■ Internet
File-sharing service closes
Online file-sharing service i2hub, which linked university students and others over the Internet2 network, has shut down under threat of a lawsuit from the recording industry. The entire network linking users of the i2hub file-swapping application was taken off-line on Monday, founder Wayne Chang in Boston said on Tuesday via e-mail. Visitors to the i2hub Web site were greeted on Tuesday by the message "Remember i2hub." At i2hub's peak, hundreds of thousands of students from more than 500 universities were regularly using it, said Chang, 22, who created the software in 2003 as a freshman at the University of Massachusetts. I2hub was one of seven firms behind file-sharing software who received cease-and-desist letters from the Recording Industry Association of America in September accusing them of enabling computer users to distribute copyright-protected music without permission online.
■ Automobiles
Toyota to upgrade hybrids
Toyota Motor will mount a more fuel efficient and less costly hybrid engine on its vehicles from 2008, a report said yesterday. Toyota plans to double its production capacity for hybrid systems from the current 300,000 units a year to help halve the cost gap between traditional gasoline and hybrid engines, the Asahi Shimbun said. It also plans to reduce the weight of the system, which it will use on most of its mid-size or larger vehicles, the daily said without citing sources. Toyota will also produce key components of the system in the US, it said. Toyota would not confirm the report. "We have been pushing ahead with the development of a third-generation system but it has not been decided when it will be put in use," a company spokeswoman said, adding that the year 2008 could be "one possibility."
■ Energy
Malaysia pushes bio-diesel
Malaysia will switch to bio-diesel next year -- a year ahead of schedule -- with government vehicles slated to start using the palm oil-laced fuel to cushion the impact of rising fuel prices, a newspaper said yesterday. The government was expected to save "hundreds of millions of ringgit" through cutbacks in oil subsidies by convincing Malaysians to switch to bio-diesel, a technologically proven mixture of diesel and palm oil, said Peter Chin, the plantations, industries and commodities minister, according to the Star. The fuel is a mixture of 5 percent palm oil and 95 percent diesel, but Chin said eventually bio-diesel will be made of 20 percent palm oil and 80 percent diesel. Diesel-powered vehicles belonging to several ministries will begin using bio-diesel next year before the alternative fuel is introduced to the public, the report said. Malaysia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil.
■ Financing
ADB notes bond barriers
Financial integration in East Asia has made significant progress but is being restrained by regulatory barriers, according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday. Markets remained underdeveloped, especially the bonds, said this month's issue of Asia Bond Monitor. It said that of the total local currency bonds outstanding worldwide, which stood at US$44 trillion at the end of last year, only 3 percent was held by emerging economies in Asia. This compared with the US accounting for 44 percent, the EU for 26 percent and Japan with 20 percent.
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