■ Microsoft
European rivals file suit
Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, faces a second antitrust probe in Europe after a group of telephone, computer and consumer-electronics companies asked regulators to block alleged illegal efforts to extend its monopoly, the Wall Street Journal said, citing the company, regulators and antitrust experts. The new complaint alleges that Microsoft used Windows XP, the latest version of its monopoly operating-system software, to illegally bundle new products such as new music and video-editing software, with the aim to protect its operating-system monopoly and gain access to new markets, according to the Journal.
■ AOL board
Turner may leave position
Ted Turner, AOL Time Warner Inc's largest individual shareholder, told NBC's Today Show he isn't sure he will stay on the media company's board and that he had failed to diversify his financial holdings. "I had all my eggs in one basket," AOL Time Warner's stock, Turner said on the program. "And that led to my financial undoing." Turner, who is stepping down as AOL Time Warner's vice chairman in May, lost US$7 billion to US$8 billion because the company's shares have fallen in the two years since America Online Inc. acquired Time Warner Inc. The founder of Turner Broadcasting System Inc, who has donated US$500 million so far of a US$1 billion pledge to the UN, said his biggest regret is that he is unable to give away as much money to charity. He added that he will make his decision about whether to stay on the board at "the appropriate time."
■ Trade deficit
Britain touches record
Britain last year notched up its worst trade deficit since records began in 1697, as falling demand from the struggling global economy squeezed exports. The trade gap expanded to an unprecedented pounds sterling 34.3 billion last year, according to official figures released Monday, as recession-hit manufacturers cut output and laid off workers to cope with falling orders. Although statisticians said the trade picture improved slightly in December, opposition spokesmen and business groups seized on the data to question the health of the economy, and raise the pressure on the chancellor, Gordon Brown. "The 2002 trade figures are yet another damaging addition to this government's downgraded economic reputation," said shadow trade secretary, Tim Yeo. The Liberal Democrats' spokesman, Matthew Taylor, accused the chancellor of being "in denial" about the true state of the economy.
■ Computers
Legend alters agreement
Legend Holdings Ltd, China's biggest personal computer maker, denied a report it plans to pull out of a Internet venture with AOL Time Warner Inc, the largest US media company, and won't say if it plans to change terms. ENet.com.cn, citing unidentified people close to the matter, said that Legend would pull out of the Internet access venture, which is still awaiting government approval more than a year after it was set up. The report was reposted on Web site Sina.com. Legend won't pull out of the venture and terms of the deal have "not yet" been changed, Legend spokesman Leon Xie said. When asked whether Legend was planning to changes to the venture, Xie said: "I can't answer that right now."
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
‘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)
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