■COMPUTERS
Data hold time may be cut
Microsoft said yesterday it was prepared to cut the amount of time it retains Internet users’ search data to six months from 18 if other Web giants also agreed to do so. The EU is piling pressure on Internet companies to reduce the amount of time they hold users’ personal Web searching data, saying in April that there was no basis for such information to be kept more than six months. Microsoft’s arch-rival Google said in September that it was halving the amount of time it keeps search data associated with a user’s unique Internet address to nine months from 18 months. “Microsoft evaluated the multiple uses of search data and is prepared to move to a six-month timeframe,” the US software giant said in a statement.
■SINGAPORE
More job cuts expected
More job cuts are expected in the first quarter of next year, a survey reported by the Straits Times showed yesterday. About half of the 629 bosses surveyed intend to cut jobs in the first three months of next year, compared with 10 percent who were polled on staff cuts between October and last month. The jobs cuts will be through retrenchments, not replacing staff who leave, and freezing hiring plans, it said, citing a survey by global human resource consultancy Manpower Inc, which had polled the 629 employers in Singapore. The survey showed that 46 percent of the bosses polled were expected to cut jobs while only 8 percent intended to recruit.
■SOUTH KOREA
IMF predicts recovery
The country’s economy, buffeted by the global meltdown, is fading fast but looks set to slowly recover next year, an IMF official said yesterday. “General measures of economic activity are decelerating rapidly,” Subir Lall, division chief in the Washington-based organization’s Asia-Pacific department, said in a speech. Lall cited slowdowns in consumer spending and exports as well as falling business confidence as evidence for the emerging weakness in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. The IMF is predicting economic growth of 2 percent next year for South Korea, compared with 5 percent last year.
■AUSTRALIA
Confidence at record low
Business confidence held at a record low last month, reinforcing speculation the economy may slide into its first recession since 1991. The sentiment index fell 1 point to minus 30 from October, the lowest level since the series began in 1989, according to a National Australia Bank Ltd survey of more than 560 companies conducted between Nov. 23 and Nov. 30. “The results of the November survey make grim reading,” said Alan Oster, chief economist at National Australia in Melbourne. “The financial crisis is now having real effects on the Australian economy, with significant revisions down on business views about future employment and investment.”
■AUTOMOBILES
Japan tests battery stations
Better Place, a US company that promotes electric vehicles, said yesterday it would build battery exchange stations in Japan as part of a government pilot project to encourage the use of green cars. Better Place builds battery exchange stations, where drivers with no time to charge can trade drained batteries for charged ones — providing infrastructure that helps make electric vehicles more practical. The Japanese Environment Ministry invited Better Place to take part in the feasibility project for three to six months, starting next month in the port city of Yokohama, Better Place said.
Taiwan moved clear of Mexico to be the only country at No. 2 in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Men’s Baseball World Rankings. Meanwhile, draft bills to set up a ministry of sports were approved at a joint session at the legislature in Taipei yesterday. After previously being tied with Mexico for second on 4,118 points, Taiwan moved clear on 5,498 points after they defeated Japan in the final of the WBSC Premier12 tournament on Sunday. Mexico (4,729) dropped to fourth, behind Venezuela (4,846), who finished fourth at the tournament. Taiwan narrowed the gap to first-placed Japan to 1,368 points from 1,638, WBSC
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday declared emergency martial law, accusing the opposition of being “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill. “To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation. “With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he
GLOBAL SUPPORT: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the motion highlighted the improper exclusion of Taiwan from international discussion and cooperative mechanisms Taiwan yesterday thanked the British parliament for passing a motion stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not involve Taiwan, making it the latest body to reject China’s interpretation of the resolution. The House of Commons on Thursday debated the international status of Taiwan and unanimously passed a pro-Taiwan motion stating that the House “notes that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the political status of Taiwan or establish PRC [People’s Republic of China] sovereignty over Taiwan and is silent both on the status of Taiwan in the UN and on Taiwanese participation in UN agencies.” British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Parliamentary
HIGH ALERT: The armed forces are watching for a potential military drill by China in response to the president’s trip, with the air force yesterday conducting an exercise President William Lai (賴清德) is to make stopovers in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during his seven-day trip to the South Pacific, his first official visit since taking office in May, the Presidential Office said yesterday. Lai, accompanied by a delegation, is scheduled to depart for the South Pacific on a chartered flight at 4:30pm tomorrow, stopping first in Hawaii for a two-night layover before traveling to the Marshall Islands, an office official said. After wrapping up his visits to the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, the president is to transit through Guam, spending a night there before flying to Palau,
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