■ 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.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
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