■COMPUTERS
India names Satyam heads
Indian authorities have named three business leaders to the board of outsourcing giant Satyam Computers in the wake of a massive fraud scandal that threatens to sink the company. Satyam is fighting for its life after founder and chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed to doctoring the company’s accounts by US$1 billion. Raju and two other senior executives have been arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, among other counts. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs announced yesterday that the three new board members would be Deepak Parekh, head of the Housing Development Finance Corp bank; Kiran Karnik, the former head of Nasscom, a trade body of technology companies; and C. Achuthan, a legal expert and a former member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
■FUEL
Chavez denies cancelation
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that Venezuela’s program to provide heating oil to poor US families was never halted, despite concerns that deliveries might be interrupted. Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp had to make a public announcement that the aid would continue after its partner nonprofit group said Citgo stopped the free fuel shipments because of the world economic crisis. “They are speculating on all sides that Venezuela has suspended its program of cooperation with the poor of the US,” Chavez said. “No, it was never suspended.” Chavez did not address whether oil shipments were ever interrupted. Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp last Monday alerted households benefiting from the four-year-old program that oil shipments were in doubt.
■ELECTRONICS
Sanyo lowers forecasts
Japan’s struggling Sanyo Electric Co is set to downgrade its earnings forecasts for the year to March, expecting a strong yen to wipe out its net profit almost entirely, a report said yesterday. Sanyo, which is to become a subsidiary of Panasonic Corp later this year, will lower its forecast for group net profit from ¥35 billion (US$384 million) to almost zero for the full year to March, the Asahi Shimbun said. Its forecast of operating profit would be revised down by 40 percent to ¥30 billion from ¥50 billion, with sales expected to fall below ¥2 trillion for the first time in nine years, it said. The company’s earnings from microchip and other electronics parts are rapidly worsening due to the yen’s appreciation, the Asahi said, adding that the company would announce the revised forecasts this week.
■ELECTRONICS
iPhone books to hit shelves
Shortcovers expects to be turning iPhones into electronic books by month’s end. Shortcovers is releasing a mini-application that lets people read books, short stories or other written works on Apple-made smart phones in a direct challenge to electronic book devices sold by Amazon and Sony. Shortcovers software will be available for free download after it clears Apple’s vetting process and makes it to the virtual shelves of iTunes online App Store. “People aren’t reading less they are reading differently,” Shortcovers user experience director Pamela Hilborn said while demonstrating the application at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Their attention spans are shorter.” Shortcovers plans to make money on best-selling books and other works to iPhone readers for US$0.99 a chapter, with the first chapters free so people can look about for “their next great read,” Hilborn said.
CLOSURES: Several forest recreation areas have been closed as a precaution, while some ferry and flight services have been suspended or rescheduled A land warning for Tropical Storm Danas was issued last night at 8:30pm, as the storm’s outer bands began bringing heavy rain to southeastern regions, including Hualien and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). As of 9:15pm, the storm was approximately 330km west-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, moving north-northeast at 10-20kph, the CWA reported. A sea warning had already been issued at 8:30am yesterday. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 83kph, with gusts of up to 108kph, according to the CWA. As of 9:30pm last night, Kaohsiung, Tainan,
POWERFUL DETERRENT: Precision fire and dispersed deployment of units would allow Taiwanese artillery to inflict heavy casualties in an invasion, a researcher said The nation’s military has boosted its self-defense capability with the establishment of a new company equipped with the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The company, part of the army’s 58th Artillery Command, is Taiwan’s first HIMARS unit. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who presided over the formation ceremony in Taichung on Friday, called the unit a significant addition to the nation’s defensive strength, saying it would help deter adversaries from starting a war. The unit is made up of top-performing soldiers who received training in the US, according to the Ministry of National Defense. The HIMARS can be equipped with
UNILATERAL: The move from China’s aviation authority comes despite a previous 2015 agreement that any changes to flight paths would be done by consensus The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday slammed Beijing for arbitrarily opening the M503 flight route’s W121 connecting path, saying that such unilateral conduct disrespected the consensus between both sides and could destabilize the Taiwan Strait and the wider region. The condemnation came after the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) earlier yesterday announced it “has activated the W121 connecting path of the M503 flight route,” meaning that west-to-east flights are now permitted along the path. The newly activated west-to-east route is intended to “alleviate the pressure caused by the increase of flights,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office
STRONG WINDS: Without the Central Mountain Range as a shield, people should be ready for high-speed winds, CWA weather forecaster Liu Yu-chi said Danas was yesterday upgraded to a typhoon and could grow stronger as it moves closely along the nation’s west coastline, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Hsinchu and Chiayi cities, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Nantou, Chiayi, Penghu and Pingtung counties have canceled work and school today. Work and school in Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Yilan, Taitung, Hualien, Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties would continue as usual, although offices and schools would be closed in Taoyuan’s Luju (蘆竹), Dayuan (大園), Guangyin (觀音) and Sinwu (新屋) districts. As of 5pm yesterday, the typhoon’s
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