■ Economics
Fewer rules the better
Fewer business rules lead to more efficient economies, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a World Bank study on the costs of business development in 130 coun-tries. The Doing Business report studies the costs of registering a company, get-ting credit, hiring and firing workers, enforcing con-tracts and working through bankruptcy courts, the paper said. The most effi-cient economies and least regulated countries include the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore, it said. Too much regulation in much of Africa, Latin America and the former Soviet Union stifled production, the paper said. Govern-ments in those countries need to focus on protecting property rights, the Journal said. Legal systems that enable com-panies to collect debts are the biggest factor in attract-ing business to a country, the paper said, citing the co-author of the report. Countries with slow debt-collecting systems include Brazil, Guatemala and Burundi, the Journal said.
■ Semiconductors
Intel cuts chip prices
Intel Corp slashed prices by as much as 34 percent for processors that enable laptop computers to make wireless connections to the Internet. The 1.7-Ghz Mobile Intel Pentium M chip was cut to US$423 each from US$637 in batches of 1,000, the company said on its Web site. The price of Intel's Centrino chips fell as much as 30 percent to US$497 apiece from US$713 per 1,000. Laptops using Cen-trino are designed to con-sume less power and auto-matically connect to the Internet through wireless networks. Intel regularly cuts prices to boost demand for older chips as it devel-ops less costly manufac-turing methods and intro-duces higher-performing products.
■ Internet
Microsoft adjusts programs
Microsoft Corp said it will make ``modest'' changes to its Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser because of a patent violation. The move is a response to an August verdict that Micro-soft violated a patent held by Eolas Technologies Inc, the company said in a state-ment. Microsoft intends to appeal the ruling once it's been made final, spokesman Mark Murray said. Taking steps to remove the dis-puted technology from its software may limit the additional royalties Micro-soft might have to pay, should the judge agree to Eolas's request to extend the royalties to include sales beyond September 2001. The jury awarded Eolas US$521 million, or US$1.47 for each of copy of Internet Explorer sold between Nov-ember 1998 and September 2001.
■ Computers
IBM adds laptop sensor
International Business Machines Corp added an air bag-like motion-detection system to some new laptops to help protect information on disk drives if the machines are dropped. The ThinkPad models, which went on sale yesterday, have a chip that senses motion acceleration. The chip sends a command to the disk drive, which secures the write-record head and prevents it from crashing into the disks that hold information, IBM said. IBM is the first to use this type of motion-detection in com-puters, analysts said. Disk-drive heads fly about a millionth of an inch above the surface of the disks, which spin as much as 7,200 revolutions per minute as they hold data, making the devices especially sensitive to shocks.
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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