INTERNET
Sony closes Web site
Sony Corp has shut down a Web site set up to help millions of users affected by last month’s massive data breach after finding a “security hole.” The site had been designed to help 77 million users of its PlayStation Network reset their passwords after finding the security weakness. The issue, which Sony alerted customers to on its PlayStation Web site, marks yet another setback for the company, which has been under fire since hackers broke into its systems about a month ago. The notice to users about the Web site shutdown can be found at: http://bit.ly/JkCma
AVIATION
Air France-KLM profit returns
Air France-KLM says it returned to profit in its latest fiscal year as the rebounding global economy lifted traffic and helped offset a 1 billion euro (US$1.42 billion) rise in its fuel costs. Europe’s largest airline by passengers says in a statement it made a 613 million euro net profit for the 12 months ending on March 31, in contrast to the 1.6 billion euro net loss a year earlier when the global economic crisis hammered freight and passenger traffic. Air France-KLM warned that “uncertainties” including the long-term impact of Japan’s earthquake, crises in the Middle East and Africa and fuel prices could weigh on its performance this year. The airline forecast an operating profit higher than the 122 million euros it made last year.
BEVERAGES
SABMiller profit jumps 26%
Britain-based brewer SABMiller, the maker of Grolsch and Miller Lite, said yesterday that full-year net profits jumped 26 percent to US$2.4 billion on rising sales in developing markets. The profit after tax level for the year to March 31 compared with net earnings of US$1.91 billion in 2009 to last year, SABMiller said in a statement. “SABMiller’s financial performance for the year was very strong,” the company’s chairman Meyer Kahn said in the earnings statement. “While we maintained focus on cost management, we continued to increase investment behind our local and international brand portfolios.” Total annual sales rose 7 percent to US$28.3 billion.
ENERGY
STX to build Iraq plants
South Korea’s STX Heavy Industries said yesterday it has signed a 3 trillion won (US$2.76 billion) deal to build 25 diesel power plants in Iraq. The company said it would build the complexes, which will be capable of generating a total 2,500 megawatts, by June next year under the agreement signed with Iraq’s electricity ministry in Baghdad. The deal is part of Iraq’s project to build 50 new power plants at a cost of US$6.25 billion, it said. STX Heavy said Iraq has also expressed its desire to sign two other deals in a month for construction of a steel plant and a 500 megawatt gas-powered plant.
NEW ZEALAND
Record deficit forecast
The government has unveiled a bleak annual budget that forecasts a record deficit following a devastating earthquake earlier this year. The government yesterday said its books would be NZ$16.7 billion (US$13.2 billion) in the red for the year ending on June 30 next year — the highest deficit in the country’s history. However, it pledged a return to a modest NZ$1.3 billion surplus within four years, a year earlier than previously projected. The budget, which contains cuts to government spending, is widely seen as a gamble by Prime Minister John Key that voters will respect his efforts to get the nation’s books back in order.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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