■ Telephony
AT&T could cut 10,000 jobs
AT&T Inc plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs, mostly through normal turnover, if its US$67 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp is approved by shareholders and regulators, AT&T's chief financial officer said. The work force reduction would take place over three years, AT&T's Rick Lindner said on Monday. Before the cuts, the combined company would have around 316,000 employees, including Cingular Wireless LLC, which is now an AT&T-BellSouth joint venture. The new company would be the US' largest phone company -- with nearly half of all lines. It would also be the largest cellphone carrier and the largest provider of broadband Internet service.
■ Telephony
Cingular offers video clips
Cingular Wireless LLC, the biggest US mobile-phone service provider, will begin providing sports and entertainment video clips to handset users. Viewers will be able to watch three- to five-minute clips from media companies including Fox News, ESPN and HBO, said Jim Ryan, a Cingular vice president. The service is available to subscribers who pay US$20 or more a month for broadband services. Carriers are racing to make viewing videos on handsets as easy as watching television. Verizon Wireless, the second-largest US carrier, began V-Cast for videos last year.
■ Computers
Sun sues Hynix
Sun Microsystems Inc, the world's fourth-largest maker of server computers, sued Hynix Semiconductor Inc over antitrust claims after four Hynix executives agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges. The lawsuit, filed on March 2 in San Jose, California, claims Hynix, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, and five other companies colluded to fix prices. A day earlier, the four Hynix executives agreed to serve prison sentences and pay fines of US$250,000 each in the US Justice Department probe of a conspiracy to set prices in the US$25.3 billion-a-year dynamic random access memory market.
■ Banking
UK card fraud down
Credit and debit card fraud fell significantly for the first time in 10 years last year in part due to the introduction of the chip and pin technology, figures showed yesterday. Total card fraud losses fell by 13 percent, from £504.8 million (US$886.3 million) in 2004 to £439.4 million (US$771.5) last year, according to figures from APACS, the UK payments association. "Seeing card fraud losses come down is cast-iron proof that chip and pin is doing its job," Sandra Quinn of APACS said in a statement. Chip and pin technology was introduced in 2003 and UK consumers are now no longer able to sign when paying with their cards but have to key in the four-digit pin.
■ Electronics
Hitachi plans robot
Hitachi is working on an R2D2-like security robot on wheels that can map out its surroundings using infrared sensors and a camera to detect missing items, suspicious packages and intruders. The 57cm tall robot, which looks like a trash can and is reminiscent of the small, beeping robot in Star Wars, has a swiveling camera that protrudes like a periscope, enabling it to watch for suspicious changes in the landscape and send photos to a guard, Hitachi said yesterday.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2