ITALY
Google pays 1m euro fine
Google has paid a 1 million euro (US$1.37 million) fine imposed by Italy’s data protection watchdog over complaints that cars it used to record images on Italian streets in 2010 were not clearly recognizable, the Italian regulator said on Thursday. “Cars belonging to the giant of Mountain View roamed Italy’s streets without being entirely recognizable as such, therefore not allowing the people present in those places to decide whether to be photographed or not,” it said in a statement, referring to Google’s base in Mountain View in California. Google has faced numerous privacy lawsuits in the US and Europe, relating to services including Street View, which gives a panoramic perspective on streets around the world. The fine announced on Thursday relates only to vehicles not being labeled clearly enough.
FRANCE
Economy to pick up: INSEE
France’s economy barely expanded at the start of this year, but growth should pick up, though it is likely to fall short of government forecasts, the national statistics agency said on Thursday. INSEE’s forecasting arm said in its quarterly outlook report that it believes the economy expanded by 0.1 percent in the first quarter. The Bank of France last month forecast 0.2 percent growth for the January to March period. Both forecasts are a slowdown from the 0.3 percent growth rate that France turned in for the final quarter of last year. A first estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product growth is due in May. INSEE expects growth to pick up to 0.3 percent in the second quarter and for the economy to expand 0.7 percent for the year. The government forecasts 0.9 percent growth, while a slower expansion could make it difficult to meet revenue targets and keep promises to the EU on reducing the public deficit.
UNITED STATES
Exports widen trade deficit
The US trade deficit unexpectedly widened in February as exports hit a five-month low, suggesting first-quarter growth could be much weaker than initially anticipated. Other data on Thursday showed activity in the services sector accelerating last month after being hampered by unusually cold weather. The Commerce Department said the deficit on the trade balance increased 7.7 percent to US$42.3 billion, the largest since September last year. The inflation-adjusted gap widened to US$50.1 billion from US$48.5 billion in January. Economists, who expected the deficit to narrow to $38.5 billion, said trade could slice off as much as half a percentage point from first-quarter gross domestic product. It added about a percentage point to fourth-quarter GDP.
ENERGY
Anadarko to pay US$5bn
Energy company Anadarko Petroleum Corp agreed on Thursday to pay more than US$5 billion to clean up areas across the US polluted by nuclear fuel, wood creosote and rocket fuel waste that caused cancer and other health problems. The agreement resolves a long-running lawsuit against the Kerr-McGee energy and chemical company, which Anadarko bought in 2006. The case was brought by a trust representing the US government, 11 state governments, Indian tribes and individuals. The trust sought cleanup costs at more than 2,000 sites and payment for claims from more than 8,000 people who said their exposure to Kerr-McGee’s wood treatment plants in Avoca, Pennsylvania, and Manville, New Jersey, caused cancer, which in some cases led to death.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the