■ World economy
UN predicts 3 percent growth
The UN is projecting global economic growth of just over 3 percent for this year and is calling for global economic cooperation to battle risks and fight "investment anemia." The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2006 report, which was released on Tuesday, said that the slowdown reflects "a maturing of the recent global economic recovery," and added that terrorist attacks and natural disasters are taking a toll. Another threat, according to the report, was in figuring out how to boost investment. Last month the International Monetary Fund forecast global economic growth of 4.3 percent for this year. Many economists believe that growth will slow slightly this year, mostly because of steep oil costs.
■ Shipping
FedEx buys out PRC partner
With a US$400 million agreement to buy out its partner in a Chinese joint venture, FedEx Corp is poised to take over a package shipping network in China and boost its presence throughout the Asian region. FedEx announced plans on Tuesday to take full control of a 50-percent joint venture begun with the Tianjin Datian W. Group in 1999. The venture, called FedEx-DTW International Priority, runs an express package shipping network that includes 89 pickup and delivery locations in cities across China. Memphis-based FedEx said that it hopes to complete the acquisition during its 2007 fiscal year, which begins on June 1. After the acquisition, FedEx will have more than 6,000 employees in China working for "an express domestic service branded FedEx, owned by FedEx and operated by FedEx," company spokesman Jess Bunn said.
■ Airlines
Asia-Pacific air traffic soars
Air traffic for Asia-Pacific carriers last month rose by nearly 1 percent year-on-year to 10.96 million passengers, bringing overall traffic for last year to 128 million, an industry group said yesterday. For air cargo, measured in terms freight-tonne-kilometers, traffic rose an annual 6.4 percent last month to 4.6 million tonnes, the Kuala Lumpur-based Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said. "The outlook for Asia-Pacific's aviation industry in 2006 remains fairly positive, although the burden of high oil prices on the global economy remains a concern," AAPA's director-general Andrew Herdman said.
■ Internet
Web site to monitor spyware
A corporate-backed Web site being launched by researchers from Harvard and Oxford universities seeks to become a clearinghouse for Internet users on spyware and other malicious software. The site, which Google Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) are underwriting, will ultimately identify purveyors of such programs by name and provide information to help consumers decide whether a program is safe to download. "It's important for users to understand what risks they face and try to help them identify which software is likely to be problematic,'' said Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and one of the Internet's chief inventors. The nonprofit Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid adviser.
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