■INTERNET
EU group slams Facebook
Europe slammed as unacceptable the changes by social networking Web site Facebook to its privacy settings that would allow the profiles of its users to be made available to third party Web sites. “It is unacceptable that the company fundamentally changed the default settings on its social-networking platform to the detriment of a user,” the group of European data protections authorities said in a letter on Wednesday. The EU group, known as the Article 29 Working Party, met on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels to discuss safer networking principles. It reminded Facebook that user profile information “is limited to self-selected contacts” and any further access “should be an explicit choice of the user.” On April 21, the social networking site rolled out a series of new features, including the ability for partner Web sites to incorporate Facebook data, a move that would further expand its presence on the Internet.
■OIL
CIC to invest in Penn West
State-owned China Investment Corp (CIC, 中國投資公司) has agreed to invest C$1.25 billion (US$1.23 billion) in Canadian oil sands giant Penn West. The partnership will allow the Canadian firm to launch “commercial scale development and production” of its vast oil sands resources, said Penn West, which is contributing to the joint venture leases for 237,000 acres (95,910 hectares) of oil sands that are now producing 2,700 barrels of oil per day and are believed to contain “significant bitumen resources.” The leases are valued at approximately C$1.8 billion, the company said. Penn West will retain a 55 percent interest in the partnership. CIC will invest a total of C$817 million to acquire a 45 percent stake in the joint venture.
■FOOD
Chavez expropriates firm
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has decreed the expropriation of a Mexican-owned food company to set up a state agribusiness project, the official gazette announced on Thursday. Mexico’s Gruma group, whose Venezuelan subsidiary Monaca was expropriated, responded in a statement that it had not received prior warning of the move but would cooperate with Venezuelan authorities. The company produces, processes and distributes food such as flour, pasta, rice, oil and oats. Venezuela’s official gazette said its workers could be employed by the cooperative that would take over the company. “It’s our intention to cooperate with the Venezuelan government during negotiations for the acquisition of Monaca,” Gruma said in a statement from its headquarters in Monterrey, Mexico. Basic foods, such as those produced by Monaca, have been under a price control system since 2003 as Venezuela’s leftist government has sought to counter periodic shortages.
■CONSUMER GOODS
Parents sue over diapers
Procter & Gamble Co (P&G) is being sued by parents claiming new Pampers diapers have caused severe rashes and other skin conditions on their children, court documents showed, assertions the company has called “completely false.” The action, filed by the law firm of Keller Rohrback, comes on the heels of parents’ complaints that updated Pampers Swaddlers and Cruisers diapers with P&G’s new Dry Max technology appear to have caused rashes and burns on their children. According to documents, the lawsuit wants the court to require P&G to ensure that Pampers will not cause severe rashes, blisters, welts, chemical burns and other skin ailments and to regularly test the product.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
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