■ Internet
Trump, penis ads top spam
Ads mentioning real estate tycoon Donald Trump and those hawking "Penis Patch" body enhancements were among the top 10 junk e-mails this year, according to America Online. Noticeably absent? Porn. "Porn is passe when it comes to spam," Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman said. Sexually suggestive e-mails took another tumble this year after slipping in popularity last year. More than a half-trillion junk e-mails, known as spam, were blocked by AOL filters, slightly above last year's levels, the company said. The number of junk e-mails reported by AOL's 26 million members worldwide has declined about 75 percent since 2003. E-mails using more sophisticated tactics that attempt to deceive recipients by purporting to be from a friend or a legitimate agency or bear subject lines such as ?ur Mortgage Application is Ready?re also beginning to replace blatant product promotions, AOL said.
■ China
Phone crackdown to begin
All mobile phone subscribers will be required to register using their real names next year, in a bid to curb rampant spam and growing fraud conducted over mobile services, the official Xinhua news agency said. The move is aimed at users of prepaid cellphone accounts, which can be opened easily. These accounts have no monthly fee, but instead are "charged up" using prepaid cards. The new rules, similar to those introduced in Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand and Malaysia, will require 200 million users of prepaid services to register using their real names, according to Xinhua. Phone companies have shut down more than 10,000 accounts this year for sending illegal messages with fraudulent, harassing or erotic text.
■ Internet
Web offered through lamps
A Singapore company hired to provide street lights for the largest city in Cameroon has devised a way to use the lamp posts to provide Internet access to local residents, the developers said yesterday. When the lights go on next year in the African city of Douala, Nex-G Systems will also be providing technology to connect people to the Internet, said chief executive officer Ronnie Persad, a 55-year-old Singapore-based Briton. The company won a US$29 million deal earlier this month to provide "smart" solar powered lamp posts to Cameroon. The company plans to install WiFi, a short-range wireless technology, on about 4,000 lamps in Douala, providing Internet access even to some of the city's remote areas.
■ Electronics
Philips to up stake in TCL
A unit of Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest consumer electronics maker, will buy an additional 5 percent stake in Chinese television and mobile phone maker TCL Corp, becoming the company's third-largest shareholder, TCL said yesterday. Philips Electronics China BV will pay 204.5 million yuan (US$25.3 million) for 129.3 million TCL shares, bringing its total stake in the Chinese company to 7.46 percent, TCL said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, where its shares are traded. It said the deal still requires government approval. TCL, a partner with France's Thomson SA in the world's biggest television set production venture, has sought tie-ups with several international electronics giants, including Alcatel SA of France and Japan's Toshiba Corp, as it pushes ahead with an ambitious expansion program.
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
The Presidential Office today thanked the US for enacting the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday, is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct such a review "not less than every five years." It must then submit an updated
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
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