Net income fell 41.8 percent to NT$389 million (US$12.93 million), from NT$668 million in the previous quarter, while revenue declined 11.1 percent to NT$8.88 billion, the company said on its Web site. Earnings per share were NT$1.02 last quarter, it said. Chicony mainly focuses on manufacturing keyboards, switches, power supplies, smart and green solutions, camera modules and adapters for notebook computers. Revenue for this quarter would drop by 8 to 10 percent annually and gross margin would decline by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, the company said. Given the short-term effects of the epidemic, Jih Sun revised down its earnings per share forecast to NT$4.54 for this year, from a previous estimate of NT$5.18.

The center in 2018 sent out 29,702 questionnaires and received 4,897 valid replies, center associate researcher Lo Ai-yen (羅愛雁) said. A total of 75.7 percent of respondents said that it was rewarding to earn a doctoral degree. By comparison, 62.8 percent of holders of a life sciences doctorate and 70.5 percent of those with a natural sciences doctorate considered their degrees beneficial, the lowest two among 12 disciplines, it found. In terms of gender, 78.4 percent of female respondents said that their doctorates were beneficial, greater than the 74.6 percent of male respondents. People who obtained doctorates from foreign universities also had greater satisfaction that those who received them from domestic institutions, it showed.

By Ko Yu-hao and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau is this month promoting romance-themed destinations in the city to boost tourism. As businesses in the city that rely on tourism have taken heavy losses due to COVID-19, the bureau said that it hopes to encourage more Taiwanese to visit Kaohsiung by offering discounts and promotions. The other route takes visitors to sites including the Whale in Love installation on the Love River (愛河), a white shipping container cafe, a light show on the river, the Zone 767 boat ride area on the river and the KW2 Carousel (棧貳庫白色旋轉木馬), he said. Several vendors at these locations are also offering buy-one-get-one-free discounts on Saturday next week and March 15 for the White Day weekend, he said. Five-star, double-occupancy rooms at these hotels would start at NT$2,800 per night and standard rooms at some hotels would start at NT$699 per night, he added.

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterTaishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) and SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) yesterday said that they would remain cautious amid fears caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. However, its two financial leasing companies in China have seen their nonperforming loan ratio slightly increase to 3 percent since January, Taishin Financial president Welch Lin (林維俊) said. The two units’ nonperforming loans account for less than 0.5 percent of the firm’s total, he said. As China last year supplied less than 1 percent of its total profit, it expects limited effect even if the outbreak continues, Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) president Eric Chuang (莊銘福) said. “We are cautious, but not pessimistic... We will continue concentrating on growth in fee income this year instead of investment returns amid a highly volatile financial market,” SinoPac Financial president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said.

By Wu Pei-hua and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerSales of home exercise equipment have soared as people spend more time at home due to the COVID-19 epidemic, industry sources said on Monday. The self-training trend is becoming popular as people avoid crowded gyms or fitness classes, creating a business opportunity for the home fitness equipment sector, the sources said. Online retailer PChome said that male customers mostly purchased simple weightlifting equipment, whose sales rose 30 percent from a year earlier, with two-in-one barbells and dumbbells being top sellers, followed by Blades brand dumbbells. Sales of post-workout tools that relax and massage the muscles have been increasing as well, it added. Active daily players of the game rose to 600,000, from 500,000 a year earlier, he added.

AP, HINTERSTODER, AustriaAlexis Pinturault on Monday won a men’s World Cup giant slalom for his second win in two days as the French skier returned to the top of the overall standings. Pinturault added 250 points to his tally over the three-day event in the Austrian Alps to overtake Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. The Norwegian finished Monday’s race in sixth and now trails Pinturault by 26 points with six races left on the calendar. Having carved out a lead of 0.90 seconds over Philip Zubcic in the opening run, Pinturault lost half of his advantage over his Croatian competitor after posting only the 21st-fastest time in the final run. “There are two grand slalom races and two slaloms left — that’s 400 points.”Unlike Pinturault, Kristoffersen is to sit out the upcoming speed weekend in Norway.

Although Lai posted bail, the arrests sent shock waves through Hong Kong and raised eyebrows in Taiwan. Especially concerning was the date the Hong Kong police appear to have chosen to make the arrests. The arrests came shortly after China sentenced Swedish national Gui Minhai (桂民海), one of the owners of the Causeway Bay Books bookstore in Hong Kong, to 10 years in prison. This has particularly been the case since Luo Huining (駱惠寧) was appointed head of China’s Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong. The question is, is this a point that escaped Luo and Xi, or was it their intention to send out a warning of a “Hong Kong 228”?

BloombergChinese airlines are offering tickets at what are known colloquially as “cabbage” prices as they start restoring seat capacity following drastic capacity cuts enforced by the COVID-19 outbreak. A one-way direct trip from Shanghai to Chengdu on Juneyao Airlines Co (吉祥航空) on Saturday costs just 90 yuan (US$12.89) plus 50 yuan in taxes. Chinese carriers are adding nearly 3 million seats back into scheduled services this week, primarily for domestic routes, OAG Aviation Worldwide reported. China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) is adding 684,000 seats and China Eastern Airlines Corp (中國東方航空) is increasing capacity by 566,000 seats, Grant said. Chinese airlines posted losses of more than 10 billion yuan last month as revenue fell 37 billion yuan, Sina.com (新浪) reported, citing industry estimates.

People in the zone wake up to closed cafes, restaurants and schools; farmers worry that planting should be starting around now. Authorities have put part of Italy’s most productive region into lockdown, shut the Venice carnival, one of its main tourist events, and postponed Milan’s showpiece design fair. Along with neighboring Veneto, the other main area hit by the outbreak, it generates about one-third of Italy’s economic output. The red zone and the region around it is a microcosm of the Italian economy. Local engineering unions say about 6,000 manufacturing workers, mainly those living in the red zone, have been sent home or put on short hours.

AP, MOSCOWRussian President Vladimir Putin on Monday submitted a slew of new proposed amendments to the nation’s constitution that include a mention of God and describe marriage as a heterosexual union. Putin first proposed amending the constitution in January’s state-of-the-nation speech, saying it is necessary to broaden the powers of parliament and bolster democracy. Kremlin foes have described the proposed changes as part of Putin’s efforts to remain in charge after his six-year term ends in 2024. Another amendment describes marriage as a “union of a man and a woman,” a wording in sync with Putin’s long-stated opposition to same-sex marriages. The 67-year-old Russian leader has been in power for more than 20 years, making him the nation’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin.

BloombergFormer South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sunday ended his presidential campaign after failing to secure a to win the Democratic nomination. His decision came only a month after he won the delegate race in the Iowa caucuses and his campaign hoped that victory would propel him to national frontrunner status. Sanders on Sunday congratulated Buttigieg on running “a brilliant campaign” and invited his former rival’s supporters to join his campaign. Buttigieg’s lack of experience beyond the local level also drew scrutiny from other candidates in a race focused on electability and unseating Trump. Buttigieg easily lost an election to become state treasurer of Indiana in 2010, and in 2017 withdrew his bid for chair of the Democratic National Committee on the day of the election.

AFP, SYDNEYAustralian summers are lengthening by a month or more while winters are getting shorter due to climate change, according to an analysis by a leading think tank released yesterday. The Australia Institute said large swathes of the country were experiencing an additional 31 days of summer temperatures each year compared with the 1950s. “Summers have grown longer even in recent years, with the last five years facing summers twice as long as their winters,” he said. Australia’s capital, Canberra, lost 35 winter days while Brisbane, in the east, lost 31 cooler days. The crisis led to renewed calls for the country’s conservative government to cut the emissions contributing to global warming.

By Chen Wen-ching 陳文卿Among Taiwan’s state-run enterprises, Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) has been more agile in its corporate transformation and has the most diverse business operation. Biogas residues and slurry resulting from the anaerobic fermentation of pig manure and urine for biogas production can be turned into organic fertilizers and reused for the land. Biogas residues and slurry created from anaerobic fermentation contain an abundance of organic matter that is ideal as agricultural fertilizer. Taisugar does not have to worry about this problem, because it has both pig farms and forest land. Pingtung County is a major pig farming county, and pollution caused by wastewater discharged by pig farms constitutes an environmental problem that has been bothering government agencies.

In Syria, Turkish troops shot down two Syrian warplanes after the Syrian military downed a Turkish drone, a major escalation in the direct conflict between Syrian and Turkish forces. Turkey’s decision to ease border restrictions came amid a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive into Idlib Province. That offensive has killed dozens of Turkish troops and led to a surge of nearly 1 million Syrian civilians fleeing the fighting toward Turkey’s sealed border. A Turkish official said the fighting in Idlib was directly linked to Turkey’s decision to open the gates for refugees to Europe. Turkey already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, as well as many others from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

AFP, WASHINGTONNASA satellite images show a dramatic fall in pollution over China that is “partly related” to the economic slowdown due to a novel coronavirus outbreak, the US space agency said. The reduction in nitrogen dioxide pollution was first noticed near Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, but eventually spread across China, according to NASA scientists who examined data collected by their and European Space Agency satellites. Nitrogen dioxide is a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants, and can cause respiratory problems, such as asthma. The 2008 global financial crisis saw a decrease in nitrogen dioxide over several countries, but it was a gradual fall, she said. Nitrogen dioxide concentrations over eastern and central China were 10 to 30 percent lower than what is normally observed over the time period.