■ POVERTY
Ban appoints Douste-Blazy
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed former French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Tuesday to look for innovative ways to finance UN goals to fight poverty. The goals include cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring an elementary school education for all children, and halting and reversing the AIDS pandemic, all by 2015. He will serve as Ban's special adviser on innovative financing for development, with the rank of undersecretary-general and a salary of US$1 a year. UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe, who announced the appointment, said aid from governments was noy enought to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Smart car makes a splash
Daimler AG's Smart car has made a big splash in the US, with sales off to a speedy start in its first month on the market, distributor Penske Auto Group said on Tuesday. "We're really excited about the smart business," Roger Penske said. "We think it's the right car at the right time." Smart USA expects to sell between 20,000 and 25,000 of the fuel-sipping two seaters this year and Penske said he was pressing Daimler to ship more vehicles. The Smart is the first French built car sold in the US in more than 20 years.
■ BANKING
A&L profit down
British bank Alliance & Leicester's (A&L) profit last year tumbled 30 percent as it suffered a £185 million (US$360.4 million) writedown on its exposure to risky assets. A&L, Britain's seventh-biggest listed bank, reported a pretax profit of £399 million yesterday, down from £569 million in 2006 and below an average forecast of £416 million from 12 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. The bank said underlying core operating profit rose 3 percent from 2006 to £602 million. It raised its full-year dividend by 2.2 percent to 55.3 pence per share, below an average forecast of 56.2 pence.
■ RETAIL
Carrefour Malaysia to invest
Carrefour Malaysia is planning to invest some US$373 million over the next three years to double the number of its hypermarkets here to 26, a report said yesterday. The New Straits Times said the expansion, including the construction of three more outlets this year, would create 4,200 jobs. "We expect to spend not less than 1.2 billion ringgit [US$373 million] over the next three years for openings," Carrefour customer operations and marketing director Sivakumar Haridas told the daily. "Prior to 2006, we only had eight stores. Between 2006 and January 2008 we have already added five stores," he said.
■ INVESTMENT
Japanese stock alluring
The chief operating officer of Dubai International Capital said it is time to buy sluggish Japanese stocks, a news report said yesterday. "It is a good investment opportunity," Anand Krishnan was quoted as saying by the Nikkei Shimbun. The investment company, owned by the ruler of the booming Persian Gulf city-state, has been keen on overseas investment opportunities. The fund said in November it has acquired a stake in Sony Corp, without specifying ownership percentage. Krishnan said that the fund is seeking out Japanese shares besides Sony, the Nikkei said. Krishnan said he was interested in companies with significant market shares in emerging markets.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from