■ Airlines
Buy air tickets near home
Head to your local convenience store to grab a cup of coffee, pick up a pint of ice cream and don't forget to pay for your plane ticket. Thailand's newest budget airline, Nok Air, is not only offering discount flights, it is also offering a novel way to pay for the tickets -- at the local 7-Eleven. After booking a ticket through Nok's call center, the flight can be paid for within 24 hours to confirm the seat at a participating 7-Eleven counter. Travelers must bring a pay code to verify the booking and are charged a 30-baht (US$0.73) fee. The first flights on Nok's two Boeing 737-400s departed July 22 to Chiang Mai, Udon Thani and Hat Yai. Passengers on Nok, which means bird in Thai, can also transfer their payments via ATM machines at Siam Commercial Banks (for a 20-baht fee) or pay by credit card online and through its call center.
■ Technology
Foldable screens in works
Foldable computer screens and other large flexible light-emitting displays could soon become reality because of work by experts from Singapore and Britain, a newspaper reported yesterday. The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Sir Richard Friend of Cambridge University are seeking to develop materials called organic polymers that behave like semiconductors and metals to produce the products, the Straits Times said. "We hope to develop key science and technology that will make possible devices that can't be produced with what is currently available," NUS Assistant Professor Peter Ho was quoted as saying. Such devices could include large flexible posters that emit light and respond to customers walking near them or inexpensive flexible screens for televisions and computers that fold up be pocketed, he said.
■ Outsourcing
Indian editors analyze US
Financial news and information provider Reuters Group plans to outsource as many as 20 editorial jobs to India from more expensive locations around the world, a company spokeswoman said on Monday. Reuters will hire up to 40 trained journalists to staff a new newsroom in Bangalore to take over these editorial duties and to expand output for the company's news service. They will focus primarily on providing information about small and medium-sized firms that are publicly traded in the US, spokeswoman Susan Allsopp said in London. The new employees will compile tables of financial data to accompany longer stories written elsewhere. Reuters already employs 300 people in Bangalore at a separate center for the collation of financial market data.
■ Interest Rates
Fed increase expected
US Federal Reserve policymakers were widely expected to raise interest rates yesterday despite last week's dismal employment news, if only to avoid fanning financial market jitters about stumbling growth. "Given the mind-set in the markets that another increase is coming, the Fed is unlikely to wish to disrupt that expectation at this stage," said economist Lynn Reaser of Banc of America Capital Management Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri. "There might in fact be a greater risk to the economy in the Fed's holding back, simply because to do so would raise questions about what does the Fed know about the expansion's health," she said.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor. Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished. On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed
The Executive Yuan yesterday warned against traveling to or doing business in China after reports that Beijing is recruiting Taiwanese to help conceal the use of forced Uighur labor. The government is aware that Taiwan-based influencers and businesses are being asked to make pro-Beijing content and offered incentives to invest in the region, Executive Yuan acting spokeswoman Julia Hsieh (謝子涵) told a news conference. Taiwanese are urged to be aware of the potential personal and reputational harm by visiting or operating businesses in China, Hsieh said, adding that agencies are fully apprised of the situation. A national security official said that former Mainland
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