SEVERAL top high-technology firms, including Qualcomm Inc, Texas Instruments and TCL Corp, agreed yesterday to set up facilities in a software industrial park in Pudong New Area to improve Shanghai's innovation level.

Other firms, including SAP and Citicorp Software and Technology Services, will also move into the Shanghai Pudong Software Industrial Park located in the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park. The Pudong park was jointly established by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Shanghai city government, and is also the National Software Industrial Base.

The park authorities have invested 600 million yuan (US$92 million) in the new 150,000-square-meter Zone B where the firms will be based. The new firms will hire more than 10,000 software professionals in the park.

China yesterday denied it supports hacking activities and said it is part of global efforts to combat computer security threats, a day after Google disclosed some of its e-mail users suffered attacks originating from within the country.

Google disclosed on Wednesday that personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior United States government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached, The Associated Press reported.

THE E. coli bacteria responsible for a deadly outbreak that has left 18 dead and sickened hundreds in Europe is a new strain that has never been seen before, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a mutant form of two different E. coli bacteria, with aggressive genes that could explain why the Europe-wide outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.

China will boost the integrated circuit (IC) sector at a "state strategy" level over the next five years through 2015, Yang Xueshan, vice minister of industry and information technology has said.

China's IC sales will likely top 330 billion yuan ($50.54 billion) in 2015 and meet 27.5 percent of domestic demand, Yang told Xinhua Friday.

Next five years should focus on new economic pattern based on balanced development of consumption, investment and exports

The average 7 percent growth target set by the Chinese government in the recently published 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) demonstrates its determination to achieve normal and sustainable economic development after the previous pursuit of fast-track growth.

China has experienced a 10.48 percent growth rate year-on-year over the past decade, with its economic share in the world's total increasing to 8.5 percent in 2009 from 1.8 percent in 1978. The country replaced Japan to become the world's second largest economy in 2010, with its economic aggregate nearing 40 trillion yuan ($6.1 trillion).

CHINA is to suspend approvals for new nuclear plants and intensify safety checks on reactors in operation and under construction amid Japan's reactor crisis, the State Council said yesterday.

The decision signals a slowdown in the development of China's nuclear industry, which is the world's No. 1 in terms of capacity under construction.

China will accelerate drafting safety rules for its nuclear industry and adjust its mid and long-term development plans, according to a statement released after a State Council meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

"We will suspend approval of nuclear power projects, including those already in the preliminary stage of development, until revised safety regulations are promulgated," the State Council said.

Existing plants will be inspected and those under construction will be reviewed under the "most advanced standards," the State Council said, noting that the "development of the nuclear industry must make safety the top priority."

"Any hazards must be thoroughly dealt with, and those that do not conform to safety standards must immediately cease construction," the statement said.

Armand Cao, Shanghai-based senior energy and power consultant at Frost & Sullivan, said this could delay China's nuclear plans by at least one to two years, and even longer if the Japanese crisis deteriorated.

China has 13 operational rectors which are located along the country's eastern and southern coasts, and is building at least 25 with the government fast-tracking approvals in the past two years in a bid to sustain economic growth and minimize pollution caused by coal-fired generation.

The nation wants at least 15 percent of its energy mix to come from non-fossil fuels, including nuclear, by 2020.

The State Council also required the country's environmental regulator, the National Nuclear Safety Administration, to step up monitoring of radioactive substances and issue alerts timely, the statement said.

The statement said all reactors in operation in China are safe and the country remains unaffected by radioactive leakages following explosions at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant which was crippled by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing tsunami.

The radioactive leakages won't affect public health in China since they are diluted by the air and sea, the statement said, citing experts.

Latest air monitoring results show that China remains unaffected by radioactive leaks following explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant, the nuclear watchdog said yesterday.

The administration said that monitoring stations in 41 cities across the country had tested levels of radioactive material in the air and "nothing unusual had been discovered."

Forecast is not whether e-readers will replace books, but when?

One of the main topics of discussion at last week's 17th Beijing International Book Fair was not whether the printed book was dead - for some that was a given - but whether publishers might be about to die with it.