■ Car industry
Ford rates low in safety
The US government on Tuesday released the first batch of crash test results for 2005 model cars and trucks and it was not good news for the Ford Motor Co. The four-wheel drive versions of the Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickup trucks earned only two out of five stars in rollover ratings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency said the two vehicles, which share similar designs because Mazda is a Ford affiliate, have a 30 percent likelihood of rolling over in a single-vehicle crash, an unusually high risk profile. Rollover accidents claim more than 10,000 American lives a year. In new results from side-impact tests, the traffic agency said that passengers in the back seat of the Ford Focus hatchback had a high risk of head injury.
■ Television
BBC Prime comes to Asia
British broadcasting giant the BBC is to begin beaming its renowned dramas, comedies and soap operas into Asia with the launch of its BBC Prime cable service, the corporation said in a statement yesterday. BBC Worldwide, the commercial consumer arm of the BBC, said the new service will screen recent shows like award-winning comedy The Office and Britain's long-running music show Top of the Pops. It will also dig into the BBC's vault to show such classics as the Blackadder comedy series and the period drama Pride and Prejudice. Shows will be subtitled for different countries throughout the region. "The multi-channel household is a powerful growth market in Asia and with BBC Prime we can provide platforms with a high-quality addition to their current line-ups," Wayne Dunsford, BBC Worldwide channel director, said in a statement. The Asian channel will be based in Hong Kong, following the same coverage area as the BBC's 24-hour rolling news program BBC World, and will be up and running on Dec. 1.
■ Oil supply
US asked for more reserves
OPEC wants the US to dip further into its strategic petroleum reserve to help reduce world oil prices, the cartel's president said yesterday. "We have asked them [the US] to use their oil reserves to help cool down the prices," OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's mines and energy minister, told reporters. The US has just under 300 million barrels of crude in its emergency stockpile, and Washington's move early this month to loan out 4.2 million barrels of it had no noticeable impact on prices. Purnomo also has asked OPEC members to increase production "to give a signal to the market that we aren't short of supply."
■ Video-games
Handheld PS to be launched
Sony Corp said yesterday that the PlayStation Portable, which will mark the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant's entry into handheld video-game machines, will sell for ?19,800 (US$186) in Japan from Dec. 12. The PlayStation Portable, which uses a new kind of disc format, will have 12 games at its launch, Sony Computer Entertainment, the Tokyo-based company's video-game unit said in a statement. The device is also being billed as a mobile gadget for watching movies. The PlayStation Portable, also known as PSP, will face off against offerings from Japanese rival Nintendo Co and other companies.
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)