■ Software
Microsoft eyes India
A Microsoft Corp executive said that moving some software development work to India would help the company save money and accomplish more, according to a presentation obtained by a Washington state union. Moving some work to India could "leverage the Indian economy's lower cost structure," according to slides from a July presentation by Senior Vice President Brian Valentine of the Windows operating system group. The slides were posted on the Web site of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake confirmed their authenticity. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which is investing US$400 million in India over three years, plans to hire 5,000 workers by June 30 to add to the more than 50,000 it had at the start of its fiscal year in July.
■ Economics
Germany stagnates
Germany's economy stagnated in the fourth quarter as unemployment at a 4-and-a-half-year high sapped consumer confidence and the government cut spending. GDP was unchanged in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, the Federal Statistics Office said. Economists had expected a contraction of 0.1 percent. The economy expanded 0.5 percent from the year-ago period. Europe's largest economy, which last year grew at its slowest pace in almost a decade, has barely expanded since a recession in the second half of 2001. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's popularity is waning as companies from truck maker MAN AG to Deutsche Bank AG eliminate jobs. "The consumer will be a brake on the economy" this year, said David Kohl, an economist at Bank Julius Baer in Frankfurt.
■ Wireless
Qualcomm to reduce stake
Qualcomm Inc, whose patents are the basis for cellphones used by about 140 million people, said its investment in wireless operators will slow because a surge in users will only come at the end of next year. The San Diego-based company, which develops technology for the use of high-speed mobile data services such as downloading video on cellphones, said it hasn't decided how much it will spend on these investments this year. "The amount of money we invest in operators would decline over time, but we are opportunistic and there are always special opportunities that come along that we'd consider," Jeff Jacobs, Qualcomm's president of global development, said in an interview in Singapore.
■ Biotech
GM corn approved
A new corn genetically designed to resist rootworm can go onto the market, the Environmental Protection Agency announced. "This new variety of corn pest control holds great promise for reducing reliance on conventional insecticides now used on millions of acres of corn in the US" Stephen Johnson, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said Tuesday. Monsanto, a St. Louis biotech company, designed the corn variety so it would produce its own insecticide to fend off rootworm, a pest whose larvae feed off the plant's roots. The plant's pesticide is derived from a protein contained in a natural soil bacterium called Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis. Farmers have had to depend on chemical insecticides and alternating soybean and corn crops every other year to control rootworm.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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