■ECONOMICS
‘Free fall’ is over: Stiglitz
Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz said on Thursday the “sense of free fall” is over in the world economic crisis, while urging further efforts by rich countries to speed recovery. “There’s no longer the sense of free fall,” Stiglitz told reporters in Rome. “The rate of decline has slowed, but that should not be confused with recovery,” Stiglitz said after a two-day meeting of the so-called “Shadow GN” economists. “While it may be the case that the worst consequences of the freezing of credit are easing, it would be wrong to say that the global crisis is over,” Stiglitz said, urging “continued efforts by governments to stimulate economies and revive the financial system.” The group of experts “with no commitments other than that of being citizens of the world” met to compile recommendations for the G8 rich countries that will hold their annual summit in Italy in July. The initiative is led by Stiglitz and French economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi.
■GERMANY
Exports drop 15.8%
German exports plunged by 15.8 percent year-on-year in March as demand for goods from a leading global exporter slid further owing to the economic downturn, official figures showed yesterday. Imports by the biggest European economy fell by 11.6 percent, data showed. Germany’s foreign trade balance continued to show a surplus of 11.3 billion euros (US$15.1 billion), but that was down from 16.8 billion in March last year, the Destatis service said. The figure was nonetheless better than an average analyst forecast of 8.7 billion euros compiled by Dow Jones Newswires. For the first three months of this year, Germany showed a trade surplus of 26.9 billion euros, nearly half the previous year’s figure of 51.2 billion euros.
■TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft warns of copies
Microsoft said on Thursday that cybercriminals are already hawking booby-trapped versions of the just-released Windows 7 operating system software. “In the last few days we’ve seen reports of illegitimate distributions of the release candidate of our latest Windows operating system, Windows 7, being offered in a way that is designed to infect a customer’s PC with malware,” Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, said in an interview posted on the company’s official Website. The US software colossus has touted anti-piracy protections it built into Windows 7 to thwart the spread of illegal copies of the operating system. Microsoft decried software piracy as a pervasive problem that costs the world economy more than US$45 billion annually and exposes users to risks of identity theft, system crashes and data loss.
■INSURANCE
AIG nears Tokyo deal
Ailing US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is close to reaching a deal to sell its Japanese headquarters to Nippon Life for about US$1 billion, an industry source said yesterday. “The talks are in the final stages,” said the source, who asked not to be named. Nippon Life Insurance Co, Japan’s biggest life insurer and known as Nissay, aims to purchase the building in the heart of Tokyo as an investment but is not the only potential buyer, the source said. The US government has pumped US$180 billion into AIG to keep it afloat, the largest single recipient of federal bailout money, giving the US Treasury effective control of what had once been one of the world’s biggest insurers.
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