■Internet
Union backs access
Employees who put in lots of extra hours should not feel guilty about using company time to send e-mails to friends, order concert tickets or do some Internet banking. That's the view of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), the biggest lobby group for office workers in Australia. But the CPSU has cautioned its members against logging on to pornographic sites on their office computer or running a private enterprise from it. "We don't condone abuse of employers' time," said the CPSU's Dermot Brown. But he urges bosses to thrash out a level of "acceptable use" with their underlings. The issue has come to a head with the advent of cheap and easily available software that allows employers to monitor usage in the workplace.
■ Agriculture
EU agrees on subsidies
European agricultural ministers agreed new rules for distributing the way farmers get some 40 billion euros (US$46 billion) in subsidies in an attempt to ease criticism from WTO partners ahead of talks. Trade negotiations among the 146 WTO ministers scheduled for September in Mexico, may fail without reform of the EU's subsidy program known as the Common Agricultural Policy. A global trade agreement could add US$800 billion a year to the world's economy, the World Bank has estimated. Meeting for the third time this month in Luxembourg, EU ministers agreed to proposals that encourage farmers to meet market demand instead of creating surpluses, while allowing governments to keep some subsidies.
■ Apparel
`Refreshing' shirts sought
Italian scientists are using space-age technology to develop a new type of shirt that maintains the body's temperature constant, thereby providing a much-welcomed "refreshing" feel during the hot summer months. Naples-based Cosimo Carfagna of the Italian National Research Council is using so-called phase-change materials (PCMs), first developed by NASA to insulate delicate electronic components in satellites from the extreme variations in temperatures experienced in space. His aim is to encapsulate PCMs in microscopic spheres to be utilized in clothing. Shirts containing PCM capsules would absorb excess heat and thus cool the wearer down. So-called "thermal clothing" has already been developed in the US, where a Colorado-based company markets ski parkas, hunting jackets and thermal under-wear using microPCMs.
■ Privacy
`Windows 1984' unlikely
Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates says corporate efforts to protect information systems from terrorists needn't lead to "Orwellian" monitoring of e-mail and financial records. "Inform-ation technology will be a force for more security and more privacy, for freedom and for freedom from fear at the same time," Gates told a technology conference on domestic security in Wash-ington. Better security for networks helps protect water, electrical and gas systems that may be vulner-able to online terrorists, Gates said. He pledged to work with the federal government and other comp-anies to improve software security and urged more federal spending on research and development for such efforts. Microsoft sought to increase security after viruses exploited flaws in the company's Windows OS and e-mail programs, causing millions of dollars of damage to customers' networks.
Agencies
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