■Telecom
Public Web access planned
Verizon Communications Inc, the largest US local-telephone services provider, plans to equip some of its more than 300,000 public telephones with wireless Web access, to boost its position as an Internet provider, the Washington Post reported. The move is the latest in a series of steps that Verizon is taking to compete with high-speed Internet services offered by cable-television providers, the Post said. The company recently announced it will cut monthly rates for high-speed Internet access by as much as 40 percent and expand the reach of its digital subscriber-line, or DSL, service. Verizon has about 1.3 million DSL customers, trailing cable companies including Comcast Corp, with about 4 million broadband subscribers, and AOL Time Warner Inc's Time Warner Cable with about 2.7 million.
■ Philanthropy
Gates calls for AIDS action
Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates said in a televised interview that capitalism is failing to curb diseases such as AIDS that kill millions around the world. "You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done," Gates said in interview with PBS's Now With Bill Moyers. "But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it's really let us down." Gates, who has a net worth of US$40.7 billion, is the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine. He pledged US$200 million in January to help accelerate research on AIDS, malaria and other diseases. "How we deal with the AIDS epidemic should be one of the greatest ways that the world gets measured, the report card for this era these next few decades," Gates said.
■ Automotive
Japan, EU join efforts
Japan and the EU will work together to set the standard for next-generation auto technologies, including fuel cells and intelligent transportation systems (ITS), a report said yesterday. They will cooperate with Japanese and European auto makers to produce auto techno--logies up to standards set by the International Organ-ization for Standardization (ISO), the Yomiuri Shimbun said. ISO, a non-governmental organization, is the world's largest developer of standards with its principal activity of developing technical standards. With a tie-up with the EU, Japan hopes to better compete with the US in the field of next-generation auto tech-nologies, the daily said. By 2005, Japan and the EU hope to win an approval from ISO for their fuel-cell technologies, it said.
■ Fiscal policy
France to freeze spending
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has written to Cabinet members, confirming his decision to freeze state spending for next year at this year's levels. "The government mustn't spend a euro more in 2004," Raffarin wrote in a letter dated May 7 and quoted in Le Monde newspaper on Saturday. The European Commission has called for France to take urgent action to trim its ballooning public deficit or face multi-million euro fines. Raffarin earlier told members of parliament that any new spending should be financed by cuts elsewhere. "If we want to give society some breathing space, the state must have a somewhat rigorous budget discipline," Le Monde quoted him as saying.
Agencies
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a