NewLease branches further into Asia

Unsure that market forces alone can do the job, PayPal is betting Singapore's government can spur the development and adoption of mobile e-commerce applications in the Southeast Asian city-state.

Singapore will set up a government agency, the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority (SITSA), to handle technology-related threats to the city-state's national security, a government minister said Wednesday.

Singaporean authorities are studying a law that would cut off the Internet access of users who receive three warnings to stop downloading pirated content, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

Eight of Asia's largest telecommunications carriers plan to jointly build a fiber optic cable that will interconnect the region's most important economies, they said Monday.