GENEVA -- ITU gave a preliminary nod to the OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and developed a module for systems to aid transmission over cramped networks, an official here said. OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) will consider the move before ITU forwards the decisions to administrations for final approval, an official said.

Genius Products released 6 HD movies during 2006 and has “aggressive plans in the back half of 2007 to exploit high- def in both” the Blu-ray and HD DVD “formats as the installed base continues to expand,” Chmn. Stephen Bannon told analysts in a conference call Fri. The company also released more than 200 DVD titles during 2006 and expects to release about 300 this year, he said. It “processed more than 1.5 million orders” during 2006 and expects to ship more than 70 million DVD units this year, Bannon also said. Despite the disappointing showing of the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez-directed double feature Grindhouse at the box office, Genius is upbeat about how the title will fare when it’s released on DVD, the company said, noting the filmmakers have loyal fan bases. One factor that could have hurt the title’s theatrical performance is its approximate 3- hour running time which, when combined with the time it takes for some consumers to drive to a theater, could increase a theatergoer’s time commitment to nearly 5 hours at one time - - an issue that won’t affect the movie’s performance on home entertainment formats, Genius said. The company has exclusive rights to distribute that movie on DVD and other optical disc formats as part of the pact it signed with The Weinstein Co. (TWC) in which TWC received a controlling stake in Genius last year. Genius signed 15 “major content deals” during 2006 and an additional 5 this year, said Bannon. The company’s catalog grew from only 750 at the end of 2005 to more than 3,500 titles at the end of 2006, he told analysts. Genius also decided to separate its legacy business from its branded business “to focus more time and energy on our branded business including TWC,” said CEO Trevor Drinkwater. The company is “transitioning” to the new business model during the first half of this year, he said, adding “we believe this will allow us to manage the now-expansive Genius Branded Business with our current sales and marketing team and will expand our ability to effectively service other independent content providers.” The comments came as Genius reported preliminary pro forma revenue of more than $380 million for fiscal 2006 and said it still expects to report fiscal 2007 revenue of $700-$800 million. Genius expects to file a 10-K with the SEC this week, it said, adding its 2006 audit is arriving late due to its “unprecedented growth,” the closing of the TWC transaction in July, the 15 new brand partnerships that closed in 2006 and non-cash restatements. It also recently changed its audit firm to Ernst & Young.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued partial expedited final results of the antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of honey from China for the period of December 1, 2004 through November 30, 2005.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has made a final affirmative antidumping (AD) duty determination that certain polyester staple fiber from China is being, or is likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value.

Failing registrar RegisterFly must turn over domain-name records to ICANN and open its books for an audit, a federal court ruled Tues. Under the temporary restraining order from the U.S. Dist. Court, L.A., RegisterFly must give accurate data on all domains registered by its customers -- information ICANN said it has been denied. ICANN will use the data to begin transferring the registrar’s domains to another registrar. A preliminary injunction hearing is set April 26. ICANN also has sued RegisterFly on allegations including breaching its registrar accreditation agreement.

New Games: Preorders for coming Nintendo DS games Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl passed 500,000 combined in the U.S., Nintendo of America (NOA) said. Based on the “huge presales” for the titles, NOA expects them to be “among the top-selling games for all of 2007,” it said. With 4 days to go until they arrive, 533,000-plus preorders were taken for the games, NOA said. That means the games already “more than doubled the presale numbers” of Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen, shipped in 2004, the company said. Those titles “went on to sell more than 3.4 million combined in North America,” and “consistently ranked among the top-selling videogame products on Amazon.com,” it said. The Official Nintendo Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Player’s Guide will be available April 22… NFL Rookie of the Year Vince Young will be on the cover of Madden NFL 08, the latest version of the #1 EA Sports football series, Electronic Arts said. The Tennessee Titan quarterback’s appearance on the cover “makes him the youngest NFL star to grace the cover” of the game franchise, EA said. Last year’s Madden NFL 07 sold 7 million-plus units and was the #1-selling game in N. America for 2006, the publisher said, citing NPD Funworld data. The franchise is in its 18th year, with 60 million-plus copies of games in the series sold to date, generating more than $2 billion at retail, EA said. Madden NFL 08, developed by EA Tiburon in Orlando, will ship Aug. 14 for Xbox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Wii and PC… Eidos Interactive will distribute various new Majesco Entertainment games to PAL territories as part of a deal the companies signed, terms not disclosed. The deal will “predominantly focus” on Nintendo DS titles including Cake Mania, The New York Times Crosswords, MechAssault: Phantom War and Nancy Drew: The Deadly Secret of Olde World Park, plus unannounced Wii and DS titles, the companies said. “There is an obvious synergy between Eidos’ focus on the casual games market and Majesco’s expertise in this field,” said Ian Livingstone, product acquisition dir. at Eidos. The companies will launch 8 new titles by this summer and have “more than 15 other titles in the pipeline,” they said… Marvel Entertainment and Sega expanded their ties to include the rights for the Japanese game maker to develop and distribute games inspired by Marvel “Hall-of-Fame” franchises: Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor. Terms weren’t disclosed. But the companies said as part of the exclusive, multi-year global licensing deal, Sega will create titles for console, handheld and PC platforms based on the comics and feature film adaptations. The deal follows a Marvel-Sega pact to create titles based on Iron Man. That game and film are to debut in May 2008. Under the expanded deal, Sega will develop a title based on Marvel’s coming The Incredible Hulk feature film, hitting theaters June 13… Zoo Digital Publishing will ship Premier Manager 08 for PS2 and PC Aug. 17. The title “will mark the 13th game in the established football management series,” improving on earlier editions by including new character and facilities systems, as well as a new set of analytical tools… THQ will ship Worms: Open Warfare 2 for PSP, Nintendo DS and wireless handsets this summer… In its 5th week available, Sony Computer Entertainment’s PS2 sequel God of War II was again the #1-rented videogame in the U.S., according to preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended April 15. The only new game in the top 10 was Nintendo’s Super Paper Mario for Wii at #7.

The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has posted to its Web site the monthly reports containing official February 2007 trade data from the Department of Census for imports and exports of textiles and apparel:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the antidumping (AD) duty administrative and new shipper reviews of freshwater crawfish tail meat from China for the review period September 1, 2004 through August 31, 2005(with the exception of one company, Xuzhou Jinjiang Foodstuffs Co., Ltd., for which the review period is September 1, 2004 through October 5, 2005).

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the antidumping (AD) duty new shipper review of honey from Argentina for the review period of December 1, 2004 through December 31, 2005.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of steel concrete reinforcing bar from Korea for the period of September 1, 2004 through August 31, 2005.