■ INTERNET
Canada shy of `Street View'
The "Street View" feature of Google Maps, with its close-up views of city streets and recognizable shots of people, could violate a Canadian law protecting individual privacy, officials said on Wednesday. Google Inc introduced street-level map views in May, giving Web users a series of panoramic, 360-degree images of nine US cities. Some of the random pictures feature people in informal poses who can clearly be identified. Canada's Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart wrote to Google early last month asking for more details. She said if the Street View product were expanded to Canada without being amended, it could well violate privacy laws.
■ REAL ESTATE
China to clamp down further
China's central bank is likely to clamp down further on property speculation in a bid to curb soaring real estate prices, state media said yesterday. New regulations, which could be released as early as this week, will specifically target people who buy a second apartment, the China Daily reported, citing an unnamed official at the bank. The rules are expected to require second-time home buyers to make a down payment of 40 percent, as opposed to as little as 20 percent for first-time home buyers, the paper said.
■ AVIATION
Bombardier grounds Q-400s
Plane maker Bombardier ordered the grounding of at least 40 percent of its Q-400 turboprop planes after a Scandinavian Airlines aircraft skidded off a runway with 52 people aboard, the second such incident in three days. No one was injured on Wednesday when the landing gear failed, forcing the emergency touchdown in Lithuania. However, the accident followed the crash landing late last week of a Scandinavian Airlines flight that suffered a similar failure in Denmark, injuring five people. The grounding Wednesday forced the cancelation of at least 200 flights worldwide.
■ LABOR
HK bar benders end strike
One of Hong Kong's longest-running industrial strikes has ended after 36 days, with hundreds of specialist construction workers accepting a 14-percent pay rise and slightly reduced working hours. The strike had grounded work at dozens of construction sites for more than a month and laid bare the plight of workers in the city -- where the wealth gap has widened noticeably since 1997. After the latest in a string of marathon meetings on Wednesday night, around 200 bar-bending metal workers voted to accept a daily wage of HK$860 (US$110). Working hours were cut from nine to eight hours.
■ AVIATION
Airbus trims management
Thomas Enders, newly installed chief executive at Airbus, on Wednesday streamlined his management committee at the struggling European aircraft maker. Enders, a German named to head Airbus in July under a management overhaul, reduced the committee from 12 to nine members while trying to maintain a balance between French and German interests in the company. The new team comprises four Germans, three French nationals, an American and a Briton. Committee member Thierry Baril of France was handed the delicate task of heading the human resources department at a time when Airbus is implementing a sweeping restructuring that should see the elimination of 10,000 jobs.
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