■ INTERNET
Canada shy of `Street View'
The "Street View" feature of Google Maps, with its close-up views of city streets and recognizable shots of people, could violate a Canadian law protecting individual privacy, officials said on Wednesday. Google Inc introduced street-level map views in May, giving Web users a series of panoramic, 360-degree images of nine US cities. Some of the random pictures feature people in informal poses who can clearly be identified. Canada's Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart wrote to Google early last month asking for more details. She said if the Street View product were expanded to Canada without being amended, it could well violate privacy laws.
■ REAL ESTATE
China to clamp down further
China's central bank is likely to clamp down further on property speculation in a bid to curb soaring real estate prices, state media said yesterday. New regulations, which could be released as early as this week, will specifically target people who buy a second apartment, the China Daily reported, citing an unnamed official at the bank. The rules are expected to require second-time home buyers to make a down payment of 40 percent, as opposed to as little as 20 percent for first-time home buyers, the paper said.
■ AVIATION
Bombardier grounds Q-400s
Plane maker Bombardier ordered the grounding of at least 40 percent of its Q-400 turboprop planes after a Scandinavian Airlines aircraft skidded off a runway with 52 people aboard, the second such incident in three days. No one was injured on Wednesday when the landing gear failed, forcing the emergency touchdown in Lithuania. However, the accident followed the crash landing late last week of a Scandinavian Airlines flight that suffered a similar failure in Denmark, injuring five people. The grounding Wednesday forced the cancelation of at least 200 flights worldwide.
■ LABOR
HK bar benders end strike
One of Hong Kong's longest-running industrial strikes has ended after 36 days, with hundreds of specialist construction workers accepting a 14-percent pay rise and slightly reduced working hours. The strike had grounded work at dozens of construction sites for more than a month and laid bare the plight of workers in the city -- where the wealth gap has widened noticeably since 1997. After the latest in a string of marathon meetings on Wednesday night, around 200 bar-bending metal workers voted to accept a daily wage of HK$860 (US$110). Working hours were cut from nine to eight hours.
■ AVIATION
Airbus trims management
Thomas Enders, newly installed chief executive at Airbus, on Wednesday streamlined his management committee at the struggling European aircraft maker. Enders, a German named to head Airbus in July under a management overhaul, reduced the committee from 12 to nine members while trying to maintain a balance between French and German interests in the company. The new team comprises four Germans, three French nationals, an American and a Briton. Committee member Thierry Baril of France was handed the delicate task of heading the human resources department at a time when Airbus is implementing a sweeping restructuring that should see the elimination of 10,000 jobs.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
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