■ Piracy
China announces blitzkrieg
China has announced a campaign to crackdown on the booming illegal Internet gaming industry, which is crippling many online games providers and developers. The three-month blitz, starting Jan. 1, has been prompted by complaints that the legitimate online gaming industry is being bled dry. The China Daily yesterday said the number of players using illegal game servers and websites that provide software to cheat on online games far outnumber those going by the book, infringing on copyrights and profits. Losses to legitimate game producers were running at some US$4.4 million annually, it said. The Internet gaming business has become a major money-spinner in China with revenues estimated at some one billion dollars this year, although the numbers of online cheats has driven away many players disillusioned by the poor protection measures.
■ Airlines
AirAsia to triple profits
Amid plans to expand and become a regional airline, Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia expects to triple its net profit this fiscal year to 60 million ringgit (US$15.8 million), its chief executive said yesterday. The results underscore AirAsia's rapid rise in passenger traffic since its launch in December 2001 in a business gambit that made it one of the pioneers of low-cost air travel in Asia. AirAsia began its first international route -- to Phuket, Thailand -- earlier this month, and plans to add other destinations in Thailand and Indonesia next year. But, despite invitations from airports in Hong Kong, Macau and Hainan province, AirAsia is not aiming to establish routes into China -- for now, said Tony Fernandes, AirAsia's chief executive.
■ Bankruptcies
Goldman Sachs returns fees
Goldman Sachs & Co, the world's biggest adviser on mergers and acquisitions, will give back US$9.5 million of US$13.2 million that WorldCom Inc paid for financial advice in the weeks before the telecom company's record bankruptcy filing. WorldCom hired Goldman in May next year to help find new investors, advise on "strategic merger discussions with several leading telecommunications companies," arrange bankruptcy financing and explore the possible sale of assets and businesses, according to papers filed yesterday in US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. While WorldCom and Goldman disagree as to whether payments for the advice in the middle of last year were reasonable, the two companies settled the dispute, the filing said.
■ Internet
Sales to hit record mark
A surge in online holiday shopping is expected to push Internet retail sales for the year above the US$100 billion mark for the first time, a market research firm said Tuesday. Forrester Research said its projection of a strong shopping season for the year-end holidays -- up 42 percent from last year -- will push Internet sales to a new milestone. "When the dust settles, US consumers will have spent more than US$12 billion online during the holiday weeks, and 2003 US e-commerce will eclipse US$100 billion for the first time," said Forrester analyst Kate Delhagen. Forrester estimated that 2002 online sales hit US$76 billion, up 48 percent from the previous year. Surveys on online spending vary greatly, with differing definitions of the holiday season and online purchases.
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)