■AUTOMAKERS
Daimler escapes charges
Daimler escaped criminal charges in a longstanding US probe into the German automaker’s habitual bribing of foreign officials, in a deal presented to a judge on Wednesday. Daimler admitted to making hundreds of improper payments worth tens of millions of dollars to foreign officials in at least 22 countries between 1998 and 2008, according to a deferred prosecution agreement filed in a Washington court. Prosecutors recommended that the judge impose a US$93.6 million fine and accept the guilty plea of two Daimler subsidiaries. Daimler will also pay a US$91.4 million fine to settle an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
■CREDIT
Moody’s maintains UK rating
Britain’s “AAA” sovereign credit rating and stable outlook remain solid following a budget that suggests the country’s efforts to rein in its high deficit will not flag following upcoming elections, credit rating agency Moody’s said. The content of British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s final budget ahead of an election expected in May “suggests that the considerable fiscal challenge faced by the government has not changed materially,” Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group senior vice president Arnaud Mares said on Wednesday.
■NEW ZEALAND
Economy grew 0.8% in Q4
The nation’s economy grew by 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year in the strongest rise for two years, official figures showed yesterday. The 0.8 percent rise from the previous three months followed a revised increase of 0.3 percent in the September quarter and a 0.2 percent rise in June, which came after five straight quarters of decline. Compared with the same period in 2008, GDP grew 0.4 percent in the December quarter, while average annual GDP last year fell 1.6 percent from 2008, Statistics New Zealand said.
■GERMANY
Sentiment stabilizes
German consumer sentiment has stabilized after a five-month slide, helped by government efforts to limit the damage from the global economic crisis on employment, the GfK research group said yesterday. GfK said its consumer confidence index was steady at 3.2 points for next month. GfK acknowledged consumer confidence might just be taking a breather from a downward trend that began with November’s reading, but said both economic and personal income expectations had improved among the roughly 2,000 people surveyed.
■MALAYSIA
Central bank raises outlook
The central bank raised the country’s economic forecast for this year, pledging that its monetary policy would continue to support growth even as it begins to “normalize” interest rates amid an “uneven” global recovery. Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy may expand 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent this year after shrinking 1.7 percent last year, Bank Negara Malaysia said in its annual report on Wednesday. The government said in October that GDP would expand 2 percent to 3 percent this year.
■APPLIANCES
Electrolux eyes Daewoo unit
Swedish giant Electrolux, the second-biggest producer of electrical appliances in the world, has made an offer to buy South Korea’s Daewoo Electronics, an Electrolux spokesman said on Wednesday. “I can confirm that we have made an indicative offer on the appliance part of Daewoo,” spokesman Anders Edholm said.
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)