■ Media
US media mogul dies
Charles Scripps, longtime chairman of US media company E.W. Scripps Co, has died, the company said. Scripps, 87, died on Saturday of natural causes. He was board chairman from 1953 until 1994, presiding over the company's growth as a newspaper publisher and its entry into broadcast television, cable TV systems and networks and the Internet. The company's cable networks include HGTV and Food Network. His grandfather, Edward Scripps, started the company in 1878.
■ Economy
India to fight inflation
India is committed to taking "appropriate policy measures" to cut its inflation rate from a near a two-year-high, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. It is "necessary to ease domestic constraints on growth," he added at a meeting of the country's Economic Advisory Council on Saturday, according to a government statement. India's key wholesale inflation rate rose to 6.12 percent in the first week of last month, as economic expansion, the fastest growth in bank loans in three decades and record salary increases helped push up prices. The central bank raised interest rates to a four-year high on last Wednesday in a bid to slow inflation.
■ Energy
Solar-powered boat feat
A Swiss-made catamaran has become the first solar-powered boat to cross the Atlantic after reaching the French Caribbean island of Martinique, the boat's owners said on Saturday. Sun21 reached Martinique's Le Marin harbor at 3pm on Friday, 63 days after leaving the Spanish port of Chipiona, the Transatlantic21 partnership said on its Web site. The 14m-long boat largely followed the historic route sailed by explorer Christopher Columbus on the first known maritime crossing of the Atlantic in the 15th century, making its last stopover in the Canary Islands.
■ Shipping
PSA wins Vietnam port deal
Singapore's PSA International has won a deal to build a container port in Vietnam's southern province of Vung Tau, the port operator said. PSA International gave no figures for the size of the investment, but the Sunday Times quoted unidentified sources as saying it would cost nearly US$300 million over two phases. It is PSA's first project in Vietnam and gives the Singapore port operator, wholly owned by state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings, a foothold in the fast growing Southeast Asian economy which expanded over eight percent last year.
■ Companies
Qantas bidders seek review
The Macquarie Bank Ltd-led buyout group bidding for Qantas Airways Ltd, Australia's largest airline, will seek foreign investment approval from the government to appease concerns it may break up the airline or curb regional services. Macquarie, Texas Pacific Group and Allco Equity Partners Ltd will lodge a voluntary application with the Canberra-based Foreign Investment Review Board today, the group said in an e-mailed statement. The group is offering A$11.1 billion (US$8.6 billion) for the airline. The application will "most effectively give accountable undertakings to the government regarding our plans," Bob Mansfield, a director and spokesman for the bidding group, known as Airline Partners, said yesterday in the e-mailed 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
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