Dollar slides against Asian currencies
Tokyo: The US dollar has tumbled to its lowest rate against key Asian currencies as of Nov.18.

The dollar fell to a four-and-a-half-year low against the Japanese yen, a seven-year low against the South Korean won and hovered near six-year lows against the Singapore dollar.

The trend continued as European markets opened, and the dollar fell to a new record low against the euro.
The crash followed after a top US treasury official's comments indicated that the US government wouldn't intervene to halt the dollar's recent slide worldwide.
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Who is afraid of Linux? Microsoft?
Singapore: Microsoft Corp has warned Asian governments against using Linux operating system, saying that they could face patent lawsuits for using the open code software instead of its Windows software.

Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, speaking at the company's Asian Government Leaders Forum in Singapore quoted a recent report from Open Source Risk Management Group that said Linux violates more than 228 patents.

Software developer SCO Group Inc., which claims that Linux is based on its Unix software, is suing companies including IBM Corp.

The Open Source Risk Management Group has said that potential intellectual property claims against Linux could expose users to unexpected claims that might result in lawsuits.

Microsoft's concerns are based on the fact that Linux — an open-coded software freely available on the internet and easily modified by users — is a threat to the global dominance of Microsoft's Windows.

Recently Singapore's ministry of defence switched 20,000 personal computers to run on open-source software instead of the Microsoft operating platform and other governments in the region are also looking to use more open-source software. China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to jointly develop applications running on Linux.
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