Enron notifies pending layoffs

More Enron Corp employees are working themselves out of a job. As the failed energy company continues to wrap up contracts and work toward emergence from Chapter 11, there8217;s less work left to do. This week Enron notified employees that about 200 of the 1,200 workers at the bankrupt parent and insolvent subsidiaries will be laid off in December and February. 8216;8216;As the bankruptcy estate winds down, we require fewer and fewer people, and this is an indication of that,8217;8217; Enron spokesman Mark Palmer said on Thursday. Last month Enron updated its proposed reorganisation plan, which is slated to be presented to US Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez for initial approval at a hearing October 29 in New York. Under the plan, most of Enron8217;s creditors would receive about one-fifth of more than 64 billion they are owed with two-thirds in cash and the rest in stock in the new companies.

Honda8217;s new fuel-saving system

TOKYO: Honda Motor said on Friday that it has developed a new fuel-saving, emissions-cutting technology for use in 50CC scooters a year and a half ahead of schedule, and plans to install it in all Japanese models by 2007. The system, which uses an electronically-controlled fuel injection system in four-stroke 50CC engines, reduces emissions of harmful carbon monoxide gases by half and improves fuel efficiency by up to 10 per cent compared with conventional scooters, the motorcycle maker said. The technology, dubbed 8216;PGM-FI8217; programmed fuel injection, has been used in bigger motorcycles and cars since 1982, but developing a lighter, cheaper and smaller version for 50CC scooters had been difficult, it stated.