■ INFLATION
Chavez threatens seizures
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened again on Friday to seize property from businesses if they are caught hoarding products, as Venezuela struggles with shortages of some basic foods and high inflation. Chavez warned that price speculation is occurring "at all levels of society, from the big capitalists to the small shopkeepers" and said his government could expropriate property from individuals or companies that purportedly sit on goods for months to sell later them at inflated prices. Annual inflation soared to 22.5 percent last year -- the highest official rate in Latin America -- the Central Bank said.
■ BIOTECHNOLOGY
France bans corn strain
France on Friday invoked an EU safeguard procedure to bar a strain of genetically modified corn after a watchdog said it had doubts about the product, the prime minister's office said. The government was invoking the procedure "until European authorities re-evaluate the authorization on commercialization" of the product, the prime minister's office said in a statement. It had decided to act on the "principle of precaution" after the watchdog authority's findings, it added. The government also announced it was investing 45 million euros (US$66 million) in vegetable biotechnology, an eight-fold increase over the current budget. US agricultural giant Monsanto, which produces the strain, has 15 days to present its defense.
■ LABOR
Hollywood talks to start
The Directors Guild of America and Hollywood's production companies said on Friday that they planned to start formal contract negotiations yesterday, promising a major break in the entertainment industry's troubled labor situation. News Corp president Peter Chernin and Walt Disney Co chief executive Robert Iger were earlier deputized by their fellow company chiefs to join top negotiators from the producers' alliance in seeking terms with directors, said several people who were briefed on the situation but asked for anonymity to protect the talks.
■ ECONOMY
UK GDP slows to 0.5%
UK economic growth slowed to the weakest pace in two years during the fourth quarter, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimated. The economy expanded 0.5 percent in the final quarter of last year, compared with 0.7 percent in the third quarter, the London-based group, which advises the Bank of England and the Treasury, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. That would be the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2005. "This is a welcome moderation from a growth rate that has been persistently above trend for the past two years," the institute said. "We expect gross domestic product to be significantly below trend this year."
■ OIL
Crude futures tumble
World oil prices tumbled on Friday amid mounting fears the US economy could be tipping into a recession and amid reports of fresh unrest in Nigeria, a key oil-producing nation, traders said. New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, closed down US$1.02 at US$92.69 per barrel. On the London market, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery tumbled US$1.15 to settle at US$91.07 per barrel. Oil prices have plummeted by as much as US$5 this week.
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 Xinyi A13 Department Store 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 at
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)