■Telecoms
C&W chases executive
Cable & Wireless Plc asked Lucy Woods, a former executive at WorldCom Inc, whether she would consider becoming chief executive of the UK telecommunications company, the Observer said, without naming the source of its information. Woods, who resigned as a senior vice president at WorldCom's international division earlier this month, declined to comment, the paper said. William Allan, chief executive officer of Thus Group Plc, may also have been approached by Whitehead Mann Group Plc, the executive-search firm hired by C&w, the paper said. CEO Graham Wallace resigned from Cable & Wireless last week after an US$8 billion spree led to record losses and a 92 percent slump in the share price. Chairman Richard Lapthorne has stepped up management changes since his recent appointment.
■ Rating firms
SEC ponders more rules
The Securities and Exchange Commission called for further study of credit-rating companies Standard & Poor's Corp, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Inc to determine whether more oversight is needed after their failure to predict the collapse of Enron Corp. Congress ordered the SEC to look into the companies and deliver its finding by today. The SEC's report raises a series of questions, such as whether safeguards should be put in place to mitigate conflicts of interest, or if new rules are needed to govern their conduct. The SEC said it would release a list of issues for public comment within 60 days. Critics have called for the SEC and Congress to increase regulation of credit-rating companies and open the business to increased competition after Enron and WorldCom Inc defaulted on US$41.8 billion of debt.
■ Auto sales
Singapore has new deal
Singaporeans flocked to car showrooms over the weekend in response to eased restrictions on automobile financing. The city state's central bank last week lifted a 1995 ruling requiring car buyers to make a 30-percent cash down payment and repay any auto loan within seven years. In the first weekend since the Monetary Authority of Singapore lifted the ruling, AutoFrance, distributor for Peugeot, said it sold 30 cars with price tags ranging from S$85,900 (US$49,653) to S$152,900, the Sunday Times reported. Toyota distributor Borneo Motors declined to say how many cars it sold but said at least 500 people packed its showroom. Tan Chong, which sells Nissan cars, had an average 100 people packed in its showroom throughout the weekend.
■ Telecoms
Former NTT head dies
Hisashi Shinto, who was at the helm of Japan's telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) when it was privatized in 1985, died on Sunday. He was 92. "Shinto died of pneumonia at 0:42am [Japan time]" at a Tokyo hospital, an NTT spokeswoman said. Shinto served as president of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries for nearly seven years from 1972. He became the first private-sector business man to head Japan's then state-run telecom company in 1981, keeping the top post when the company was partially privatized in 1985. He retired in 1988 but was arrested the following year over bribery charges in a stock-for-favor scandal that engulfed the top echelons of the nation's political and business worlds.
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
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘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)