Reuters, TOKYOA lieutenant to Carlos Ghosn who is facing charges in Japan for underreporting his salary at Nissan Motor Co stands a high chance of being acquitted, as would Ghosn had he remained in Japan to face trial, a former prosecutor said. Kelly, who is accused of arranging the payments, remains in Japan awaiting trial. “Personally, I believe that there was a very high chance for Mr Ghosn to be acquitted based on the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act,” he told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo yesterday. “Likewise for Mr Kelly, there is a high likelihood that he will be acquitted as well,” he added. The trial of the men and Nissan, which is facing the same charge, is due to begin next year or 2022.

The following day, Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said that Chen’s action was destroying the rule of law. Even if a civil servant does not break the law, the Control Yuan can punish them for misconduct that could hurt people or society. The problem is that judicial personnel are civil servants and subject to supervision by the Control Yuan, according to the Constitution. As the Control Yuan supervises civil servants, judicial personnel are also included in its scope. However, as no one can interfere with a judge’s case, the Control Yuan can only investigate judges’ behavior, but not their cases.

BloombergAfrican companies have already announced thousands of job cuts. In a country where a third of the labor force is already unemployed, this would put even more strain on demand and economic growth. “Labor market dynamics — job growth, income growth — are the most important drivers of consumption expenditure,” Absa Bank Ltd senior economist Miyelani Maluleke said. “I worry that if we see more of these kinds of announcements it could further depress household consumption expenditure,” Maluleke added. South Africa’s unemployment rate has remained above 20 percent for at least two decades, largely due to insufficient economic growth.

The change was proposed by the Chinese Football Association, it said. “We again wrote to the AFC on Monday and contacted AFC general secretary Dato Windsor John about our wish to change the game venue. Xinhua news agency on Monday reported that the Chinese Football Association had no plans to move the qualifying matches out of Wuhan. Separately yesterday, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that qualifying boxing matches for Asia and Oceania for the Tokyo Games that were scheduled to take place in Wuhan next month have been canceled due to fears over the outbreak. The Tokyo Games organizing committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

This would be the first lower-cost iPhone model since the iPhone SE. It would look similar to the iPhone 8 from 2017 and include a 4.7-inch screen, Bloomberg News has previously reported. The iPhone 8 is still on the market, selling for US$449, whereas Apple sold the iPhone SE for US$399 when that handset launched in 2016. Apple’s more affordable iPhones have proven popular with consumers, including the latest iPhone 11, whose starting price was US$50 lower than Apple’s typical pricing. The successor to the iPhone SE would play a significant role in that task.

By Jason Pan / Staff reporterThe Supreme Court yesterday upheld an earlier ruling in which Taipei Prison inmate Kuo Yi-fan (郭亦凡) was sentenced to an addtional four years and six months in prison for stabbing his cellmate in the face and blinding him. After the initial ruling, Kuo kept appealing the decision, as he believed the sentence was too harsh. In another court ruling, the High Court on Tuesday upheld former Hsinchu City councilor Lee Huang Chin-yen’s (李黃錦燕) four-year sentence for corruption. Initially a district court sentenced her to 10 years in prison. After that, the case went to the High Court, which found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison, but she was later acquitted.

AFP, SEOULSouth Korea’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in a decade last year, hampered by prolonged trade tensions between the US and China and the sluggish semiconductor market, the Bank of Korea said yesterday. Slowing growth presents a challenge for South Korea, which enjoyed a decades-long boom known as the “Miracle on the Han” but where a highly educated youth now struggles to find well-paid jobs and frustration is mounting over inequality. The trade-dependent economy slowed “due to factors such as a decrease in semiconductor prices,” the central bank said in a statement. “While the growth of government consumption expanded, construction and facilities investment contracted as private consumption expenditure and export growth slowed,” it said. Growth in the fourth quarter was higher at 2.2 percent year-on-year, the bank said, boosted by government spending to offset weaker private consumption growth, which rose by 1.9 percent last year, its slowest in six years.

Staff writer, with CNAPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday said that she would consider meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) as long as it was on an equal footing. In an interview with SET News, Tsai said that she would be willing to meet with Xi based on the four principles she says are needed to stabilize the relationship across the Taiwan Strait: peace, parity, democracy and dialogue. According to Tsai, “peace” means that China must abandon threats of force against Taiwan, while “parity” means that neither side of the Taiwan Strait should deny the other’s existence. Tsai and the DPP have long rejected the “1992 consensus.”Beijing has not hinted at any possibility of Tsai meeting Xi, but the media has continued to ask about her willingness to meet with him. During the interview, Tsai said she hoped that China would listen carefully to what Taiwanese implied with their votes, especially when considering policies on Taiwan.

Beijing views Meng’s case as an attempt to contain China’s rise. The initial stage of Meng’s extradition hearing this week is focusing on whether Meng’s alleged crimes are crimes both in the US and Canada. Her lawyers on Friday filed a motion arguing that Meng’s case is really about US sanctions against Iran, not a fraud case. The extradition case could take years to resolve if there are appeals. From 2008 to 2018, nearly 90 percent of those arrested in Canada on extradition requests from the US were surrendered to US authorities.

By Jason Pan / Staff reporterOutgoing Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) yesterday lashed out at Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) and former minister of justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) for protecting “dinosaur judges” and impeding judicial reform. Chen was presenting the results of two year-long investigations at a news conference at the Control Yuan when he made the remarks. He levelled accusations against Hsu, as well as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) judiciary figures including Wang and C.V. Chen (陳長文), in a speech taken from his post titled “The Guardian Gods of Dinosaur Judges” that he published on his Pointed Pigtail (尖尾週記) blog in February 2018. “I wanted to root out the dinosaur judges from the judiciary, but I found that the ‘guardian gods’ behind them were protecting and defending them, so my mission became difficult,” Chen said. In the Zhongshan Bridge case, the administration of then-Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) abused its power to dismantle the bridge, which was designated as a historic monument for preservation.

By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterAs the Lunar New Year approaches, the Children Are Us Foundation yesterday said that it hopes people will consider donating part of the money they receive in red envelopes during the holiday to its efforts to assist people with intellectual disabilities. At the same time, their parents, who are often their primary caregivers, might be entering old age, it said. The foundation said that it has filmed a video with actor Lee Lee-zen (李李仁) to promote its fundraising campaign. At a news conference in Taipei, Lee urged people to support the foundation’s fundraising efforts by donating a portion of their red envelope money or by spreading the word about the campaign. Tasa Meng Corp has pledged to donate NT$20 each time the video is “liked” and shared through the foundation’s Facebook page from today, the foundation said.

By Wu Liang-yi / Staff reporterAfter a decade of research, researchers have found a key to the metastasis of cancer, Academia Sinica said yesterday. A clinical study found that PSPC1 was overly expressed in 60 to 70 percent of solid cancer patients, he said. There are many different types of cancer and each develops differently, Jou said. This is why there are so many types of cancer medications, as each responds to different types of cancer, he said. For example, PSPC1 is only overly expressed in 60 to 70 percent of solid cancers, he added.

Civic groups in Taiwan have been calling for curbs on cellphone usage in schools for almost a decade, and as cellphone addiction continues to worsen worldwide, more schools are starting to implement related policies. Education on self-regulation methods and benefits, as well as the dangers of cellphone addiction, are also crucial and must accompany any regulations. Otherwise it will be a futile exercise and students’ cellphone usage when they leave school might become even more extreme. The problem is that cellphone addiction is not just an issue for students, but people of all ages. Often, they are the ones who encourage the students’ cellphone addiction by simply handing them a device on demand, or to pacify them when they get noisy.

The quarterly increase lifted full-year economic growth to 2.73 percent for last year, also beating an estimated 2.64 percent increase, the agency said. The yearly growth outpaced main trade rivals Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan, the DGBAS said. The seasonally adjusted quarterly growth rate was 6.96 percent, suggesting that economic expansion is gaining momentum, compared with 2.42 percent three months earlier, it said. Capital formation in the public and private sectors was the main catalyst with 10.72 percent growth, lifting GDP growth by 2.34 percentage points during the fourth quarter, the agency said. DOMESTIC DEMANDDomestic demand boosted economic growth last quarter by adding 4.09 percentage points, while net external demand erased 0.71 percentage points, it said.

As had been widely expected, the BOJ raised its growth projections for the first time in a year, thanks to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s US$120 billion economic package, unveiled last month. The central bank said that while overseas risks to the economy remained significant, they had decreased somewhat. It said it would not hesitate to take additional easing action if risks increased. The BOJ’s upgraded growth forecast positions it between the view of private economists and the more optimistic 1.4 percent projection of the government. Still, economists cast doubt on how growth can strengthen while prices weaken.