■ World economy
UN predicts 3 percent growth
The UN is projecting global economic growth of just over 3 percent for this year and is calling for global economic cooperation to battle risks and fight "investment anemia." The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2006 report, which was released on Tuesday, said that the slowdown reflects "a maturing of the recent global economic recovery," and added that terrorist attacks and natural disasters are taking a toll. Another threat, according to the report, was in figuring out how to boost investment. Last month the International Monetary Fund forecast global economic growth of 4.3 percent for this year. Many economists believe that growth will slow slightly this year, mostly because of steep oil costs.
■ Shipping
FedEx buys out PRC partner
With a US$400 million agreement to buy out its partner in a Chinese joint venture, FedEx Corp is poised to take over a package shipping network in China and boost its presence throughout the Asian region. FedEx announced plans on Tuesday to take full control of a 50-percent joint venture begun with the Tianjin Datian W. Group in 1999. The venture, called FedEx-DTW International Priority, runs an express package shipping network that includes 89 pickup and delivery locations in cities across China. Memphis-based FedEx said that it hopes to complete the acquisition during its 2007 fiscal year, which begins on June 1. After the acquisition, FedEx will have more than 6,000 employees in China working for "an express domestic service branded FedEx, owned by FedEx and operated by FedEx," company spokesman Jess Bunn said.
■ Airlines
Asia-Pacific air traffic soars
Air traffic for Asia-Pacific carriers last month rose by nearly 1 percent year-on-year to 10.96 million passengers, bringing overall traffic for last year to 128 million, an industry group said yesterday. For air cargo, measured in terms freight-tonne-kilometers, traffic rose an annual 6.4 percent last month to 4.6 million tonnes, the Kuala Lumpur-based Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said. "The outlook for Asia-Pacific's aviation industry in 2006 remains fairly positive, although the burden of high oil prices on the global economy remains a concern," AAPA's director-general Andrew Herdman said.
■ Internet
Web site to monitor spyware
A corporate-backed Web site being launched by researchers from Harvard and Oxford universities seeks to become a clearinghouse for Internet users on spyware and other malicious software. The site, which Google Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) are underwriting, will ultimately identify purveyors of such programs by name and provide information to help consumers decide whether a program is safe to download. "It's important for users to understand what risks they face and try to help them identify which software is likely to be problematic,'' said Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and one of the Internet's chief inventors. The nonprofit Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid adviser.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS