■AUTOMOBILES
Opel to receive credit
The German government is set to give automaker Opel credit to survive the global slump and financial distress at Opel’s US parent, General Motors (GM), a press report said yesterday. The move is prompted by a sense of urgency concerning the situation at Opel, which employs around 25,000 people in Germany, the Financial Times Deutschland said, without identifying its sources. Opel supervisory board member Armin Schild has estimated the German car maker needs at least 3.3 billion euros (US$4.2 billion) in cash to survive. The company will go bankrupt by May or June if no state aid is forthcoming, mass circulation Bild reported on Saturday.
■PUBLISHING
Paper seeks to cut costs
The Financial Times, the leading financial newspaper, will offer staff the chance to work three days a week over the summer as part of its drive to cut costs, a company spokesman said on Monday. “We are offering a range of flexible working options to our staff, including a temporary three-day working week in the summer between June and August … to respond positively to the changing market,” spokesman Tom Glover said in an e-mail. The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday that the FT had also offered employees additional annual leave but at a reduced rate of pay, citing an internal company memo.
■SEMICONDUCTORS
Spansion to cut workforce
Troubled flash memory maker Spansion Inc said late on Monday it would slash its global workforce by 35 percent, affecting about 3,000 employees, mostly at manufacturing sites. The move come as Spansion, one of the world’s largest makers of flash memory chips used in digital cameras and other gadgets, is cutting costs amid a company-wide restructuring effort and exploring a possible sale. “The global recession is forcing us to make this very difficult decision in order to bring our costs in line with the current expectations for significantly reduced revenues,” Spansion president and chief executive John Kispert said in a statement.
■BIOTECH
Genentech cold on Roche bid
US biotech firm Genentech said on Monday its board urged shareholders to reject a takeover offer from Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche as “inadequate and not in the best interests of stockholders.” A special committee formed to study the bid “unanimously recommends that stockholders not tender their shares into Roche’s offer,” a statement from the US firm said. “Genentech’s strong projected financial performance implies a valuation substantially in excess of Roche’s offer price,” chairman of the panel Charles Sanders said.
■GERMANY
Business confidence drops
Business confidence in Europe’s biggest economy slipped to its lowest reading ever this month, the closely watched Ifo indicator showed yesterday, compared with market expectations for little change from the previous month. The Ifo indicator edged down to 82.6 points from 83 points last month, the Munich-based Ifo institute said. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the indicator to remain essentially unchanged. The level for this month came in just below the level of 82.7 points in December, the previous all-time low. “The worsening of the business situation that has been going on for months has continued in February,” a statement quoted Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn as saying.
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)
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