■ Finance
"Jobless rate unchanged
Japan's jobless rate held steady at 3.8 percent last month from the previous month, the government said yesterday, suggesting companies were willing to add labor despite uncertainty about the economy. Japanese Economy Minister Hiroko Ota said the government remained bullish but cautious about job market conditions. "We haven't changed our views on the employment situation," Ota told reporters after a regular Cabinet meeting. The labor market "continues improving, but its pace is slow."
■ Finance
Merrill co-president retiring
Wall Street investment bank Merrill Lynch said late on Monday that Ahmass Fakahany would retire as co-president and chief operating officer, effective Feb. 1. Fakahany, 49, joined the New York-based financial-services firm in 1987 and has served in a variety of senior roles. Merrill Lynch did not reveal the company's intentions for a successor. Fakahany is considered one of the architects of Merrill's development of high-risk investment vehicles, including those backed by subprime mortgages. The strategy helped rack up a US$7.8 billion net loss for the firm last year, compared with a net profit of US$7.5 billion in 2006.
■ Food
Danone buys plants: report
French food giant Danone, which is embroiled in a bitter feud with a Chinese partner, has bought two local dairy plants as it seeks to reshuffle its China operations, China Business News reported yesterday. Danone has signed an agreement to buy two manufacturing plants, one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai, from Beijing-based Miaoshi Dairy (妙士乳業), the report said, citing unnamed sources. Spokespeople for Danone and Miaoshi contacted by Agence-France Presse either declined to comment or said they were unaware of the matter.
■ Beverages
Fired CEO gets nice options
Starbucks Corp has given the chief executive officer it fired earlier this month a severance package that includes US$1.25 million the coffee retailer will pay out over the next year. The agreement, disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, also allows Jim Donald to exercise options for 1.6 million shares of stock at prices of either US$10.86 or US$15.23. Those options are worth US$10.73 million, based on Monday's closing stock price of US$19.66. The world's largest chain of coffee houses fired Donald on Jan. 7 and handed the reins back to chairman Howard Schultz as part of a series of moves aimed at revitalizing the company.
■ Economy
Consumer confidence down
Consumer confidence in France dropped to a record low this month as rising inflation squeezed purchasing power. A gauge of consumer sentiment fell to minus 34, the lowest since the index was introduced in 1987, from a revised minus 30 last month, Insee, the national statistics office, said yesterday. A 66 percent increase in oil prices over the past year pushed the inflation rate to the highest in almost four years at 2.8 percent last month. Public confidence in President Nicolas Sarkozy also dropped, with his popularity falling to the lowest since he took office in May as higher prices deepened concern he would fail to fulfill his pledge to boost living standards, two opinion polls showed this month.
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
‘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)
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