■ Printing
HP gets Ford contract
Hewlett-Packard Co got an agreement to provide printing products and services for Ford Motor Co, replacing Xerox Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site, citing an unidentified Hewlett-Packard spokeswoman. The value of the agreement is higher than the US$100 million printing contract Hewlett-Packard has with Boeing Co, which is the company's largest disclosed agreement to provide printing technology, the newspaper said. Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard didn't disclose the exact value of the Ford contract, the newspaper said.
■ Computer makers
Gateway to cut jobs
Gateway Inc, a personal computer maker that has lost US$1.84 billion in the past three years, will reduce its workforce to "mid-5,000" from the current 7,400. "We clearly have some additional work" to reduce the number of employees, chief financial officer Roderick Sherwood III said on a Webcast at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor & Systems Conference in Dana Point, California. The cuts will come after the acquisition of eMachines Inc, which may be after March 8, he said.
■ Airlines
Budget carrier in name tiff
Singapore's new no-frills carrier has already hit turbulence over its name, months before it is due to take flight. Lawyers working for Tiger Airways, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and the founders of Ireland's Ryanair, are in talks with a British company that claims the international carrier stole its name, Singapore Airlines spokesman Rick Clements said yesterday. The Gloucestershire, England-based Tiger Airways offers flying lessons in vintage biplanes, and takes its name from its specialty in flying the Tiger Moth, a 1930s open cockpit, two-seater plane, the company's Web site said.
■ China
Greenspan gives warning
China should shore up its "quite weak" banking system to prevent instability as it moves toward floating the yuan's value against the dollar, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a US senator. China needs to improve banks' internal controls, risk management and lending decisions, in part by giving local managers more training and authority, Greenspan wrote. The Fed chairman was responding to questions posed at a Feb. 12 hearing by Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
■ NYSE
Grasso facing suit
New York state's attorney general is preparing to sue former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso and his former board members over nearly US$120 million in retirement benefits Grasso received, a source familiar with the case said Monday. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office is in settlement talks with Grasso and board members, but was "leaning toward" bringing a lawsuit if the negotiations fail, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The suit would accuse Grasso and the board members who approved the lavish pay package of failing in their fiscal responsibilities under state non-profit organization law, the source said. Grasso left office Sept. 17 amid a public furor over his US$187.5 million in retirement benefits and deferred compensation.
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)