on the stock exchange yesterday, with its shares gaining as much as 11 percent. Link REIT's shares rose as high as HK$11.45 (US$1.50), up from their initial public offering price of HK$10.30, before settling back to HK$11.25. The property trust, whose portfolio comprises shopping malls and car parks, was scheduled for launch late last year. But it was derailed due to a court challenge by a public housing pensioner, who sought to question the trust's legality. About 40 people protested outside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday, saying the listing would lead to higher rents at the shopping malls. They feared shopowners would pass on their higher costs to residents of public housing. Some 142 million shares change hands in the opening minutes in the session's most actively-traded share so far.
■ AVIATION
Asia-Pacific growth slows
Air traffic growth for Asia-Pacific airlines slowed last month, when they carried 10.9 million international passengers, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, a regional industry group said yesterday. In September, passenger numbers had risen 5.8 percent and were up 6 percent for the first 10 months of the year, the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said in a statement. Asia-Pacific airlines filled 72.7 percent of available seats last month, down two percentage points from last year. "In October we saw slower growth in travel demand," said AAPA director-general Andrew Herdman. "The burden of high oil prices is clearly having an impact, both directly in terms of higher fuel bills, and indirectly in the form of slower global economic growth."
■ MEDIA
Murdoch bleak on US news
The US newspaper industry is under threat as classified advertising move onto the Internet and circulations continue to fall, the Financial Times said, citing News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch. "I don't know anybody under 30 who has ever looked at a classified advertisement in a newspaper," the FT cited Murdoch as saying in an interview with the UK Press Gazette trade magazine. Murdoch, who once described classified advertising as "rivers of gold," said sometimes "rivers dry up," the FT said. He attributed "overwritten, boring and elitist" newspaper editorial strategies for the financial problems of the industry in the US, the FT said. Moves in the UK to boost newspaper circulation by giving away free DVDs must stop, the FT cited Murdoch as saying.
■ AVIATION
Swire head stepping down
David Turnbull, chairman of the Swire Pacific Ltd conglomerate and its airline unit Cathay Pacific Ltd, is stepping down in January after just 11 months on the job, the company said. The outgoing executive will be succeeded by Christopher Pratt, currently chairman of Swire Pacific Offshore, Swire said in a statement Thursday. Pratt, who joined Swire 27 years ago, is also responsible for Swire Pacific's trading and industrial division. Turnbull, who has been with the group for nearly 30 years, is leaving "after careful consideration" to "resume a more active operational role," the statement said without elaborating on details of that role.
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