■ INFLATION
Chavez threatens seizures
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened again on Friday to seize property from businesses if they are caught hoarding products, as Venezuela struggles with shortages of some basic foods and high inflation. Chavez warned that price speculation is occurring "at all levels of society, from the big capitalists to the small shopkeepers" and said his government could expropriate property from individuals or companies that purportedly sit on goods for months to sell later them at inflated prices. Annual inflation soared to 22.5 percent last year -- the highest official rate in Latin America -- the Central Bank said.
■ BIOTECHNOLOGY
France bans corn strain
France on Friday invoked an EU safeguard procedure to bar a strain of genetically modified corn after a watchdog said it had doubts about the product, the prime minister's office said. The government was invoking the procedure "until European authorities re-evaluate the authorization on commercialization" of the product, the prime minister's office said in a statement. It had decided to act on the "principle of precaution" after the watchdog authority's findings, it added. The government also announced it was investing 45 million euros (US$66 million) in vegetable biotechnology, an eight-fold increase over the current budget. US agricultural giant Monsanto, which produces the strain, has 15 days to present its defense.
■ LABOR
Hollywood talks to start
The Directors Guild of America and Hollywood's production companies said on Friday that they planned to start formal contract negotiations yesterday, promising a major break in the entertainment industry's troubled labor situation. News Corp president Peter Chernin and Walt Disney Co chief executive Robert Iger were earlier deputized by their fellow company chiefs to join top negotiators from the producers' alliance in seeking terms with directors, said several people who were briefed on the situation but asked for anonymity to protect the talks.
■ ECONOMY
UK GDP slows to 0.5%
UK economic growth slowed to the weakest pace in two years during the fourth quarter, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimated. The economy expanded 0.5 percent in the final quarter of last year, compared with 0.7 percent in the third quarter, the London-based group, which advises the Bank of England and the Treasury, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. That would be the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2005. "This is a welcome moderation from a growth rate that has been persistently above trend for the past two years," the institute said. "We expect gross domestic product to be significantly below trend this year."
■ OIL
Crude futures tumble
World oil prices tumbled on Friday amid mounting fears the US economy could be tipping into a recession and amid reports of fresh unrest in Nigeria, a key oil-producing nation, traders said. New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, closed down US$1.02 at US$92.69 per barrel. On the London market, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery tumbled US$1.15 to settle at US$91.07 per barrel. Oil prices have plummeted by as much as US$5 this week.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station