■RUSSIA
GDP shrank 10.5% in April
The Russian economy contracted by 10.5 percent last month compared with a year earlier, local news agencies reported yesterday. GDP in the first four months of the year also fell 9.8 percent from a year ago, Russian Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said. On a seasonally adjusted basis, GDP last month declined 0.4 percent from March, milder compared with the 0.8 percent fall between February and March, he said. Klepach said the economy ministry was still forecasting an overall decline in GDP for this year of between 6 percent and 8 percent, although this might change.
■MANUFACTURING
Singapore output falls 0.5%
Singapore said yesterday that manufacturing output declined at a much slower pace last month, helped by a strong turnaround in the biomedical industry. And on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, output rose 24.7 percent compared with a 13.9 percent drop in March, the Economic Development Board said. Total manufacturing output last month fell 0.5 percent from a year ago, a sharp improvement from the revised 32.8 percent contraction recorded a month before, the board said. The figures represent the seventh straight month of decline in output.
■METALS
China approves Ji’en bid
China’s Ji’en Nickel Industry said yesterday that Chinese regulators had approved a partnership with Canadian mining company Goldbrook Ventures for nickel exploration in Canada. The Chinese miner plans to invest 248 million yuan (US$36 million) in mining projects at Goldbrooks’ Raglan property in northern Quebec, it said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In return for the payment Ji’en will acquire a 50 percent share of revenue from exploration and development of the 360,000-hectare property over the next three years. Ji’en, based in Jilin Province, also announced in a separate statement yesterday that it had acquired a controlling stake in Canadian Liberty Mines for 165 million yuan.
■EQUIPMENT
Nikon to cut 1,000 jobs
Japanese camera and precision equipment maker Nikon Corp said yesterday it would cut about 1,000 jobs, mostly at its domestic plants, as it braces for a loss this year. Nikon said it would overhaul its operations making devices for use in the production of semiconductors. It will also downsize its subsidiary in Singapore and transfer part of the business to Taiwan. The group aims to reduce its annual costs by about ¥8 billion (US$84 million). Hit by weak demand, Nikon earlier this month forecast a net loss of ¥17 billion for the current business year to March.
■SEMICONDUCTORS
Inspur drops Qimonda bid
Efforts to find a new owner for Qimonda, the German manufacturer of memory chips for computers and phones, have suffered a new blow after a Chinese contender pulled out, the Saechsische Zeitung newspaper reported yesterday. Inspur Group (浪潮集團) had dropped plans for a complete takeover of Qimonda because of a decline in demand for microelectronic products caused by the global economic crisis, the report said. Inspur, based in Shandong Province, disclosed the news in a letter to the government of the German state of Saxony, where the insolvent chipmaker has its main factory. Qimonda is a subsidiary of chipmaker Infineon.
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)