■ Software
64-bit Windows released
Microsoft is now offering its Windows XP Professional operating system in a version for 64-bit processors. The so-called x64 Windows is offered at the same prices as the traditional 32-bit variant, the software giant said. The new system increases the power of desktop applications such as those use to create digital content for videos, the firm claims. x64 Windows offers 32 times more physical memory and more than 1000 time more virtual memory. The 64-bit system can also still run older applications. There has, in fact, to this point been little software that is programmed to run natively at 64 bits. This will change in the coming months, Microsoft reports: More than 400 applications are slated to hit the market. Hardware for x64 is offered by AMD, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Intel, among others.
■ Textiles
Mandelson decries quotas
Restoring import quotas that were abolished at the start of the year isn't the solution to the EU's efforts to quell surging textile exports from China, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan on Saturday. Bowing to pressure from more than a half-dozen EU governments, Mandelson on May 17 gave China a final chance to limit exports of T-shirts and flax yarn to the bloc before the EU imposes quotas. The US has also tried to protect domestic industry from Chinese garment exports that have grown since 40- year-old quotas were lifted on Jan. 1. China last Friday agreed to raise export tariffs on 74 products starting June 1. While the increases are five times higher than previous taxes for most of the items, US and European businesses said the duties won't curtail the growth in exports.
■ Broadcasting
Electronics firms to profit
Rapid growth of high-definition television during the next two years will help electronics makers such as Motorola Inc, Sony Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Barron's reported. US government rules that force broadcasters to increase high-definition programming and consumer electronics makers to include new capabilities in their products mean that the consumer interest in the product will jump in the next two years, Barron's said. Television makers such as Japan's Sony and Matsushita will see higher sales and face "fierce" competition from Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc, Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, Barron's said. Companies that make the infrastructure required to deliver the new television signals to consumers will get more demand for equipment from cable, satellite and telephone companies, the newspaper said.
■ Piracy
`Star Wars' DVDs found
Unauthorized disks of the latest "Star Wars" blockbuster were on sale on the streets of Beijing yesterday, just days after the film premiered in China. Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith opened across China at midnight on Thursday, about the same time it premiered elsewhere in the world, in an attempt to beat the pirates. But pirated disks were available everywhere by yesterday. "These just came in this morning. The quality is very good, they're not like those pirated copies that are filmed in the cinema," a Beijing vendor said as he fished a pirated DVD from behind a bush and offered to sell it for 7 yuan (US$0.85).
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