■ENTERTAINMENT
Marvel passes Disney deal
Shareholders of Marvel Entertainment Inc, home to the X-Men, Iron Man, Spider-Man and other comic books and characters, approved the company’s acquisition by the Walt Disney Co on Thursday. Marvel, in a statement, said shareholders approved the US$4.3 billion deal announced in August under which the comic book giant and its stable of action heroes will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney. The acquisition is Disney’s biggest since its purchase of animation house Pixar three years ago. Marvel’s cast of more than 5,000 characters includes Captain America, the Fantastic Four and Thor.
■TELECOMS
UTSI fined for bribes
UTStarcom Inc (UTSI), a US telecom company, agreed on Thursday to pay US$3 million in fines for bribing Chinese officials with Hawaiian vacations and other junkets, US officials said. The Justice Department said UTSI had agreed to pay a US$1.5 million fine for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by providing “travel and other things of value” to employees of state-owned Chinese telecom firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the Alameda, California, company had agreed to pay an additional US$1.5 million for authorizing millions of dollars in unlawful payments to Asian government officials.
■ENERGY
PDVSA, ENI sign deal
Venezuela’s state oil company has announced a deal with the Italian company Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI) for producing and refining crude from an exploration project in the eastern strip of the Orinoco basin. An official notice published on Thursday by Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) says two joint companies will be formed under the deal, with PDVSA holding a 60 percent stake in each and ENI 40 percent. No financial value was given for the agreement. The deal is part of improved relations between the two sides since Venezuela’s 2006 takeover of an oil field run by ENI that was part of a broader nationalization of Venezuelan oil projects held by foreign companies.
■GAMBLING
Icahn ups casino ante
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to pump still more cash into his bid to buy Donald Trump’s bankrupt casinos, papers filed in federal court showed. Icahn already had agreed to buy a majority of the US$486 million bank debt on the three properties: Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and Trump Marina Hotel Casino. In a statement filed on Tuesday in US Bankruptcy Court, Icahn Partners Inc committed another US$125 million toward propping up struggling Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy protection in February.
■BROADCASTING
Fox extends deadline
The Fox television network allowed its broadcast signal to be carried by Time Warner Cable for a brief extension past a midnight deadline as talks over fees continued. Time Warner Cable Inc made the announcement as the clock rolled past midnight on Thursday on the East Coast. Fox, which carries The Simpsons, had threatened to pull the signal from 14 TV stations it owns, a move that would have affected more than 6 million customers of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida. The dispute focuses on how much Fox is paid by cable companies to retransmit those stations’ signals. Neither company said how long the extension would last.
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
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
‘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)