■ Internet
`Homeless Hacker' gets bail
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Friday that the so-called "Homeless Hacker" accused of breaking into the computer network of The New York Times could remain free on US$250,000 bond but must restrict his use of computers. The man, Adrian Lamo, 22, had been released on similar conditions earlier in the week by a federal court in Sacramento, where he had surrendered to authorities. The court there banned Lamo from using computers at all. Lamo sat quietly in court, speaking only to acknowledge his rights. He did not enter a plea. On a court financial disclosure form, he wrote that he was unemployed and listed his only asset as US$50 in cash. Lamo "obtained LexisNexis search services valued in excess of US$300,000," the complaint said. It also said that the Times had found in an internal investigation that during three months last year an intruder had conducted more than 3,000 LexisNexis searches.
■ Real estate
Shanghai is sinking
Shanghai is to curb the number of new skyscrapers being built because it is gradually sinking under the weight of thousands of tall buildings, state media reported yesterday. The situation is particularly bad in the Lujiazui financial district, which has a high concentration of tall buildings and is sinking between 1.2cm to 1.5cm a year as a result, the China Daily said. The paper did not give any details of the city government's plan, saying only it would be announced within the next month. The city has about 3,000 buildings with 18 floors or more, and another 2,000 high-rise buildings are either under construction or in the planning stage, according to the paper.
■ Education
Toyota opens grad school
Japan's top automaker Toyota will set up a graduate school for information technology (IT) in the US, a report said yesterday. The new school, Toyota Technical Institute at Chicago, is to be housed at the University of Chicago and will open on Sept. 29, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in the evening edition. It is to be affiliated with a graduate school established by Toyota in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, the economic daily said. Toyota decided to take on the cutting-edge technology of the US, which the company considers indispensable in enhancing IT areas in order to maintain Japanese manufacturers' competitiveness, the daily said, without citing sources. It aims to have about 30 students, mostly from the US, in 2007, it said.
■ Markets
Asia unbothered by terror
Terrorist attacks appear to be having a diminishing effect on stock markets in Asia, an investment website said in a report yesterday. Fundsupermart tracked the Standard & Poor's 500 Index in the US after Sept. 11, 2001; the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) after the Bali blast last year and the Marriott bombing; and the Sensex after the recent explosions in Mumbai. Investors "should not let fears of terrorist attacks scare them from investing because, given some time, such events can be expected to have little impact on stock markets," Fundsupermart said. The JCI bounced back in two weeks after the Bali attack and within two days after the Marriott blast, according to the site's research. The Sensex closed at a level higher than where it was before the blast within one day. In the case of Sept. 11, the S&P 500 took one month to return to pre-attack levels.
RSS