■ Gaming
Sony to pay damages
Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp's video game unit has been ordered to pay US$90.7 million in damages over a patent infringement lawsuit in the US related to the PlayStation2 console, the company said yesterday. But the Tokyo-based company will fight the decision by the federal district court in Oakland, California, and appeal to the US High Court, a Sony Computer Entertain-ment spokesman said on condition of anonymity. In the March 24 decision, Sony Computer Entertainment was ordered to pay damages to Immersion, based in San Jose, California, which develops and licenses digital technology. In a 2002 lawsuit, Immersion accused Sony of patent infringement with the Dual Shock controller for PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
■ China
Hu heads central bank
China yesterday appointed central banker Hu Xiaolian (胡曉煉) as its top foreign exchange regulator, filling a vacancy created when the former currency chief was made chairman of a state-owned bank. In her new post as head of the State Administration for Foreign Exchange, Hu will be in charge of managing China's huge foreign reserves and carrying out planned currency trading reforms. The appointment isn't expected to cause any abrupt changes in China's foreign exchange policy, which has kept the value of its currency -- the yuan -- at about 8.28 to the US dollar for more than a decade. Hu, 46, has spent most of her career with the foreign exchange administration (SAFE). She became deputy director at SAFE in 2001, and was named one of three executive assistant presidents at China's central bank in August last year. She replaces Guo Shuqing (郭樹清), who was named chairman of China Construction Bank on Friday.
■ Acquisitions
Web firms regain popularity
Internet companies are once again popular acquisitions for traditional media firms, the San Francisco Chronicle said. IAC/InterActiveCorp's agreement to pay US$1.85 billion for search engine Ask Jeeves Inc, Yahoo Inc's plans to buy online photography company Flickr and Hewlett-Packard Co's purchase of Snapfish are among the acquisitions announced last week, the newspaper said. While the pace of acquisitions hasn't matched the late 1990s, the activity reflects an increase from the slower pace of recent years, the newspaper said. Yahoo and Google Inc are benefiting from high demand for online advertising, prompting traditional media companies to expand their Internet presence to get a larger share of the advertising market.
■ Airlines
Flights to China to double
Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday it will increase by 50 percent its passenger capacity to Beijing from June 1. SIA, one of the world's most profitable carriers, will fly three times daily between Singapore and Beijing, up from two times a day. "This represents a 50 percent increase in capacity from the twice-daily flights, or an additional 288 seats a day," SIA said in a statement. With the launch of the additional service, SIA and its regional wing, SilkAir, will be operating 120 flights weekly to the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fuzhou and Kunming.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
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
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
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