■ Anti-trust
Microsoft rivals seek split
European regulators are being urged by leading technology companies to restore competition in software and services markets by splitting up Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, the Wall Street Journal said, citing the association, Microsoft, antitrust regulators and lawyers. "If ever you had a case that this was appropriate, this could well be the case," said Ed Black, president and CEO of the Washington-based Computer & Communications Industry Association, it reported. In a complaint filed in Brussels on Jan. 31, the group of telephone, computer and consumer-electronics companies including Nokia Corp and AOL Time Warner Inc, alleges that Microsoft used its Windows XP operating-system to gain illegal access to new markets including for music and video-editing software.
■ Semiconductors
FeRAM chip unveiled
Semiconductor giants Toshiba of Japan and Germany's Infineon said yesterday they have invented a tiny chip with a vast memory capacity, marking the first fruit of a joint development plan launched in 2001. The 32 megabit ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) chip has the highest memory capacity ever reported, equalling that of a similar service unveiled by Samsung a year ago, a spokesman from Toshiba said. FeRAM, a non-volatile device with low power consumption, combines the fast operating characteristic of dynamic random access memory and static read only memory, with flash memory ability to retain data while switched off. The new FeRAM reduces the overall area of the chip to only 96mm2, half the size of a conventional device, the two firms said.
■ Tourism
Number of visitors jump 4%
The number of tourists visiting Malaysia grew by 4 percent last year, with visitors pumping more than US$11 billion into the economy, government figures showed yesterday. The increase to some 13.3 million tourists came despite a downturn after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US and last October's Bali bombing in neighboring Indonesia, Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said. He warned, however, that a war against Iraq could see a drop this year in arrivals from the Middle East, which has been a growing market for Malaysia after fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks led Muslims to look for alternatives to holidays in Western countries.
■ Debt
Potential leader draws fire
Kurds working in the mountaintop town of Salahuddin are reluctant to support the man often mentioned as a successor to Saddam Hussein for one simple reason: They say he owes them money. Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, has returned from exile to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq ahead of a potential US-led military attack -- only to face hundreds of lawsuits for unpaid debts from the group's last guerrilla campaign in the 1990s. "He was here for a while and he owes a lot of people a lot of money," said Khaled Ismail Amad, a former driver for the congress who says he's owed 50,000 dinars (US$6,250). Although Chalabi enjoys support in the US Congress, his relations with successive American administrations have been rockier, reflecting doubts, especially in the US State Department, about his effectiveness as a national leader.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique