■COMPUTERS
Data hold time may be cut
Microsoft said yesterday it was prepared to cut the amount of time it retains Internet users’ search data to six months from 18 if other Web giants also agreed to do so. The EU is piling pressure on Internet companies to reduce the amount of time they hold users’ personal Web searching data, saying in April that there was no basis for such information to be kept more than six months. Microsoft’s arch-rival Google said in September that it was halving the amount of time it keeps search data associated with a user’s unique Internet address to nine months from 18 months. “Microsoft evaluated the multiple uses of search data and is prepared to move to a six-month timeframe,” the US software giant said in a statement.
■SINGAPORE
More job cuts expected
More job cuts are expected in the first quarter of next year, a survey reported by the Straits Times showed yesterday. About half of the 629 bosses surveyed intend to cut jobs in the first three months of next year, compared with 10 percent who were polled on staff cuts between October and last month. The jobs cuts will be through retrenchments, not replacing staff who leave, and freezing hiring plans, it said, citing a survey by global human resource consultancy Manpower Inc, which had polled the 629 employers in Singapore. The survey showed that 46 percent of the bosses polled were expected to cut jobs while only 8 percent intended to recruit.
■SOUTH KOREA
IMF predicts recovery
The country’s economy, buffeted by the global meltdown, is fading fast but looks set to slowly recover next year, an IMF official said yesterday. “General measures of economic activity are decelerating rapidly,” Subir Lall, division chief in the Washington-based organization’s Asia-Pacific department, said in a speech. Lall cited slowdowns in consumer spending and exports as well as falling business confidence as evidence for the emerging weakness in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. The IMF is predicting economic growth of 2 percent next year for South Korea, compared with 5 percent last year.
■AUSTRALIA
Confidence at record low
Business confidence held at a record low last month, reinforcing speculation the economy may slide into its first recession since 1991. The sentiment index fell 1 point to minus 30 from October, the lowest level since the series began in 1989, according to a National Australia Bank Ltd survey of more than 560 companies conducted between Nov. 23 and Nov. 30. “The results of the November survey make grim reading,” said Alan Oster, chief economist at National Australia in Melbourne. “The financial crisis is now having real effects on the Australian economy, with significant revisions down on business views about future employment and investment.”
■AUTOMOBILES
Japan tests battery stations
Better Place, a US company that promotes electric vehicles, said yesterday it would build battery exchange stations in Japan as part of a government pilot project to encourage the use of green cars. Better Place builds battery exchange stations, where drivers with no time to charge can trade drained batteries for charged ones — providing infrastructure that helps make electric vehicles more practical. The Japanese Environment Ministry invited Better Place to take part in the feasibility project for three to six months, starting next month in the port city of Yokohama, Better Place said.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
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