■SOFTWARE
Google backs EC case
Google threw its backing on Tuesday behind the European Commission’s (EC) antitrust complaint against Microsoft, in the latest salvo in the rivalry between the Internet search king and the software giant. Sundar Pichai, Google vice president for product management, said in a post on the company blog that Google was joining the EC’s complaint against Microsoft for tying its Internet Explorer Web browser to its Windows operating system.
■HONG KONG
Economy will dip up to 3%
The territory’s economy will shrink by 2 percent to 3 percent this year, the first annual contraction since it was battered a decade ago by the Asian financial crisis, Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) said yesterday. Tsang offered a gloomy economic outlook in his annual budget speech, saying consumer spending, exports and the property sector had also been badly hit by the global financial crisis.
■LABOR
Microsoft to help jobless
Microsoft is tossing lifelines to people in the US lacking technology skills needed to win jobs in the Internet Age. Microsoft teamed with political leaders in several states to launch an Elevate America initiative expected to provide online and real world technology training to as many as 2 million people during the next three years.
■AUTOMOBILES
Japanese exports plunge
Japan’s major automakers yesterday reported declines in exports and global production in January as the global economic downturn reduced demand for cars. Toyota Motor Corp suffered a 57.1 percent plunge in exports in January from the same month a year ago to 96,864 units and a 39.1 percent fall in global output to 487,984 units, the company said. The world’s leading carmaker, which includes Daihatsu Motor Co and Hino Motors Ltd, saw its domestic production fall 34.6 percent in January to 277,472 units. Toyota’s domestic vehicle sales were also down 17.1 percent.
■MINING
De Beers halts mines
Diamond giant De Beers says it is halting mining in Botswana for the next seven weeks as the global recession takes its toll on gem demand. Debswana, a joint venture of De Beers and the Botswana government, said the suspension began yesterday. But Debswana also says one of its four mines and a processing operation will remain closed through the end of the year. Joe Tlhagale, spokesman for the Botswana Mineworkers Union, said on Tuesday that he was trying to determine the impact on Debswana’s 6,000 employees.
■TELECOMS
Fixed, mobile units merge
Europe’s biggest telecommunications operator, Deutsche Telekom, plans to merge its shrinking fixed-line unit with its mobile operations, following the example of Swisscom, the Financial Times Deutschland said yesterday. Deutsche Telekom was expected to reorganize its operations according to geographic zones but not cut jobs, the newspaper said, citing sources close to the company. The telecoms operator has lost fixed-line customers on a regular basis for several years, and its fixed and mobile operations account for around half of annual sales of 60 billion euros (US$77 billion), the report said. The business daily Handelsblatt, however, said Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile units abroad would remain independent. Deutsche Telekom declined to comment on the reports.
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