■ENERGY
Oil prices steady in Asia
Oil prices were steady yesterday in Asia after plummeting more than US$6 a barrel in the previous session on expectations a weakening US economy would undermine crude demand. Concern that quickening inflation and slowing economic growth will cut consumer demand in the US for gasoline and other oil products may slow a bullish trend that’s seen crude prices roughly double in the past year, said Tetsu Emori, a commodity markets fund manager at ASTMAX Futures Co in Tokyo. In late afternoon trading in Singapore, light, sweet crude for delivery next month was up US$0.17 at US$131.91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices hit a trading record of US$147.27 on Friday.
■AVIATION
Airlines charged in probe
New Zealand’s Commerce Commission filed criminal charges yesterday against three international airlines, alleging poor disclosure as it probes allegations of price fixing in the local air cargo market. The commission said the charges against Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlines subsidiary Singapore Airlines Cargo Pte Ltd and Aerolineas Argentinas allege noncompliance with notices seeking documents and information that were issued under New Zealand’s Commerce Act in October. The commission is investigating allegations some airlines have colluded to reach agreements and understandings on the level of cargo rates, including fuel surcharges, on international flights to and from New Zealand, it said in a statement.
■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota cuts sales target
Toyota Motor Corp is cutting this year’s global sales target to 9.5 million vehicles, public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. Japan’s biggest carmaker had a sales target of 9.85 million. “We are taking another look at our plans for 2008,” Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said. He said specific figures had yet to be decided. The report came after signs of trouble for Toyota in the US, one of its biggest markets. Stung by rare double-digit sales declines and burdened by a growing inventory of slow-selling pickups, Toyota said last week it would start producing the Prius hybrid in the US and shut down truck and SUV production to meet changing consumer demand.
■THAILAND
Central bank hikes rates
The central bank raised interest rates yesterday by a quarter-point to 3.5 percent, marking the first increase in two years in a bid to beat inflation down from a decade high. Soaring prices for oil and food pushed inflation to 8.9 percent last month, the highest level since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. “Now there are signals showing that rising production costs and high inflation are starting to affect confidence among consumers and investors,” Assistant Governor Duangmanee Vongpradhip said.
■EUROPE
Eurozone inflation rises
Inflation jumped to a record 4 percent last year, the European Statistics Office said yesterday, amid growing concerns about the threat posed to the global economy by surging consumer prices. The data confirms the preliminary estimate for annual inflation in the 15-member eurozone, which the statistics office Eurostat released at the end of last month. Since then, the European Central Bank has delivered its first rate hike in more than a year by raising borrowings costs by 25 basis points to 4.25 percent in a bid to ward off renewed inflationary pressures.
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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘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)