■ Internet
S Korea heads spam list
South Korea overtook China as the world's leading host of Web sites that send out unsolicited advertisements via e-mail, a study said. In August, South Korea hosted 47 percent of Web sites that send so-called spam e-mail, overtaking China, which accounted for 74 percent of such Web sites two months earlier, Commtouch Software Ltd, an e-mail software maker, said in a press release distributed by Business Wire. By product category, drug advertisements were the most common type of spam, accounting for 38 percent of unsolicited e-mails, followed by solicitations for software, financing, shopping and pornography, the statement said. South Korea has the world's highest penetration of high-speed Internet, with the equivalent of three-quarters of homes having so-called broadband Internet access, according to government figures.
■ Economy
China to keep up controls
China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) yesterday warned that Beijing risks another wave of economic overheating if it relaxes its macro administrative controls too early. "The macro controls are still at a crucial stage and ... have achieved an initial effect, but any relaxation could cause a rebound," Zhou said in a statement on the People's Bank of China Web site. A series of economic and administrative measures to try and slow surging investment over the past year has helped cool fixed asset investment growth to 28.6 percent in the first half of the year compared with a 43 percent rate in the first quarter.
■ APEC Summit
Save energy, IMF head says
IMF head Rodrigo Rato said Asia-Pacific economies need to conserve energy because of rising oil prices, as representatives from 21 APEC nations gathered in Santiago, Chile, yesterday for a finance ministers' meeting. "We believe it wrong to offer fiscal incentives to consume energy, moreover of imported energy, and policies ... should clearly translate into consumer conservation of energy," Rato said. Oil prices jumped again on Wednesday, with New York prices closing at US$44 a barrel, after an announcement that US crude stocks had dropped for the fifth straight week raised supply worries. "We stand before a new energy landscape, so all of us must consider ourselves in a situation that will not change, neither in the short or long term," Rato said on Wednesday.
■ Economy
US in `fragile' recovery
The US economy is in a "fragile" recovery which is threatened by rising oil prices, 2001 Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Wednesday. Stiglitz blamed the policies of President George W. Bush for the US economy's failure to recover. "The recovery is fragile, we had several years of weak economy and normally after that, you have strong growth," said Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank and former adviser to former president Bill Clinton, who supports Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry. "With the oil prices going up, it takes money out of the economy, it's going to Saudi Arabia. We have this uncertainty about oil prices to which we have contributed by our mismanagement of the situation in the Middle East," he said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft