■ Telecoms
NTT plans Internet service
Japanese telecom giant NTT will launch international phone services via the Internet, wooing corporate clients with lower rates, a spokesman said yesterday. NTT Communications Corp plans to enable business customers to connect to their overseas offices in 88 countries through an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN), spokesman Kei Hashida said. The company will become the first Japanese telephone company to offer international IP phone services. "We are preparing to adopt IP phones for voice communications at cor-porate customers as we are already offering data communications through the IP-VPN," Hashida said. The IP phone service will help companies save tele-communications costs, Hashida said, while declining to confirm the newspaper report that rates would be at least 30 percent lower than existing international call rates.
■ China
Starbucks sues rival
Starbucks is suing a rival Shanghai chain whose name in Chinese is virtually identical to that of the US giant that introduced coffee culture to a nation of tea lovers. Starbucks Corp is taking aim at Shanghai Xing Ba Ke Coffee Shop Co, whose Mandarin name is the same as that chosen by the US chain when it first set up operations in China. "We will take legal steps to protect the value of our trademark and protect the public from confusion and deception," the US company said in a statement, adding it had tried to negotiate with the Chinese firm but failed to reach an agreement. An executive with Shanghai Xing Ba Ke -- which operates two outlets in the city's shopping district -- said he was aware of the lawsuit, but would not comment further.
■ Banking
Citigroup eyes competition
Citigroup Inc chief execu-tive officer Charles Prince says J.P. Morgan Chase & Co's US$55.1 billion pur-chase of Bank One Corp will create the first rival across all businesses for the world's largest financial services company. "We will have a competitor," Prince said at the Asia Pacific Investor Conference in Singapore. Citigroup will continue making acquisi-tions "in places where we see strategic opportunities" though they won't be "trans-formative." Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest lender, has ended explora-tory talks to be acquired by Citigroup, the Financial Times reported on its Web site today. J.P. Morgan's acquisition of Chicago-based Bank One, the third-largest US credit-card issuer, will create an institution with US$1.08 trillion of assets and 2,300 consumer branches.
■ Aviation
20,000apply for Jetstar jobs
Qantas Airways said more than 20,000 people have applied for jobs at its new Jetstar discount unit since December. Sydney-based Qantas is starting Jetstar to compete against Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd, which has grabbed about a third of the Austra-lia's domestic market since it started offering a discount service in August 2000. The applicants included 1,100 pilots, 2,255 cabin crew and 1,434 engineers, Qantas said in am e-mail statement to Bloomberg News. Jetstar will detail a route network and fares in the second half of this month for flights starting in May. The Melbourne-based Jetstar will start in May with 14 Boeing 717-model planes and expand later with 23 Airbus SAS A320 planes.
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
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
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)