■COMPUTERS
Psystar offers Mac clones
Do you crave a Mac but balk at shelling out thousands of dollars for Apple’s alternative PCs? A company by the name of Psystar may have the answer for you. On Monday it released what it calls an Open Mac for US$400. The clones, which are standard Intel-based machines, use a piece of software wizardry called an Extensible Firmware Interface to trick Apple’s Leopard operating system into thinking it is running on a genuine Mac. The basic machine comes without any operating software, but Psystar offers to sell users a copy of Leopard and even preinstall it so that buyers get a fully operational Apple clone straight out the box. Legal experts said the tactic could violate the licensing agreement on the Leopard software and that Apple is likely to sue.
■RETAIL
Tesco’s profits rise 12%
Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, yesterday reported a rise in profits of 11.8 percent to nearly £2.9 billion (US$5.8 billion) last year. The retailer said sales rose to £51.8 billion, up 11 percent over 2006. The increase comes at a time of rising inflationary pressures on food prices in Britain. Tesco’s international sales were up 25.3 percent, as Tesco said it now made half of its group trading profit from its stores overseas. The retailer’s expansion drive overseas will continue this year with plans to open new stores, 80 of which will be outside Britain.
■FASHION
Gucci wins logo suit
Italian fashion group Gucci has won a suit against a Chinese shoemaker that counterfeited the exclusive “GG” logo in its footwear, the Oriental Morning Post said yesterday. Senda Group, based in Jiangsu Province, was ordered to pay Gucci 180,000 yuan (US$25,700) in damages, the report said, citing a ruling by the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s court. The other defendant, Shanghai No.1 Yaohan Department Store (八佰伴百貨), was told to immediately take the shoes off its shelves, according to the ruling handed down on Monday. Gucci had asked for damages of 610,000 yuan, but the court said although the sandals made by Senda were “misleading,” the department store was not required to pay any damages because it was “unaware of the infringement.”
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche to buy Piramed
Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche said yesterday it would buy British pharmaceutical company Piramed Limited for US$160 million to support its research into oncology and inflammatory diseases. Roche will also pay US$15 million when Piramed’s oncology program starts phase II clinical trials. Completion of the deal is expected during the second quarter of this year, Roche said.
■MARKETS
Asia hot, risky targets: poll
China, India and Southeast Asia are seen as the hottest and riskiest markets for mergers and acquisitions in the near future, a survey said yesterday. The survey, commissioned by Marsh, Mercer and Kroll, comes despite questionable business practices, problems with local intellectual property regimes and insufficient financial recourse against sellers, the report said. The findings published in the Business Times found that 57 percent of the 670 respondents ranked China, India and Southeast Asia as most attractive over the next 18 months, followed by North America at 43 percent, Western Europe at 41 percent and Eastern Europe at 31 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
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