■BANKING
Lloyds agrees to pay penalty
British-based Lloyds TSB Bank agreed on Friday to pay a US$350 million penalty to settle a probe that it illegally handled financial transfers for Iran and Sudan in violation of US sanctions. A Justice Department statement said Lloyd’s “has accepted and acknowledged responsibility for its criminal conduct” in a criminal complain filed in US District Court in New York. “Lloyds agreed to forfeit the funds as part of deferred prosecution agreements with the Department of Justice and the New York County District Attorney’s Office,” the statement said. Prosecutors alleged that from 1995 until 2007, Lloyds agents in Britain and Dubai “falsified outgoing US wire transfers that involved countries or persons on US sanctions lists.”
■ECONOMY
Harper vows ‘big actions’
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed on Friday his government would initiate major measures in an upcoming budget and possibly over the next three to five years to stimulate the economy. “We’ll take big, comprehensive actions,” Harper told a press conference. “We’ll assume that we’re probably going to look at a period of three to five years of such actions,” he added. “It won’t necessarily be that long, but we’re not going to underestimate the situation.” Earlier, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said extra government spending or tax cuts or both to prop up the economy would mean this year “the deficit will be substantial.” The budget is to be unveiled on Jan. 27, marking the nation’s first budget deficit in more than a decade.
■REAL ESTATE
PRC property prices drop
Chinese property prices fell last month for the first time since 2005, state media reported yesterday, quoting official figures. The price of housing in 70 major cities fell 0.4 percent year-on-year, Xinhua reported, quoting from a statement issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning agency, and the National Bureau of Statistics. The southern boom town of Shenzhen saw the largest fall, with prices down 18.1 percent.
■PETROLEUM
PDVSA denies layoffs
Venezuela’s state oil company on Friday denied 4,000 contract workers have been laid off as the nation moves to comply with new OPEC production cuts. State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), dismissed reports that at least eight oil rigs have been halted and thousands of contract workers laid off. Vice President Eulogio Del Pino said in a statement that union leaders who made the allegations were lying for political reasons.
■ENGINEERING
IT flirting course on offer
Even the most quirky of computer nerds can learn to flirt with finesse thanks to a new “flirting course” being offered to budding IT engineers at Potsdam University south of Berlin. The 440 students enrolled in the master’s degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and e-mails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection. Philip von Senftleben, an author and radio presenter who will teach the course, summed up his job as teaching how to “get someone else’s heart beating fast while yours stays calm.” The course, which starts next Monday, is part of the social skills section of the IT course and is designed to ease entry into the world of work. Students also learn body language, public speaking, stress management and presentation skills.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
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