■ SEMICONDUCTORS
Samsung to invest in chips
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's second-largest semiconductor maker, plans to spend 748.5 billion won (US$792 million) to increase production of memory chips and meet demand. The investments, to be made this year, will also be used to upgrade production lines, Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in a regulatory filing today, citing a board decision. South Korean companies are required to disclose investment plans that exceed 100 billion won.
■ TELECOMS
Skype service returns
Skype said its Internet phone service has returned to normal after a software bug left many users unable to log on for two days. The company, a division of online auction company eBay Inc, said it would explain what caused the problem in more detail later yesterday. "Until then, we'd like to apologize and thank you. Precisely in that order," the company told its customers in a posting on its Heartbeat blog on Saturday. "We know how difficult and frustrating the past two days have been. And still, your good wishes kept flowing in," it said. "We know how difficult and frustrating the past two days have been. And still, your good wishes kept flowing in, it said.
■ Telecoms
Mobile subscriptions climb
China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) added a record number of subscribers for a 10th straight month after the company lured customers from fixed-line competitors such as China Telecom Corp (中國電信), whose subscriber growth slowed last month. The mobile-phone company, the world's biggest wireless carrier by users, said on its Web site yesterday that it added 5.6 million subscribers last month, raising its total to 338 million. China Telecom, the nation's biggest fixed-line operator, added 60,000 customers, the smallest number since it started reporting monthly numbers in January last year.
■ MARKETS
ECB may not change rate
Credit Suisse Group said it expects the European Central Bank (ECB) to keep interest rates on hold next month instead of raising the benchmark further following turbulence on financial markets. The ECB will probably increase its key rate to 4.25 percent in the fourth quarter while "risks to that forecast are clearly to the downside," Credit Suisse economists in London said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Keeping borrowing costs on hold next month would be "prudent, forward-looking central banking based on a changed set of risks to the real economy."
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
‘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)
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