■ Software
New Office for Apple
The latest version of Microsoft Corp's Office software for Apple computers will be in stores in the third week of next month, the company said. The announcement was scheduled for yesterday. Jessica Sommer, a Microsoft product manager, said Microsoft is scheduled to send the latest version of Office 2004 for Macs to manufacturers on April 14, paving the way for the product to get to store shelves the following month. Online retailers were also to begin offering the software for pre-order yesterday, Sommer said. The new software will cost the same as the previous version, she said. Office for Macs currently sells for anywhere between US$149 for educators to US$499 for the full professional version.
■ United States
Boeing suspension to end
The US Air Force is preparing to end an eight-month suspension on Boeing Co bidding for government rocket contracts, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday. Air Force and Boeing officials expect to announce an agreement in the next few weeks that paves the way for the No. 2 US defense contractor to resume bidding for contracts valued at up to US$5 billion up to 2010, the daily said, citing confidential sources. The Air Force stripped Boeing of US$1 billion in launch contracts and suspended three of the company's units from bidding on new rocket business last July over an industrial espionage scandal. Officials took the step after concluding that Boeing improperly came by thousands of pages of documents from rival Lockheed Martin Corp that gave Boeing an unfair advantage in the bidding process for a rocket launch contract.
■ Cellphones
Motorola ships V600
Motorola Inc, the world's second-largest maker of mobile phones, has begun shipping its V600 camera phone to AT&T Wireless Services Inc after four months of testing delays. The V600 lets customers take photos, send e-mail and make calls in 125 countries. It is available on AT&T Wireless' Web site for US$174.99 after a US$195 rebate, and will be in most of AT&T Wireless's retail stores by next week, AT&T spokesman Ritch Blasi said. Motorola is relying on the V600, already on sale in Europe, to win back market share lost to bigger competitor Nokia Oyj of Finland. Motorola's handset sales fell 3 percent in the fourth quarter in part because component shortages caused shipping delays for some phones.
■ Semiconductors
KEB proposes Hynix sale
Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), controlled by a US investment fund, proposed yesterday that creditors sell up to 20 percent of their stake in Hynix Semiconductor Inc. The proposal from bank president Robert Fallon came in an interview with the Yonhap news agency, a bank official said. Creditors including KEB hold a combined 81.4 percent stake in Hynix and are banned from selling their holdings until December 2006 as part of a bailout for the world's third largest microchip maker. Hynix, which accounts for 30 percent of South Korea's memory-chip exports, escaped insolvency last year with a 3.2 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) bailout arranged by creditors. KEB, taken over by US investment fund Lone Star in January, holds a 13.8 percent stake in Hynix.
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
FAST-TRACK: The deal is to be sent to the legislature, but time is of the essence, as Trump had raised tariffs on Seoul when it failed to quickly ratify a similar pact Taiwan and the US on Thursday signed a trade agreement that caps US tariffs on Taiwanese goods at 15 percent and provides preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural exports, including cars, and beef and pork products. The Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade confirms a 15 percent US tariff for Taiwanese goods, and grants Taiwanese semiconductors and related products the most-favorable-treatment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the Executive Yuan said. In addition, 2,072 items — representing nearly 20 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the US — would be exempt from additional tariffs and be subject only to
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday approved a special pardon exempting a woman in her 80s convicted of killing her disabled son from imprisonment. After carefully reviewing the case, Lai pardoned Lin Liu Lung-tzu (林劉龍子) from the prison sentence while acknowledging her conviction, citing the extreme circumstances she faced, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. Under Article 3 of the Amnesty Act (赦免法), the two kinds of pardons are exempting an offender from the execution of a punishment or declaring the punishment to be invalid. Kuo said Lin Liu had spent more than 50 years caring for her son, before
HOLIDAY RUSH: Airport passenger volume is expected to reach a new high, while southbound road traffic would likely peak from Tuesday As Lunar New Year travelers flock overseas, passenger traffic at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is expected to shatter records, as Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC, 桃園國際機場), Taiwan’s largest aviation hub operator, projected yesterday’s passenger volume to climb to 167,000. The figure comes after a record single-day high of 161,000 passengers on Thursday, and would surpass the previous pre-COVID-19 pandemic Lunar New Year peak of 166,000 passengers in 2019, TIAC said. Long lines could be seen forming as early as 7am yesterday, filling Terminal 1 of the airport almost to capacity, yet security checks took only 10 to 15 minutes. TIAC urged
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