■ Aviation
Qantas maintenance to stay
Qantas Airways Ltd said yesterday it would keep its maintenance operations in Australia for now, but announced plans to close its engineering plant in Sydney and cut 480 jobs by May as part of a major cost-cutting drive. Chief executive Geoff Dixon said the restructuring would save A$100 million (US$74 million) a year, but warned that shifting thousands of maintenance jobs overseas was still a long-term option. Transport Minister Warren Truss welcomed the decision not to outsource maintenance jobs, and said he had made it clear to Qantas it was "strongly in the national interest" to keep them in Australia.
■ Piracy
China announces IPR plan
China's government has created a plan to intensify intellectual property rights protection this year, the government said yesterday. The plan covers trademarks, patents and import and export activities, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Commerce Ministry. China is widely regarded as the world's top producer of illegal copies of music, movies, software, designer clothes, medicines and other products. Such fake products are still widely available despite repeated government crackdowns. Under the latest plan, China will draft or revise 17 laws and regulations concerning trademarks, copyrights, patents and customs this year, Xinhua said. It said officials will take measures to raise public awareness about protecting intellectual property rights, and will conduct international exchanges and cooperation as part of the effort, Xinhua said. It did not give further details of the plan.
■ Energy
China rejects joint project
China has rejected a Japanese proposal for joint development of disputed natural gas deposits in the East China Sea, Kyodo News agency reported, citing the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The two countries have been feuding over the deposits. China claims it has rights to the natural gas, but Tokyo says the two countries should share them. Kyodo quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) as saying that the development is taking place in undisputedly Chinese waters, and that Beijing would reject Japan's joint development proposal. Qin also said China rejects as a one-sided a Japan-proposed "median line" to separate their economic waters in the East China Sea, Kyodo said.
■ Investment
NYSE shares jump
The New York Stock Exchange got off to a flying start on Wednesday as its shares became publicly traded for the first time in its 214-year history. NYSE Group shares soared 24.5 percent to US$80 on heavy volume of 6.3 million shares after the exchange completed its merger with Archipelago, an electronic market platform. NYSE chief executive John Thain bought 100 shares at US$67 each on Wednesday in the first trade for the NYSE Group, which ended more than two centuries as a member-owned institution in a major revamp. The market on Tuesday completed its US$9.5 billion merger with Archipelago Exchange, a cutting-edge electronic platform. Renamed the NYSE Group and sporting the share ticker "NYX," the new company had a market capitalization of roughly US$10 billion, more than three times the size of the NASDAQ, an alternative market dominated by technology listings.
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