■REAL ESTATE
Trump mulls India project
Donald Trump Jr., the son of New York-based developer Donald Trump, said the Trump Organization is considering investing in an India project in 12 to 18 months. "I would like to take advantage of hotels and resorts coming up for future investment," Trump Jr. said at a real estate conference in Mumbai yesterday. Trump aims to focus on hotels, resorts and high-end homes in India, he said. India's real estate sector is expected to grow to US$90 billion by 2015 from US$12 billion now, estimates by Moody's Investors Service showed. The South Asian nation faces a shortage of about 25 million housing units, government data showed.
■ HEALTHCARE
Mediators table proposal
Mediators trying to prevent a mass resignation by Finnish nurses over a pay dispute have come up with a proposal likely to help end a crisis threatening the healthcare system, union officials said on Sunday. If ratified by both the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (TEHY) and the Local Authority Employers the agreement would stop 16,000 nurses from quitting and spare the healthcare system from potential paralysis. "There is a unanimous mediator committee proposal," TEHY regional head Helena Leppanen said. "We know our negotiators would not come out with one [proposal] that was not acceptable among our members."
■ BANKING
UK minister mulls bank aid
Advisors to British Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Alistair Darling are preparing a plan to continue an emergency loan to troubled bank Northern Rock despite EU rules limiting the period it can receive state aid, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday. They are working on a scheme which would allow all or part of the £25 billion (US$51 billion) Bank of England loan to be extended indefinitely, it said. Under EU rules, Northern Rock cannot receive state aid beyond Feb. 17, but lawyers are looking at bypassing that stipulation by changing the status of the cash to restructuring aid, the paper said.
■ OIL
Prices up on supply worries
Oil prices were higher in Asia yesterday as traders again fretted over tight energy supplies with the northern hemisphere winter approaching, dealers said. Indications that OPEC is not about to raise output were also propping up prices, they said. "If one looks at the fundamentals, the market is tight," said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz. "That is why the crude futures are showing fresh signs of strength," he said. In afternoon trade New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was US$0.92 higher at US$94.76 a barrel from US$93.84 in US trades on Friday. The December contract expired Friday, closing US$1.67 higher at US$95.10.
■ GAMING
Sony slashes software price
Sony Corp, the world's largest maker of video-game players, halved the price of a software program package used to develop titles for its PlayStation 3 console yesterday. The package, known as "reference tool," is now priced at ¥950,000 (US$8,600) in Japan and US$10,250 in the US, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, the Tokyo-based company's game unit, said in a statement.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)