Apple Computer said yesterday it was working to resolve a dispute over alleged labor abuses by an iPod manufacturer in China.
Hongfujin Precision Industry Co (
According to local media reports, the Shenzhen Intermediate Court, in Shenzhen, accepted the case and froze the personal assets of the two journalists, Wang You (
Chinese media and a journalists' advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, have criticized the move and urged Apple to intercede.
"Apple is working behind the scenes to help resolve this issue," an Apple spokesman, Jill Tan, said yesterday.
She said she could not comment further.
Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group (鴻準精密), which owns Hongfujin, has denied the allegations of labor abuses, although Apple Computer issued a report earlier this month acknowledging some violations of its code of conduct.
Reporters Without Borders sent an open letter to Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs, urging him to persuade Foxconn to drop its case against the journalists.
"We believe that all Wang and Weng did was to report the facts and we condemn Foxconn's reaction," said the letter, signed by Robert Menard, secretary-general of the group. "We therefore ask you to intercede on behalf of these two journalists."
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained