■ Computers
Microsoft launching program
Microsoft Corp said yesterday it will launch a major new program in Japan to promote the use of its products among small and medium businesses. Speaking at a conference in Tokyo, Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer said the company's additional investment would be in the "tens of millions of dollars." Microsoft said the new program would include the opening of four new Microsoft stores nationwide bringing the total to 11 by the end of next week. The company also said it would conduct a nationwide bus tour to promote its products and services.
■ Free Trade
Seoul rejects concessions
South Korea will not make major concessions in talks with the US merely to meet the target date for a free trade agreement (FTA), South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday. "The government will do its best to bring the FTA to conclusion at an early date by all means," he told parliament in a state of the nation address read by Prime Minister Han Myeong-Sook. "However, under no circumstances will we make concessions on important matters just to reach the target date." After a fourth round of talks last month in the South Korean resort island of Jeju, both sides expressed hope for an eventual deal even though the lengthy negotiations will drag on into next year. A fifth round is scheduled for next month in the US and a sixth round in January in South Korea.
■ Automobiles
Toyota flex-fuel plans
Japan's leading automaker Toyota Motor plans to roll out flexible-fuel vehicles in North America that can run on different mixtures of ethanol and gasoline, a report said yesterday. The system will be first installed in the Tundra pick-up truck as early as 2008, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said without citing sources. Toyota will expand its line-up of environmentally friendly vehicles against a backdrop of high gasoline prices and stricter emission regulations expected to take effect in North America around 2009. Toyota's flex-fuel models would run on gasoline as well as a fuel blend that contains as much as 85 percent ethanol, the newspaper said. The flex-fuel Tundra would be produced either at Toyota's Indiana plant or a Texas site that is scheduled to open later this month. Output is estimated at several tens of thousands, the newspaper said.
■ Gambling
Ladbrokes in 888 talks
British bookmaker Ladbrokes confirmed yesterday that it was in talks to buy 888 Holdings PLC, the online gambling group. In a statement, Ladbrokes said it "can confirm that it is in the early stages of reviewing a possible transaction involving 888. No decision has been made as to whether any proposal will be made to 888." In an interview yesterday, Kiaran O'Brien, a company spokesman, said the talks began a few days ago and that it was too early to estimate the possible sale price for Ladbrokes. He described an estimate of ?470 million (US$892 million) in the British media as too high. 888 Holdings is trying to prop up its business after the US effectively banned Internet gaming. The company was among several London-listed gaming groups to close or sell their US business after US Congress added to an unrelated bill a provision that would make it illegal for banks and credit-card companies to settle payments for online gambling sites.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
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