■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.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
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