■ECONOMICS
‘Free fall’ is over: Stiglitz
Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz said on Thursday the “sense of free fall” is over in the world economic crisis, while urging further efforts by rich countries to speed recovery. “There’s no longer the sense of free fall,” Stiglitz told reporters in Rome. “The rate of decline has slowed, but that should not be confused with recovery,” Stiglitz said after a two-day meeting of the so-called “Shadow GN” economists. “While it may be the case that the worst consequences of the freezing of credit are easing, it would be wrong to say that the global crisis is over,” Stiglitz said, urging “continued efforts by governments to stimulate economies and revive the financial system.” The group of experts “with no commitments other than that of being citizens of the world” met to compile recommendations for the G8 rich countries that will hold their annual summit in Italy in July. The initiative is led by Stiglitz and French economist Jean-Paul Fitoussi.
■GERMANY
Exports drop 15.8%
German exports plunged by 15.8 percent year-on-year in March as demand for goods from a leading global exporter slid further owing to the economic downturn, official figures showed yesterday. Imports by the biggest European economy fell by 11.6 percent, data showed. Germany’s foreign trade balance continued to show a surplus of 11.3 billion euros (US$15.1 billion), but that was down from 16.8 billion in March last year, the Destatis service said. The figure was nonetheless better than an average analyst forecast of 8.7 billion euros compiled by Dow Jones Newswires. For the first three months of this year, Germany showed a trade surplus of 26.9 billion euros, nearly half the previous year’s figure of 51.2 billion euros.
■TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft warns of copies
Microsoft said on Thursday that cybercriminals are already hawking booby-trapped versions of the just-released Windows 7 operating system software. “In the last few days we’ve seen reports of illegitimate distributions of the release candidate of our latest Windows operating system, Windows 7, being offered in a way that is designed to infect a customer’s PC with malware,” Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, said in an interview posted on the company’s official Website. The US software colossus has touted anti-piracy protections it built into Windows 7 to thwart the spread of illegal copies of the operating system. Microsoft decried software piracy as a pervasive problem that costs the world economy more than US$45 billion annually and exposes users to risks of identity theft, system crashes and data loss.
■INSURANCE
AIG nears Tokyo deal
Ailing US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is close to reaching a deal to sell its Japanese headquarters to Nippon Life for about US$1 billion, an industry source said yesterday. “The talks are in the final stages,” said the source, who asked not to be named. Nippon Life Insurance Co, Japan’s biggest life insurer and known as Nissay, aims to purchase the building in the heart of Tokyo as an investment but is not the only potential buyer, the source said. The US government has pumped US$180 billion into AIG to keep it afloat, the largest single recipient of federal bailout money, giving the US Treasury effective control of what had once been one of the world’s biggest insurers.
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
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
PETITIONS: A Democratic Progressive Party official quoted President William Lai as saying that civil society groups are organizing the recall drives at the grassroots level Some civil society groups yesterday announced that they have collected enough signatures to pass the first-stage threshold to initiate a recall vote against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in 18 constituencies nationwide, saying that they would submit the signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) today. They also said that they expected to pass the threshold in eight more constituencies in the coming days, meaning the number of KMT legislators facing a recall vote could reach 26. The groups set up stations to collect signatures at local marketplaces and busy commercial districts. The legislators their petition drives target include Fu