■ Gaming
Sony to pay damages
Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp's video game unit has been ordered to pay US$90.7 million in damages over a patent infringement lawsuit in the US related to the PlayStation2 console, the company said yesterday. But the Tokyo-based company will fight the decision by the federal district court in Oakland, California, and appeal to the US High Court, a Sony Computer Entertain-ment spokesman said on condition of anonymity. In the March 24 decision, Sony Computer Entertainment was ordered to pay damages to Immersion, based in San Jose, California, which develops and licenses digital technology. In a 2002 lawsuit, Immersion accused Sony of patent infringement with the Dual Shock controller for PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
■ China
Hu heads central bank
China yesterday appointed central banker Hu Xiaolian (胡曉煉) as its top foreign exchange regulator, filling a vacancy created when the former currency chief was made chairman of a state-owned bank. In her new post as head of the State Administration for Foreign Exchange, Hu will be in charge of managing China's huge foreign reserves and carrying out planned currency trading reforms. The appointment isn't expected to cause any abrupt changes in China's foreign exchange policy, which has kept the value of its currency -- the yuan -- at about 8.28 to the US dollar for more than a decade. Hu, 46, has spent most of her career with the foreign exchange administration (SAFE). She became deputy director at SAFE in 2001, and was named one of three executive assistant presidents at China's central bank in August last year. She replaces Guo Shuqing (郭樹清), who was named chairman of China Construction Bank on Friday.
■ Acquisitions
Web firms regain popularity
Internet companies are once again popular acquisitions for traditional media firms, the San Francisco Chronicle said. IAC/InterActiveCorp's agreement to pay US$1.85 billion for search engine Ask Jeeves Inc, Yahoo Inc's plans to buy online photography company Flickr and Hewlett-Packard Co's purchase of Snapfish are among the acquisitions announced last week, the newspaper said. While the pace of acquisitions hasn't matched the late 1990s, the activity reflects an increase from the slower pace of recent years, the newspaper said. Yahoo and Google Inc are benefiting from high demand for online advertising, prompting traditional media companies to expand their Internet presence to get a larger share of the advertising market.
■ Airlines
Flights to China to double
Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday it will increase by 50 percent its passenger capacity to Beijing from June 1. SIA, one of the world's most profitable carriers, will fly three times daily between Singapore and Beijing, up from two times a day. "This represents a 50 percent increase in capacity from the twice-daily flights, or an additional 288 seats a day," SIA said in a statement. With the launch of the additional service, SIA and its regional wing, SilkAir, will be operating 120 flights weekly to the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fuzhou and Kunming.
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
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘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)