Merkel's official visit

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make her first official visit to Indonesia next week for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and business leaders, her spokesman said Friday. Steffen Seibert told a regular briefing that the leader of Europe’s top economy would embark on the brief trip Monday and return to Berlin Wednesday, as the eurozone debt crisis rumbles on. “She will be welcomed to Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, on Tuesday by President Yudhoyono with military honours,” he said. “They will later hold talks on bilateral, regional and global issues.” Merkel will meet business leaders, reporters and rights activists, as well as chief justice of constitutional court.

Canada adds jobs

MONTREAL: The employment situation in Canada improved slightly last month, with the unemployment rate edging down 0.1 percentage point to 7.2 per cent. The economy added 7,300 jobs, according to Statistics Canada, beating a forecast of 5,000 new jobs and a flat unemployment rate. It was the second consecutive month that employment has remained stable. Employment gains in June came in business, building and other support services, as well as in health care and social assistance, educational services and utilities. These gains were offset by declines in information, culture and recreation and agriculture. Number of public sector employees increased by 39,000 in June, after 12 months of mostly private sector job creation.

Scandal hits Alibaba

BEIJING: Top Chinese e-commerce operator Alibaba said Friday it would not tolerate corruption, after a senior manager was detained on suspicion of taking bribes in the latest graft scandal to hit the company. Yan Limin, former general manager of Alibaba’s online group buying arm Juhuasuan, was under police investigation over bribery, the company said in a statement. Yan was removed from his post in March due to ‘major breach of duty in the management of the Juhuasuan team’ and had been investigated by Alibaba internally over his personal involvement in graft before police detained him, it said.