■ Automobiles
US to get more `green' SUVs
General Motors Corp and Toyota will unveil plans to introduce hybrid-electric versions of some of their sport-utility vehicles and pick-up trucks at next month's Detroit auto show, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. GM, the world's largest automaker, will announce plans to introduce hybrid systems as optional equipment across much of its line-up between 2004 and the end of the decade, according to company sources quoted by the daily. Toyota is expected to say it will launch hybrid versions of its Lexus RX300 luxury sport-utility vehicle and its Toyota Highlander before the middle of the decade. What's more, the Japanese powerhouse is considering developing hybrid versions of the Camry, one of America's best-selling family sedans, and the full-size Tundra pick-up truck, the Journal reported. Currently, American consumers who want to drive the more economical and environmentally-friendly hybrid electric vehicles have just two choices, both of them in the small car segment, Toyota's Prius and Honda's Insight.
■ High-speed Web
Sony may take stake in Usen
Sony Corp said its Internet unit may take a stake in Usen Corp's Use Communications, an owner and wholesaler of fiber-optic networks in Japan, bolstering its ability to offer high-speed Internet access. Details, including the timing and how much Sony Communication Network Corp may pay, will be decided by the end of February, said Hiroyuki Ueno, a Sony Communi-cation spokesman. Sony Communication will begin offering its customers Web access through Usen's fiber-optic network at that time. The move by Sony underscores efforts by the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker to distinguish itself from rivals such as Korea's Samsung Electronics Co by offering products able to be linked to the Internet. Investors and analysts say it may take years for Sony's Internet investments to pay off.
■ Bank of japan
Private-sector chief wanted
The successor to the central bank governor, Masaru Hayami, should come from the private sector, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. "It's desirable for the next Bank of Japan chief to be someone aggressive in fighting deflation," Koizumi said, speaking in a group interview with domestic media. "I want someone who knows what's happening in reality." Asked whether the Bank of Japan should adopt inflation targeting, Koizumi said the central bank should fight falling prices. "I think we, as the government, have done as much as we can on fiscal and tax policies. Given that, I think the BOJ's role in fighting deflation is quite big." He said the government and the central bank should cooperate in fighting deflation. Koizumi added that he had no plan to appoint Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka as the next BOJ governor.
■ Household produce
Lion to cut jobs by August
Lion Corp, Japan's fourth-largest maker of household products, said it will cut 120 jobs by Aug. 29 as part of its plan to reduce fixed expenses. The Tokyo-based company will achieve the reductions by offering early retirement to employees between the ages of 45 and 58 in March, June and August 2003, Lion said in a release after the market closed. The company will spend Japanese Yen 2.2 billion (US$18.3 million) on the reduction process next year, Domoto said.
Agencies
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)