■AUSTRALIA
Jobless rate edges down
The unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent last month from 5.4 percent the previous month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The economy created 26,900 new jobs last month, the bureau said. The consensus forecast was for the rate to hold steady at 5.4 percent, with a net increase of 20,000 jobs. The jobless rate was tipped to decline to 5.0 percent in 2010-2011 and 4.75 percent the following year, according to the annual budget estimates.
■ELECTRONICS
Samsung expanding in US
Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chip maker, said yesterday it would spend US$3.6 billion to expand its US plant to meet growing demand. The investment will be used to build two new production lines at the factory in Austin, Texas, for large system integration chips for TVs and mobile phones, the South Korean firm said. The US plant, which opened in 1996, is Samsung’s only overseas production line and mainly produces flash memory chips for MP3 players and digital cameras.
■TELECOMS
Sprint errs in EVO sales
US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel said it mistakenly inflated first-day sales figures for the new EVO 4G smartphone from Taiwan’s HTC (宏達電). Sprint initially said launch day sales for the EVO 4G were three times the combined number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market. “We inadvertently erred in the comparison,” Sprint said in a statement. The company said the total number of EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was actually in line with the combined sales of the Instinct and Pre over their first three days.
■INTERNET
Google irked at Apple
Google lashed out at Apple on Wednesday over new rules that it said would effectively prevent the Internet search and advertising giant from placing ads inside iPhone applications. Omar Hamoui, founder of AdMob, a mobile advertising startup that Google bought last year, said Apple’s new terms of service for application developers would bar the use of AdMob or Google advertising solutions on the hot-selling smartphones.
■TECHNOLOGY
Linden Lab to slash staff
Linden Lab, creator of the online virtual world Second Life, said on Wednesday it was laying off 30 percent of its staff. Linden Lab did not reveal how many people it was letting go as part of what it called a “strategic restructuring,” but the San Francisco-based company reportedly has more than 300 employees. Linden Lab said it would combine its product and engineering divisions and consolidate its software development teams in North America.
■AUTOMOBILES
Germany not backing Opel
The government has turned down a request from General Motors for 1.1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) in state loan guarantees for its Opel unit, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said on Wednesday. “I am confident that Opel has a good future without credit guarantees,” he told reporters after a government committee reached a split decision on whether to provide guarantees from a fund set up to help firms hit by the recession. German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday was set to discuss possible options with the heads of the four German states where Opel has four plants.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
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