28/04/2026

TUESDAY | APR 28, 2026

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10 years jail for breach of trade secrets NEW TAIPEI: A Taiwan court fined the local unit of Japan’s Tokyo Electron T$150 million (RM19.7 million)

along with other defendants, to help Tokyo Electron win more orders. The trade secrets relate to TSMC’s 2 nanometre process technology, the industry’s most advanced in terms of both density and energy efficiency. Taiwan has classified sub-14 nanometre technologies as critical national core technologies covered by strict legal protections. Chen was among four of the five individual defendants to plead guilty, as did the Taiwan unit of Tokyo Electron. One other defendant, also surnamed Chen, admitted to some charges, including reproducing the information, but he did not admit to intending to use it outside Taiwan. – Reuters

Chen Li-ming, a former employee of both TSMC and Tokyo Electron, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while terms ranging from two to six years were handed to three other former TSMC employees. The court also gave a former Tokyo Electron employee a 10-month sentence, suspended for three years, for destroying evidence. “We take the court’s finding with the utmost seriousness,”Tokyo Electron said in a statement after the court faulted its Taiwan unit for violating supervisory obligations. The case dates from last August, when prosecutors indicted Chen of unlawfully obtaining trade secrets,

yesterday and handed jail terms of up to 10 years to five convicted in a case relating to TSMC’s chip technology. The ruling comes in one of Taiwan’s highest profile cases involving national security charges related to unlawfully obtaining trade secrets from TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced AI chips. Four of the defendants violated Taiwan’s National Security Act by intending to use trade secrets outside Taiwan, the court said, adding images of the information were found on the Japanese company’s cloud system.

Chen is escorted to court yesterday.– REUTERSPIC

Ensure women have real power, Asean panel told

women lead, peace becomes more durable,” he said. The speaker cited the Philippines’ National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security as part of efforts to promote inclusive and responsive governance. “At the core is people-centred governance, laws grounded in real needs, budgets that reflect everyday realities, and institutions that are open and accountable,” he said. “We must prepare for a future shaped by technology. A future-ready Asean must be adaptive, inclusive and responsible, ensuring no one is left behind.” Dy urged Asean lawmakers to turn commitments into concrete outcomes under the Women’s Political Participation and Leadership (WPPL) Plan of Action. “We recognise the challenges before us. That is why WAIPA must continue to move from platform to action. The WPPL Plan of Action gives us direction. Now, we must deliver,” he said, stressing that the discussions will be pathways to real outcomes. – Bernama

power,” the speaker said. “Transformation

o ‘Push for deeper, system-level change’

must must

go

beyond

representation. real opportunity for women to lead, to build enterprises, and for marginalised voices to be heard. “Inclusion is measured not by presence, but by impact.” The meeting, hosted by the Philippines via video conference, gathered women lawmakers from across the region to advance cooperation on political participation, economic leadership and inclusive governance. It was held online as part of the Philippines’ calibrated hosting approach to streamline engagements and manage rising global costs, including higher travel expenses driven by tensions in the Middle East. Dy also linked women’s leadership to stronger institutions and lasting peace in Southeast Asia. “Peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is trust in institutions and in the future. When It create

MANILA: Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III yesterday urged women parliamentarians across Southeast Asia to push for deeper, system-level change and move from representation to real power in governance, Philippine News Agency reported. Speaking at the 5th Meeting of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians of the Asean Inter Parliamentary Assembly (WAIPA), Dy anchored his message on building gender transformative and future-ready parliaments. “Progress is not enough. “As we pursue a future-ready and inclusive Asean, we must move beyond gender responsiveness towards true transformation, reshaping systems, dismantling barriers, and ensuring women have real decision-making

Orangutan uses rope bridge to cross road JAKARTA: A Sumatran orangutan has been filmed for the first time crossing a man-made canopy bridge built to help the endangered animals bypass a tarred road, an NGO said. Conservation group Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, in partnership with the UK-based charity Sumatra Orangutan Society (SOS) and local authorities, built five canopy bridges in the North Sumatra province in 2024, after a road that serves as a lifeline for remote communities had been expanded, cutting through the rainforest. The first Sumatran orangutan has now been caught on camera using one of the hanging bridges, SOS said. While other species including gibbons and long-tailed macaques have also been spotted crossing, “this is a world first for Sumatran orangutans”, it said. The bridge’s use by the orangutan was a “huge milestone for conservation”, SOS chief executive Helen Buckland said. “These canopy bridges demonstrate that human development and wildlife don’t have to be at odds. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the most effective,” Buckland said. The road is an important social and economic link for communities in Sumatra’s Pakpak Bharat district. But it has also split a population of some 350 orangutans, SOS said. Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director at Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, said that habitat fragmentation was “one of the greatest challenges in contemporary conservation”. He said he hoped canopy bridges would become a “standard feature” of infrastructure planning across the region. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies Sumatran orangutans as critically endangered. Their decline is blamed on habitat loss and fragmentation as well as illegal hunting. In the wild, orangutans are found only on Sumatra and Borneo, which is shared among Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. – AFP Screen grab from a video taken on Dec 14 shows a Sumatran orangutan using a canopy bridge. – AFPPIC/ SUMATRAN ORANGUTAN SOCIETY HANDOUT

CALL FOR REDRESS ... Chinese and Cambodian nationals believed to be Huione Pay creditors clashing with police and security personnel during a protest near the National Bank of Cambodia headquarters in Phnom Penh yesterday. Protesters called for their accounts with a financial services firm accused of laundering illicit funds for cybercriminals to be unfrozen. – AFPPIC