■ COMPUTERS
Siemens sells joint venture
German engineering group Siemens said yesterday it will sell its half of its computer joint venture with Fujitsu to the Japanese group for around 450 million euros (US$566 million). Fujitsu had held an option to buy all of the nine-year-old venture known as FSC. It had 6.6 billion euros in sales in its latest fiscal year, but faces stiff competition from US rivals Dell and Hewlett-Packard. FSC, which also makes mainframe computers and servers, posted a pre-tax profit of 105 million euros last year, and has forecast that figure could double this year.
■AUTOMOBILES
US sales plummet
US auto sales plunged 32 percent last month to lows unseen in a quarter-century, led by a 45 percent drop at General Motors Corp in a sales collapse that hit every major automaker and offered little sign that the industry has hit bottom in its largest market. US auto sales fell to their weakest month since February 1983, sales data released on Monday showed. Auto sales for four European countries reporting on Monday showed the spreading effect of the slowdown. Sales fell 40 percent in Spain and 19 percent in Italy.
■BANKING
Latin American giant created
Brazilian banks Itau and Unibanco announced on Monday they were merging to create the biggest bank in Latin America, with combined assets of more than US$260 billion. The new bank — to be called Itau Unibanco — will be among the 20 biggest in the world, they said. Itau is currently the second largest private-sector bank in Brazil, and Unibanco is ranked fourth. If the all-share transaction is approved by regulators, Itau Unibanco will overshadow state-owned Banco do Brasil, currently the biggest bank in Latin America, and Bradesco, the biggest private-sector bank in Brazil. Itau will hold the majority stake in the new enterprise.
■TELECOMS
Nokia targets new markets
Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, unveiled seven new handsets aimed at consumers in emerging markets as it starts wireless Internet services in those areas. Nokia’s offering of Internet-related services for emerging markets will be available at the start of next year, the Espoo, Finland-based company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The associated devices are priced between 25 euros and 90 euros, with several models starting to ship this year.
■INTERNET
Criminals target Chinese
Chinese computer users have become chief targets for online criminals, a security report released on Monday by Microsoft said. Its latest assessment of threats and vulnerabilities says attackers favor hiding malicious programs in seemingly innocent Web browser applications and that China is their preferred target. “The majority of [exploits] we are finding is where the local language is set to Chinese,” said Microsoft malware protection center general manager Vinny Gullotto. “It reflects a lot of what is happening in the Chinese market. There is so much going on out there with the Internet today that it seems to be somewhat natural that we might see this happen there.” Approximately 47 percent of software “exploits” found stalking the Internet in the first half of this year were in Chinese while 23 percent were in English, the second most common language for attack programs.
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)