■INTERNET
Microsoft, News Corp meet
Microsoft has held talks with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp over a possible plan for the software giant to pay the media company to remove its news Web sites from Google, a report said on Monday. The plan sets a scene for a battle between search engines for access to Web sites and puts pressure on search juggernaut Google to start paying for content, the Financial Times said. “This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margin,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying. However, the biggest beneficiary of the tussle could be the newspaper industry, which has yet to construct a reliable online business model to replace declining newspaper circulation and print advertising revenues. Murdoch has prompted a fierce debate among media watchers with his accusation that Google is “stealing” from his vast newspaper empire and his threat to block the search engine from accessing its content.
■AVIATION
BA chief won’t compromise
British Airways (BA) chief executive Willie Walsh warned his cabin crew yesterday that he would not compromise on cost-cutting measures ahead of possible strike action next month. Walsh told the Financial Times that voluntary redundancies and other measures aimed at saving £130 million (US$214 million) were vital to the future of the loss-making airline. He said the latest dispute was “very, very different” to one in January 2007 when a last-minute settlement with flight attendants averted a walkout. “In 2007 ... there was some merit in the arguments that were being made,” Walsh told the paper. Unions last week started balloting more than 12,000 BA staff on a strike that closes on Dec. 14, with possible action just before the Christmas holiday season.
■BANKING
BBVA may raise Citic stake
Spanish bank BBVA may boost its current stake in China Citic Bank (中信銀) with a US$1.6 billion investment, a report said yesterday, citing sources close to the matter. Spain’s second-biggest bank, BBVA will raise its ownership in China Citic to 15 percent from 10 percent in a move that comes as other European banks scaled back their exposure in China amid the global economic crisis, the Financial Times said. BBVA can acquire Citic shares at their Hong Kong initial public offering price plus 10 percent, or HK$6.45 (US$0.8), the report said. But the European lender has not made a final decision on whether to exercise that share-purchase option, which expires next week, the paper said. BBVA was the first Spanish bank to break into the Asian market with an initial 2006 investment in China Citic, the country’s seventh-largest lender by assets, the paper said. BBVA has invested a total of US$3.5 billion in the company, it said.
■RETAIL
Blacks Leisure lenders meet
Creditors of Blacks Leisure were to meet yesterday to try to agree a company voluntary agreement (CVA) to save the British outdoor goods company from administration, the British Property Federation said on Sunday. The retailer needs a 75 percent majority vote. Under a CVA, an increasingly popular insolvency process, Blacks would see 101 stores closed, about one-quarter of its outlets, with landlords forced to give up leases in return for six months’ rent and payments to cover empty rates. Creditors in British sportswear retailer JJB Sports PLC and home improvements retailer Focus DIY have backed CVA rescue plans this year.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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