■ IPR
IC tag expansion planned
Hitachi and Oracle plan to expand their IC tag business to help China fight against rampant counterfeiting, a company official said yesterday. IC tags are tiny microchips that contain special identification codes and other data, which can help track counterfeiting in anything from tickets to luxury goods. Hitachi Ltd and Oracle have introduced an IC tag in China which it hopes the country will use to embed tickets for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, a Hitachi official said. "At a New Year's event in Shanghai this year, we embedded our IC tags into tickets and successfully detected so many counterfeit tickets. We believe that made a big impression on the Chinese authorities," he said on condition. Shanghai officials expect the Expo to attract 70 million people.
■ ENTERTAINMENT
Sony cuts BDP player price
Sony Corp said yesterday it is including a small surprise with the new Blu-ray high-definition movie disc player it is shipping this week -- a price tag US$100 lower than previously announced. That means the new player costs half of what Sony's first Blu-ray player cost when it launched just six months ago -- probably one of the fastest price declines in the consumer electronics industry. When Sony announced the BDP-S300 player in February, it put the price at US$599, but it has now set a list price at US$499. The price cut is due to falling production costs and the growing demand for Blu-ray products, said Chris Fawcett, vice president of Sony Electronics' home products division.
■ AVIATION
A380 returns to Narita
The giant Airbus A380 superjumbo touched down in Japan for a second time yesterday on a three-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The plane landed at Narita International Airport near Tokyo. The aircraft will leave Japan tomorrow for Sydney before heading to Taipei on Friday.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Porsche takeover bid fails
A mandatory takeover offer for Volkswagen by Porsche has failed as expected, Porsche announced yesterday. At the end of the offer period last Tuesday, only 0.06 percent of VW shareholders had taken up Porsche's offer, tendering just 172,218 ordinary shares and 68,262 preference shares, Porsche said. That brought Porsche's voting stake in VW to 30.97 percent and its overall share stake to 22.69 percent. Porsche had no intention of acquiring full control of VW and made an offer that was substantially lower than the car maker's market share price.
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
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
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