Reuters, WASHINGTONThe number of people killed in large commercial plane crashes fell by more than 50 percent last year, despite a high-profile Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia in March, a Dutch consulting firm said on Wednesday. Aviation consulting firm To70 said that there were 86 accidents involving large commercial planes — including eight fatal incidents — resulting in 257 fatalities last year. In 2018, there were 160 accidents, including 13 fatal, resulting in 534 deaths, the firm said. The fatality numbers included passengers, air crew and any people on the ground killed in a plane accident, the firm said. The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an October 2018 crash in Indonesia and the crash of a MAX in Ethiopia.

BloombergBosch Ltd, the Indian unit of the world’s largest auto parts supplier, plans to join its parent, Robert Bosch GmbH in cutting jobs as the nation witnesses one of its worst auto sales slowdowns in decades. The German company would cut “a couple of thousand” jobs in India over the next four years, India managing director Soumitra Bhattacharya said. “There is a transformation happening across the industry,” Bhattacharya said. In India, Bosch expects auto sales to only recover over the next two to three years after plummeting this year due to regulatory changes, threat of electrification, a liquidity crunch and an economic slowdown. Still, the German component maker sees the demand for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles leading growth in the auto industry in India.

Whether it will help to drive Kaohsiung’s development will depend on whether the money is spent where it is most needed. Kaohsiung’s development and governance cannot be achieved through telekinesis, slogans or fantasies. Good job opportunities and a good living environment are also the only ways to give Kaohsiung residents a good chance to strike it rich. Taiwan then shifted its industrial focus toward industrial innovation and the creative industry in response to global development trends. Hopefully the Han administration will be able to live up to the hopes of Kaohsiung residents and not let them down.

AFP, SYDNEYAustralia’s tennis chief yesterday announced a series of fundraisers for victims of raging bushfires after an appeal from bad boy Nick Kyrgios. Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley responded by saying that fundraisers would be held during tournaments, including the Australian Open and the ATP Cup team event, telling fans to “stay tuned” for details. “For weeks we’ve been watching the devastation caused by bushfires across Australia and the people affected are constantly in our thoughts,” Tiley said. Kyrgios, in Brisbane for the inaugural ATP Cup, said that the tennis world now had the chance to do “something special.”“Tennis Australia, obviously, has been pretty proactive about it,” Kyrgios said. “I don’t envisage it being a problem at all.”ATP Cup tournament director Tom Larner told reporters this week that air conditions would be closely monitored and play suspended if necessary.

Taiwanese also wanted to hear about her vision for the future. Tsai spoke of the state of the nation, her administration’s achievements and its plans for the next four years if she secures re-election. Thus far, Tsai has been pointing the ship in the right direction, but has been unsteady and indecisive on the tiller. She has addressed issues born of the nation’s agricultural and industrial past, as well as the legacy of poor management by previous governments. Only 10 percent of her speech was devoted to a vision for Taiwan’s future.

AP, DALLASDallas Stars interim coach Rick Bowness had just seen a very similar comeback by his team, although the surroundings for this one were drastically different. The Stars also overcame a 2-0 deficit in their previous game, with four goals in the third period of a 4-2 win at Arizona on Sunday. The Stars then scored three goals in a short span to start the third period before 85,630 spectators in Dallas, the second-largest crowd to attend an NHL game. Radulov scored from the right circle on a power play, while Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist in the third. John Klingberg assisted on both power-play goals to start the third before Sekera’s first goal in nearly three years.

AFP, VIENNAConservatives led by Austrian People’s Party Chairman Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday agreed to form an unprecedented coalition government with the Greens, capping almost three months of negotiations. The ecologists made key gains in the elections, with the environment replacing immigration as the top concern of voters. Analysts said that the new government would face challenges after Kurz’s previous rule with the far-right Freedom Party saw a raft of anti-immigration measures passed, sharply dividing Austrians. Describing a deal as a “huge stretch,” analyst Thomas Hofer said that Kurz could lose voters he gained from the Freedom Party, when the People’s Party got 37.5 percent of the vote. The Greens secured 13.9 percent of the vote, their best-ever result, due to the environment replacing immigration as top concern in the nation of 8.8 million people.

BloombergIndia is to attempt a second moon landing — after an attempt last year failed just minutes before a scheduled touchdown on the lunar surface — in a bid to restore its credentials as an ambitious space power. The nation has also made progress on its first manned space mission by identifying four astronauts, Sivan added. India and China are both trying to establish a presence in space exploration. The previous mission, which intended to analyze virgin territory, placed an orbiter around the moon before the lander lost contact with scientists. “Even though we couldn’t successfully soft land, the orbiter is still functioning and it is going to function for another seven years,” Sivan said.

Reuters, CHICAGOA Google artificial intelligence (AI) system proved as good as expert radiologists at detecting women with breast cancer by screening mammograms and showed promise at reducing errors, researchers in the US and UK reported. The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, is the latest to show that AI has the potential to improve the accuracy of screening for breast cancer, which affects one in eight women globally. In a separate test, the group pitted the AI system against six radiologists and found it outperformed them at accurately detecting breast cancers. Connie Lehman, head of the breast imaging department at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital, said the results were in line with findings from several groups using AI to improve cancer detection in mammograms, including her own work. The notion of using computers to improve cancer diagnostics is decades old and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems are commonplace in mammography clinics, yet CAD programs have not improved performance in clinical practice.

About 100 protesters also turned out at Warkworth rodeo near Auckland calling for a council ban. Earlier this year SAFE claimed its first victory after the Northland Mid Northern Rodeo Club canceled its rodeo due to financial pressures. “Every year at the Wanaka rodeo, normally docile animals are bullied, abused or killed by so-called ‘cowboys,’” SAFE spokesman Will Appelbe said. In the last few years major businesses such as Foodstuffs, Meridian Energy and House of Travel have withdrawn their sponsorship from rodeo events over animal welfare concerns, causing many clubs to struggle financially. New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association president Lyall Cocks said vets are on duty at every event, monitoring animals welfare and removing any animals from competition that display signs of stress.

By Hank TopperAs a volunteer neighborhood leader and a democratic activist in the US, I want to express my strong support for your efforts to maintain and strengthen democracy in Hong Kong. We always entered and exited China through Hong Kong and we grew to love, and still love, your city and its great vitality. My experience of life in China also helped me appreciate the freedom and democracy in my home. Speaking as an American democratic activist, I can assure you that we still do have a democracy in the US. It is threatened and under attack by our own authoritarian president and his party and by foreign powers working to undermine democracy.

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe Central Weather Bureau (CWB) is to start building the nation’s first volcano alert system this year, Seismological Center Director Chen Kuo-chang (陳國昌) said yesterday. “We will spend this year and next building a national volcano alert system and establishing the procedures that we should follow in issuing warnings,” Chen said. Japan, the Philippines and New Zealand use a five-level warning system because they experience frequent volcanic activity, Chen said. However, the Datun Volcano Group is less active than volcanoes in those nations, he added. Lin’s team also detected a volcanic “pulse” from the Datun volcanoes, with an earthquake occurring on average about every 18 minutes, a phenomenon that last for hours.

HKEX has said that it is seeing a spike in inquiries about secondary listings from Chinese companies. The interest comes at a time when US scrutiny of Chinese companies has intensified. Trip.com, known also as Ctrip, and the Hong Kong exchange declined to comment in e-mailed statements. More secondary listings from technology companies would bolster the Hong Kong exchange, which posted its worst profit drop in almost three years in the third quarter of last year. “More US-listed Chinese concept stocks will come back to Hong Kong in 2020,” PwC partner Benson Wong (黃煒邦) said at a news conference in Hong Kong.

Catastrophic blazes ripped through the southeast of the nation on New Year’s Eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency — that allows for forced evacuations beginning today — for the third time in the nation’s most populated region this fire season. That weather would create conditions as bad as — if not worse than — on Tuesday, the deadliest day in a months-long bushfire crisis, officials said. New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said that firefighters would be unable to extinguish or even control the raging blazes. “We’re happy to see every man and his dog leave town,” he said.

BloombergBritish chip designer Imagination Technologies Group PLC said that it has struck a new license agreement with Apple Inc, reviving a business relationship that had all but ended in the past few years. The US company also uses its own graphics processors in the Apple Watch. It told Imagination Technologies in 2017 that it would stop using its IP in new products within two years. When Imagination Technologies, then a public company, announced the loss of Apple as its biggest customer, its stock plummeted. The British company in 2018 said that there might be “material uncertainty” regarding the future of the company if Apple did not pay any royalties on its latest generation of iPhones and iPads.