■INSURANCE
AIG execs probe dropped
The US Justice Department has dropped a probe into American International Group Inc (AIG) executives responsible for the credit default swaps that sent the insurer to the brink of bankruptcy and forced a huge taxpayer bailout, lawyers for the executives said on Saturday. The criminal probe had focused on whether Joseph Cassano, who ran the financial products unit and Andrew Forster, his deputy, knowingly misled investors about the company’s accounting losses on its credit default swaps portfolio. “Although a two-year, intense investigation is tough for anyone, the results are wholly appropriate in light of our client’s factual innocence,” F. Joseph Warin and Jim Walden, Cassano’s lawyers, said in a statement. Forster’s lawyers also confirmed the probe had been dropped.
■TEXTILES
China firm absorbs Renown
Chinese textile company Shandong Ruyi (山東如意) is planning to become the top shareholder of struggling Japanese apparel maker Renown Inc, reports said yesterday. Shandong Ruyi will acquire a stake of about 40 percent in Renown, investing about ¥4 billion (US$43 million dollars) to become Renown’s leading shareholder through a third-party allocation of shares, the Nikkei Shimbun reported, without disclosing sources. Once the deal is completed, Renown will become the largest Japanese company to be absorbed by a Chinese firm, the Nikkei said.
■BANKING
Bank of Spain intervenes
Spain’s central bank took control on Saturday of a troubled regional savings bank for the second time since the start of the global financial crisis amid growing doubts over the country’s ability to sort out its public finances. The central bank said in a statement it had removed the managers of CajaSur, based in the city of Cordoba and controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, after it failed to complete a planned merger with another savings bank, Unicaja. Cajasur, which accounts for 0.6 percent of the assets of the Spanish banking industry, will be managed by representatives of an offshoot of the Bank of Spain, the Fund for Orderly Bank Reconstruction.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Abbott buys Indian unit
US healthcare group Abbott Laboratories has announced a US$3.7 billion buyout of the generic drugs unit of India’s Piramal Healthcare, as it moves to boost its presence in emerging markets. Abbott, which announced the acquisition late on Friday, said the deal would make it the leading pharma company in India with a market share of 7 percent. The firm has agreed to pay US$2.1 billion as a downpayment, with the remainder to be paid in annual installments of US$400 million over the next four years.
■SOUTH KOREA
Monitoring strengthened
The government will enhance monitoring of its economy after an international panel said on Thursday it found conclusive proof that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean navy vessel in March, killing 46 sailors. The government will beef up cooperation among related organizations and monitor markets closely as uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula together with instability on international financial markets might have a negative impact on the economy, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
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
‘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)
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