■ Oil
Prices drop on US advance
World oil prices fell heavily for the second day in a row yesterday as the US military made advances in its war against Iraq. US light crude shed by 1100 GMT was off US$0.96 at US$28.82 a barrel on top of a US$1.26 fall on Tuesday for a 7 percent decline in two days. London Brent lost US$0.78 to US$25.58 a barrel. "The sell-off evidenced in oil prices, and the coincident rallies in broad financial markets, reflect a hope that hostilities will end sooner rather than later," said Michael Rothman, oil analyst at Merrill Lynch. The war has closed Iraq's 1.7 million barrels daily of exports from the 77 million barrel a day world market.
■ Semiconductors
US rules against Hynix
The South Korea govern-ment yesterday balked at the US Commerce Depart-ment's preliminary finding that Hynix Semiconductor computer chips received unfair government sub-sidies. Micron Technology had complained about the subsidies to the department and the EU. South Korea has denied the allegations. The department's prelimi-nary finding that Hynix could be subject to a US duty of nearly 58 percent "is an unfair decision that unilaterally accepted the complainant's allegations," South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The preliminary ruling found subsidy rates for DRAM memory chips ranging from 0.16 percent to 57.37 percent. The US Commerce Department will make its final ruling on the issue on June 16.
■ Software
Microsoft goes cheaper
Microsoft Corp, which is facing sluggish growth for its Office programs, will sell two lower-priced packages of the word-processing and e-mail software suite when it goes on sale in the middle of this year. Microsoft will add a new Basic Edition that will be sold pre-installed on personal computers and is designed primarily for consumers, said Dan Leach, an Office lead product manager. The company has also decided to keep selling an academic edition it began as a temp-orary offer in 2001. Sales growth in business applica-tions slowed to less than 1 percent for the 12 months ended June 30 as many customers stuck with older Office programs to avoid paying for new ones.
■ Computers
India gets supercomputer
India has become the world's fifth nation to have a supercomputer capable of processing 1 trillion calcula-tions per second, according to news reports yesterday. Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie unveiled the computer, named Param Padma (ultimate lotus) in Banga-lore on Tuesday, The Hindu Business Line newspaper said. Only the US, Japan, Israel and China have supercomputers capable of processing more than 1 trillion calculations per second. Japan's Earth Simula-tor is the world's fastest, running 35.6 trillion calcula-tions per second, almost five times faster than the next best one and as fast as the top five US super-computers combined.
■ Internet
Pakistan blocks porn sites
Pakistan Telecommuni-cation Co, the monopoly fixed-line phone service provider, blocked 510 Web sites showing pornographic material, The News reported, citing a company official. The blocking of Web sites may slow Internet browsing speed, which is already not up to the mark, the newspaper said.
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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