IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 21 August
21-08-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
Students sit extra maths exams | Ryanair faces questions over ticket cancellations
The Irish Times reports that nearly 500 jobs have been lost in Cork and Offaly. US medical devices company Boston Scientific told workers at its Tullamore plant that 240 jobs would go, as reported by ENN on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the High Court wound up the insolvent Carrigtwohill-based Howley Civil Engineering, with the loss of all 250 jobs.
The paper also reports that Gardai have uncovered a large-scale international ATM and credit card cloning operation involving thousands of cards used recently in the Galway area. Gardai believe the card scam is more serious than the fraud which came to light earlier this week in the east of the country. In the Galway case, cards had already been cloned and large sums of money stolen before Gardai were alerted to the problem.
The paper also notes that over 60 students sat special maths exams on Wednesday for entry to NUI Galway and Sligo Institute of Technology. The exams were aimed at students who met CAO requirements for entry, but did not achieve the necessary Leaving Certificate maths grade. Prof Padraic O'Donoghue, dean of engineering and informatics at NUI Galway, said about 40 students sat the exams for entry to engineering and IT degree programmes. Padraic Cuffe, student affairs manager at IT Sligo, said 27 students sat the exam at the college on Wednesday. A further 28 students are expected to sit a maths exam on Thursday at the University of Limerick, while 20 students are registered to sit an exam at NUI Maynooth on Friday.
The same paper says the European Commission is investigating whether Ryanair is in violation of an EU rule by refusing to honour tickets bought from travel agencies though the internet. The regulator sent the airline a letter seeking "clarification" about the policy, said Fabio Pirotta, a Commission spokesman. Earlier this month Ryanair said it was cancelling all tickets booked through 'screenscraping' travel agencies. The Commission will check whether Ryanair's policy complies with an EU regulation that increased compensation for passengers stranded because of overbooked flights or cancellations, Pirotta said.
The paper also notes that the fourth annual crop of "teacher scientists" have received certificates marking their participation in the STARs programme funded by Science Foundation Ireland, as reported by ENN on Tuesday.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Intel and Yahoo have unveiled an ambitious effort to merge the TV with the internet. The pair revealed software tools, based on Yahoo technology, to help companies deliver web content alongside TV programming. Instead of trying to call up entire webpages on a TV screen, as many previous efforts have, Yahoo is using widgets, simple web-based chunks of software that have become popular on PCs over the past few years. The Widget Channel, as Yahoo has dubbed the service, allows icons for web offerings to scroll from side to side on a strip at the bottom of a TV screen, while traditional programming plays above. The two companies plan for the service to be available early next year.
The same paper says US start-up Hillcrest Laboratories has taken legal action against Nintendo for allegedly violating patents with the Wii videogame system. Hillcrest Laboratories filed a complaint on Wednesday against Nintendo with the US International Trade Commission, alleging that the Wii's motion-sensing controller and software infringes on Hillcrest patents related to the technologies. The filing asks the commission to halt the import of Wii consoles into the US. Hillcrest also filed a lawsuit in a federal court, making similar allegations against Nintendo and seeking financial damages. A spokesman for Nintendo said the company had not been served with any lawsuit or action by Hillcrest.
According to the Financial Times, mobile maker LG Electronics plans to accelerate its push into emerging markets as part of a drive to increase global market share to 15 percent in the next 18 months. "We want to become a firm top three player by 2010 and become number one eventually," said Scott Ahn, president of LG's mobile communications division. "We will have to accelerate our pace in emerging markets to achieve that goal."
The paper also says that Ericsson and STMicroelectronics are setting up a joint venture to supply chips to mobile phone manufacturers, in an effort to compete with Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, the biggest mobile chipmakers. The as yet unnamed venture, which will also supply other handset components, will have annual sales of USD3.6 billion. Ericsson, the world's largest maker of mobile phone networks, will inject USD1.1 billion into the joint venture, USD700 million of which will be paid to STMicroelectronics. Chipmaker STMicroelectronics is contributing its ST-NXP Wireless mobile phone semiconductor business, which was formed by another joint venture only 19 days ago. Ericsson will put its mobile platform business into the venture.
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