INTERNET
Mumsnet hit by ‘Heartbleed’
British parenting Web site Mumsnet is the latest organization to have been hacked due to the “Heartbleed” bug, founder Justine Roberts said on Monday. “Last week we became aware of the Heartbleed bug and immediately applied a fix to close the OpenSSL security hole,” she said in a statement. “However, it became apparent that users’ data submitted via our login page had been accessed prior to our applying this fix.” All 1.5 million registered users were asked to change their passwords. Roberts said she did not know how many users had data stolen. “The worst case scenario is that the data of every Mumsnet user account was accessed,” she said.
ITALY
Pay cap for state-run firms
The government named four new directors to state-controlled companies on Monday, including three women, and capped executive pay at such firms at 238,000 euros (US$329,000) a year. The shake-up affects some of the country’s largest state-controlled companies: oil firm Eni, energy company Enel, industrial giant Finmeccanica and the postal service. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he is looking to cut 500 million euros from executive salaries at state-run companies.
UKRAINE
Interest rate hiked
The central bank increased its benchmark interest rate for the first time in eight months on Monday in a bid to defend its currency, which has lost almost two-fifths of its value since the start of the year due to the conflict with Russia. The bank hiked the benchmark rate to 9.5 percent from 6.5 percent in its first change since August last year. The rate change went into effect yesterday. The bank also raised its overnight loan rate to 14.5 percent from 7.5 percent.
INTERNET
Google buying dronemaker
Google on Monday announced that it is acquiring Titan Aerospace, a maker of solar-powered drones that could be used to boost Internet access to remote areas. Titan’s atmospheric satellites, which are still in development and not yet commercially available, can stay in the air for as long as five years, according to reports. “It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring Internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation,” a Google spokesman said in an e-mail. Financial terms of the transaction were not released.
TRADING
Twitter bosses keep shares
Twitter cofounders Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams and chief executive Dick Costolo have no short-term plans to sell their shares in the social network, according to documents released on Monday. The news comes weeks ahead of the so-called lockup expiration on May 5, the date after which insiders would be allowed to sell holdings following Twitter’s initial public offering last year.
FOODSTUFFS
Nestle sales rise 4.2%
Food company Nestle SA says sales rose 4.2 percent in the first quarter despite deflationary price pressures in Europe. The Switzerland-based maker of Lean Cuisine, Nespresso and Haagen-Dazs yesterday said that sales of 20.8 billion Swiss francs (US$23.6 billion) were held back by a strong franc and by a flat retail environment in Europe. Sales there fell 0.8 percent. Candy sales were reduced by a later Easter, which pushed sales of sweets into the second quarter.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
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