ECONOMY
US is in recession: Buffet
While economists quibble, the world’s richest man has decided: the US is already in recession. So Warren Buffett tells German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview to be published tomorrow. “It is perhaps not a recession in the way that economists would understand it ... but people are already feeling the effects and it will be deeper and longer than people think,” Buffett said on a visit to Frankfurt. Buffett, the 77-year-old chief of the Berkshire Hathaway holding company, blamed financial institutions for introducing instruments “they can no longer control” and said the “genie can no longer be put back in the bottle.”
TELECOMS
MTN merger talks shelved
An Indian telecommunications company has called off merger talks with South Africa’s largest mobile phone network operator, MTN Group Ltd, a company statement said. Bharti Airtel Ltd said late on Saturday that it was pulling out of talks with MTN because the South African firm had presented a different merger structure from what had been agreed to earlier this month. Discussions were held with MTN until Friday without a breakthrough, Bharti Airtel said. MTN could not immediately be reached for comment.
ENERGY
Union Fenosa faces pressure
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his government will nationalize Spanish electricity provider Union Fenosa SA unless it cedes 16 percent of its shares to his government. Fenosa agreed to sell the shares for about US$15 million under a preliminary deal, but both sides are still negotiating final details. “Either they respect the agreement,” Ortega said in a speech late on Friday,” or that company will be in the hands of the Nicaraguan people, in the hands of the state.” Nicaragua’s government accuses Fenosa of breaching its concession agreement by failing to invest enough to improve infrastructure in the energy-starved country.
PETS
Menu Foods sets up fund
Canadian pet food manufacturer Menu Foods, blamed for the deaths of dozens of cats and dogs in North America, has set up a US$24 million settlement fund to deal with a slew of US legal suits. The company last March recalled 60 million cans and pouches of food made in the US and sold under 95 different brand names after reports that house pets were falling sick and dying after eating their products. The recall cost Menu Foods more than US$30 million dollars, and was prompted by the deaths of five company pets and nine laboratory cats of renal failure. Veterinarians in Canada and the US subsequently reported similar cases.
ENERGY
Nuclear reactor shut down
Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japan’s biggest power utility, said it shut down a nuclear reactor at its power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northern Japan, because the reactor’s cooling system wasn’t functioning. Both the high-pressure injection system and the reactor core isolation cooling system at the plant’s No. 5 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power unit weren’t functioning, forcing the company to shut down the reactor manually, the company said on its Web site. It will be shut down until Tokyo Electric can determine the cause of the problem, said Toshiyuki Yajima, a spokesman for the utility.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a