■SOFTWARE
Google backs EC case
Google threw its backing on Tuesday behind the European Commission’s (EC) antitrust complaint against Microsoft, in the latest salvo in the rivalry between the Internet search king and the software giant. Sundar Pichai, Google vice president for product management, said in a post on the company blog that Google was joining the EC’s complaint against Microsoft for tying its Internet Explorer Web browser to its Windows operating system.
■HONG KONG
Economy will dip up to 3%
The territory’s economy will shrink by 2 percent to 3 percent this year, the first annual contraction since it was battered a decade ago by the Asian financial crisis, Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) said yesterday. Tsang offered a gloomy economic outlook in his annual budget speech, saying consumer spending, exports and the property sector had also been badly hit by the global financial crisis.
■LABOR
Microsoft to help jobless
Microsoft is tossing lifelines to people in the US lacking technology skills needed to win jobs in the Internet Age. Microsoft teamed with political leaders in several states to launch an Elevate America initiative expected to provide online and real world technology training to as many as 2 million people during the next three years.
■AUTOMOBILES
Japanese exports plunge
Japan’s major automakers yesterday reported declines in exports and global production in January as the global economic downturn reduced demand for cars. Toyota Motor Corp suffered a 57.1 percent plunge in exports in January from the same month a year ago to 96,864 units and a 39.1 percent fall in global output to 487,984 units, the company said. The world’s leading carmaker, which includes Daihatsu Motor Co and Hino Motors Ltd, saw its domestic production fall 34.6 percent in January to 277,472 units. Toyota’s domestic vehicle sales were also down 17.1 percent.
■MINING
De Beers halts mines
Diamond giant De Beers says it is halting mining in Botswana for the next seven weeks as the global recession takes its toll on gem demand. Debswana, a joint venture of De Beers and the Botswana government, said the suspension began yesterday. But Debswana also says one of its four mines and a processing operation will remain closed through the end of the year. Joe Tlhagale, spokesman for the Botswana Mineworkers Union, said on Tuesday that he was trying to determine the impact on Debswana’s 6,000 employees.
■TELECOMS
Fixed, mobile units merge
Europe’s biggest telecommunications operator, Deutsche Telekom, plans to merge its shrinking fixed-line unit with its mobile operations, following the example of Swisscom, the Financial Times Deutschland said yesterday. Deutsche Telekom was expected to reorganize its operations according to geographic zones but not cut jobs, the newspaper said, citing sources close to the company. The telecoms operator has lost fixed-line customers on a regular basis for several years, and its fixed and mobile operations account for around half of annual sales of 60 billion euros (US$77 billion), the report said. The business daily Handelsblatt, however, said Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile units abroad would remain independent. Deutsche Telekom declined to comment on the reports.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS