■ COMPUTERS
Ellison blasts HP ouster
Billionaire Larry Ellison is blasting Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) decision to oust CEO Mark Hurd as cowardly and the worst personnel decision since Apple forced out Steve Jobs 25 years ago. Ellison, Oracle’s CEO and a friend of Hurd’s, issued a statement on Monday saying that the move to get rid of Hurd went against the best interests of HP’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners. Oracle is one of those partners. HP’s decision to go public with a sexual harassment claim against Hurd, even though a company investigation found no basis for the claim, was an act of “cowardly corporate political correctness” by a divided board of directors, Ellison said. HP repeated that the board voted unanimously for Hurd’s resignation.
■ AGRICULTURE
Canberra to appeal WTO
Australia yesterday said it would appeal a ruling that overturned a 90-year ban on New Zealand apple imports, saying it was based on legitimate disease fears. The WTO on Monday found Australia’s ban dating from the 1920s breached global rules, and challenged its reasons for blocking the fruit, but Canberra said there were “adequate grounds to appeal the decision.”
■ COMPUTERS
Nvidia leading DARPA team
Nvidia on Monday said it was leading a team awarded US$25 million by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create a chip that leaves today’s super computers in the dust. The Nvidia team was one of four granted DARPA research contracts aimed at making supercomputers a thousand times more powerful with technology from graphics processing units used to power realistic videogame action. Graphics chips break complex tasks into parts and handle them simultaneously while central processing units typically used in computers tend to projects in sequence, hurrying from start to finish in order.
■ ENERGY
South Korean firm finds oil
South Korea’s state-run petroleum company said yesterday it had discovered crude oil reserves in two blocks it is exploring in northern Iraq. The Maeil Business Newspaper said the reserves in the Bazian and Sangaw North blocks in the Kurdistan autonomous region were estimated to total 2 billion barrels, but the Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said in a statement it was too early to estimate the size of the reserves. It said a formal announcement of the discovery would be made only after consultation with local authorities. The Bazian block, in which a KNOC-led South Korean consortium has a 100 percent stake, holds an estimated 1.27 billion barrels, the newspaper said, quoting sources at KNOC and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
■ FINANCE
KKR cancels sale of units
Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) said on Monday it had canceled plans to sell US$500 million of new common units, less than one month after it listed on the New York Stock Exchange. KKR, one of the biggest private equity firms in the world, with investments in retailer Dollar General Corp, hospital operator HCA and media company Nielsen, had announced plans to sell the units in May. The company did not provide a reason for the change.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a