■Internet
YouTube to stream live
YouTube is making its long expected foray into live streaming by launching an experimental trial with four new media partners. The new live streaming platform will be previewed in a two-day trial that was to begin yesterday, but is expected to later grow considerably across the Google Inc-owned Web site. For the last two years, YouTube has offered numerous events live. However, for all of those events, YouTube relied on third-party technology to enable the live Webcasts.
■Electronics
HP eyes ArcSight: report
Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) has agreed to buy the security software provider ArcSight for about US$1.5 billion, the company said yesterday as it extends a recent spree of acquisitions. It’s one of a string of deals that has taken HP beyond the low-margin personal computer market. ArcSight Inc, based in California, helps organizations keep tabs on the data flowing through their computer networks and analyze it for signs of hacking, theft or fraud. HP said it would offer ArcSight stockholders US$43.50 per share in cash. That’s a 24 percent premium over the ArcSight’s closing share price on Friday.
■Communications
SK Telecom looks to China
SK Telecom Co, South Korea’s largest wireless operator, is in talks with MtekVision Co, a maker of semiconductors used in communication devices, on a joint investment in China, officials at the companies said. SK and MtekVision are considering a business that can localize chip-designing process in China, including creating a research company, Jeff Lee, a spokesman at Seoul-based MtekVision said. The discussions for the venture are part of the wireless operator’s plan to expand into new businesses, said Jun Sung Chul, a spokesman for SK.
■Communications
Nokia’s phone chief resigns
The head of Nokia Corp’s mobile phones business, Anssi Vanjoki, has announced he is resigning from the company, just three days after the handset maker said it had appointed a new chief executive officer. Nokia says Vanjoki, who is also a member of the executive board, will remain for a six months’ notice period. Vanjoki’s statement came after Nokia announced on Friday that it is replacing chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with Microsoft executive Stephen Elop on Sept. 21.
■United Kingdom
Double-dip likely: survey
British businesses believe the country could be headed for a double-dip recession, according to a survey from accountants and business advisers BDO LLP published yesterday. BDO’s optimism index — which reflects how businesses expect trading to develop two quarters ahead — tumbled to 93.1 last month from 95.5 in July, reaching levels not seen since the deepest parts of the recession between November 2008 and July last year.
■Trade
EU hopeful for S Korea deal
The Belgian presidency of the EU expressed optimism yesterday that Italy would drop its opposition to a free trade deal with South Korea this week. Italy refused on Friday to endorse the free trade agreement because of reservations on the impact it would have on the country’s auto industry, dominated by car and truck giant Fiat. Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere said that he hoped to “see progress” as he headed to a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels three days before a summit of heads of state and government.
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