Thu, Nov 17, 2005 page12

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Internet
  File-sharing service closes

  Online file-sharing service i2hub, which linked university students and others over the Internet2 network, has shut down under threat of a lawsuit from the recording industry. The entire network linking users of the i2hub file-swapping application was taken off-line on Monday, founder Wayne Chang in Boston said on Tuesday via e-mail. Visitors to the i2hub Web site were greeted on Tuesday by the message "Remember i2hub." At i2hub's peak, hundreds of thousands of students from more than 500 universities were regularly using it, said Chang, 22, who created the software in 2003 as a freshman at the University of Massachusetts. I2hub was one of seven firms behind file-sharing software who received cease-and-desist letters from the Recording Industry Association of America in September accusing them of enabling computer users to distribute copyright-protected music without permission online.

  ■ Automobiles

  Toyota to upgrade hybrids

  Toyota Motor will mount a more fuel efficient and less costly hybrid engine on its vehicles from 2008, a report said yesterday. Toyota plans to double its production capacity for hybrid systems from the current 300,000 units a year to help halve the cost gap between traditional gasoline and hybrid engines, the Asahi Shimbun said. It also plans to reduce the weight of the system, which it will use on most of its mid-size or larger vehicles, the daily said without citing sources. Toyota will also produce key components of the system in the US, it said. Toyota would not confirm the report. "We have been pushing ahead with the development of a third-generation system but it has not been decided when it will be put in use," a company spokeswoman said, adding that the year 2008 could be "one possibility."

  ■ Energy

  Malaysia pushes bio-diesel

  Malaysia will switch to bio-diesel next year -- a year ahead of schedule -- with government vehicles slated to start using the palm oil-laced fuel to cushion the impact of rising fuel prices, a newspaper said yesterday. The government was expected to save "hundreds of millions of ringgit" through cutbacks in oil subsidies by convincing Malaysians to switch to bio-diesel, a technologically proven mixture of diesel and palm oil, said Peter Chin, the plantations, industries and commodities minister, according to the Star. The fuel is a mixture of 5 percent palm oil and 95 percent diesel, but Chin said eventually bio-diesel will be made of 20 percent palm oil and 80 percent diesel. Diesel-powered vehicles belonging to several ministries will begin using bio-diesel next year before the alternative fuel is introduced to the public, the report said. Malaysia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil.

  ■ Financing

  ADB notes bond barriers

  Financial integration in East Asia has made significant progress but is being restrained by regulatory barriers, according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday. Markets remained underdeveloped, especially the bonds, said this month's issue of Asia Bond Monitor. It said that of the total local currency bonds outstanding worldwide, which stood at US$44 trillion at the end of last year, only 3 percent was held by emerging economies in Asia. This compared with the US accounting for 44 percent, the EU for 26 percent and Japan with 20 percent.
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