■ Dell computer
No rebound in spending
Dell Computer Corp, the world's second-biggest maker of personal computers, said spending for PCs and related products isn't rebounding. "We're still not seeing an uptick in the overall market," Chief Financial Officer James Schneider said at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor and Systems Conference in Dana Point, California. "Dell is still in the strongest competitive position." Estimates that Dell executives have seen for industrywide sales growth this year are about 5 percent, Schneider said in a speech broadcast over the Internet. Last week, Chief Executive Michael Dell said even a resolution of the US-Iraq weapons dispute wouldn't revive corporate spending on computers. Dell predicted growth will be "fairly moderate or flat this year."
Ad strategy expanded
Google Inc will expand a one-year old program to deliver content-targeted advertisements on other publishers' Internet sites, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site. The program will deliver third-party advertisements that are related in content to a Web site that an Internet user is viewing, the newspaper said, citing the company. Google, which already sells advertisements on its own Web site, may announce the new product as early as today, the newspaper said. The program utilizes technology to match advertisements with the specific content of a Web site in cases where it isn't possible to target advertisements using a specific search query, the Journal said.
■ Labor unions
Broadway musicians upset
Computers are slated to replace musicians in Broadway shows, prompting a union representing musicians to call for a strike that, if it materializes, could lead to a cancellation of most of Broadway's biggest shows. At issue is a plan to reduce the number of musicians at musicals to seven at most, down from 24 to 26. The strike is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers, said that tests with pre-recorded orchestra tapes showed that computers could technically replace all live musicians, saving theatres millions of dollars. He called the reduction to seven musicians a compromise. American Federation of Musicians President Bill Moriarity said a strike would not only be about the loss of jobs.
■ Tax policy
HK considers increase
Hong Kong is likely to face higher taxes on profits and salaries, the first increases in almost two decades, as the government uses tomorrow's budget to try to plug a record deficit, executives and analysts said. Financial Secretary Antony Leung may raise profit tax by two percentage points to 18 percent and salaries tax by one point to 16 percent, KPMG International said. The government, which last raised taxes in 1984-1985, has signaled the deficit may rise as high as HK$70 billion (US$9 billion) for the year to March 31, the product of two years of anemic economic growth. Tax increases aren't likely to jolt financial markets because the government has been saying for months that revenue-raising steps are likely. "I don't think the market is going to like higher taxes very much but there's an air of realism," said Percy Weatherall, managing director of Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd.
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)
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