■ ELECTRONICS
Hitachi's losses expand
Hitachi Ltd said yesterday its group net loss swelled to ¥58.1 billion (US$560.5 million) in the fiscal year through March, from ¥32.8 billion in the previous year, because of poor sales of plasma TVs in the US. “While domestic sales of plasma TVs were fine, those in the US were particularly sluggish,” Hitachi spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi said. The slump in US sales was a major cause of the company’s dismal performance, he said, but declined to give data on US sales of plasma TVs. Revenue at the Japanese firm rose 9.6 percent from the previous year to ¥11.2 trillion. Overseas revenue increased 14 percent to ¥4.7 trillion, lifted by steady demand in China and Europe.
■ INTERNET
Global telescope launched
Microsoft Corp launched its WorldWide Telescope late on Monday, bringing the free Web-based program for zooming around the universe to a broad audience. WorldWide Telescope, developed by Microsoft’s research arm, knits together images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and others. Computer users can browse through the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of different outer-space destinations developed by astronomers and academics. The site lets users choose from a number of different telescopes and switch between different light wavelengths. The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in a statement.
■ COMPUTERS
IBM upgrading game chip
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), the largest computer-services provider, is making lower-cost supercomputers for Wall Street firms and movie studios using chips designed for video-game consoles. The BladeCenter QS22 uses a new generation of the chip developed for Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3. The machine is five times faster and has 16 times more memory than IBM’s earlier offering, the Armonk, New York-based company said in a statement yesterday. IBM, Sony and Toshiba jointly developed the original PlayStation 3 chip in 2006 at IBM’s research lab in Austin, Texas.
■ ELECTRONICS
Pioneer to cut 2,000 jobs
Troubled Japanese electronics maker Pioneer Corp plans to cut 2,000 jobs as it restructures its plasma TV operations in an effort to return to profit, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. The job losses in Japan and overseas, which are expected to be implemented in the current fiscal year to next March, follow the company’s decision in March to stop making plasma display panels. Instead it will buy them from Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. The Nikkei said Pioneer would transfer about 200 researchers and engineers involved in the plasma operations to Matsushita.
■ AVIATION
A380 delayed again
European aircraft manufacturer Airbus formally acknowledged yesterday that delivery of its superjumbo A380 would be delayed again. A review of the program has shown “that the steep [production] ramp-up planned in 2006 is not fully achievable,” Airbus said in a press statement, confirming suggestions made recently by its management. As a result, Airbus is now scheduling 12 A380 deliveries this year, instead of the originally planned 13, and 21 in next year, instead of 25.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
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