Kyodo news summary -1-

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Dec. 31 -- (Kyodo) _ ---------- N. Korea seeks resumption of bilateral talks with Japan TOKYO - North Korea has asked Japan if they could resume bilateral talks around February after they were postponed due to Pyongyang's rocket launch, sources close to bilateral relations said Sunday.

The newly launched Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is known for his hard-line stance toward North Korea, remains undecided about the proposal by Pyongyang, the sources said.

---------- Sharp to withdraw from solar power battery business in Italy OSAKA - Struggling Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. is considering pulling out of the solar power battery business in Italy to streamline its operations amid slumping demand in Europe, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

The Osaka-based company plans to sell all of its shareholdings in an Italian joint venture set up in July 2010 with the Enel Group, a major Italian power supplier, and Swiss semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics NV to produce thin-film solar cells. The three equally own the venture, 3Sun S.r.I. based in Catania, Sicily.

---------- U.S. senators eye last-minute fiscal cliff deal on New Year's Eve WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate failed to narrow differences on Sunday in efforts to forge a stopgap agreement to avert the so-called fiscal cliff and will pin their hopes on talks on New Year's Eve.

Without any action, it is feared the tax hikes and mandatory spending cuts due to kick in on New Year's Day will push the U.S. economy back into recession.

---------- Abe intends to allow new nuclear reactors TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed willingness Sunday to build new nuclear reactors, abandoning the goal set by the previous Democratic Party of Japan-led government to terminate nuclear power plants in the 2030s.

Abe has already stated his willingness to review the country's nuclear energy policy after the landslide victory of his Liberal Democratic Party in the Dec. 16 general election. His latest remarks, however, are seen as taking a further step toward jettisoning the policy, which is aimed at reducing dependence on nuclear energy following last year's Fukushima disaster.

---------- Clinton hospitalized with blood clot WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hospitalized on Sunday after doctors discovered a blood clot stemming from concussion she sustained several weeks ago, the State Department said.

Doctors found a blood clot during a follow-up exam related to the concussion, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said in a statement, adding that Clinton is being treated with anti-coagulants and is expected to remain at a New York hospital for the next 48 hours so that doctors can monitor her condition.

---------- Norovirus spreads further in Yokohama hospital YOKOHAMA - The number of those who have developed norovirus symptoms at a hospital in Yokohama where four patients died after an outbreak of infectious gastroenteritis has increased to 112, municipal officials said Monday.

A total of 82 patients, including the four, and 30 staff at Yokohama Denentoshi Hospital had been infected with gastroenteritis caused by the virus by Monday morning, according to the officials.

---------- KDDI's 'au' smartphones disrupted, affecting 1.8 mil. users TOKYO - KDDI Corp., the operator of "au" mobile phone services, said Monday data communication for smartphones and tablet devices was disrupted early Monday, affecting about 1.8 million users nationwide.

KDDI said the disruption in the proprietary "ezweb" e-mail service and failure to access the Internet affected certain models of its smartphones and tablet devices using Long Term Evolution high-speed communication technology, the company said.

(c) 2012 Kyodo News International, Inc.

[ Back To Contact Center Solutions Homepage's Homepage ]

Related Contact Center Solutions Articles

MetricNet Publishes 4 New Australian Benchmarks for IT Support, Contact Centres
[ Read More ]
05/21/2013

Liverpool Bosch Contact Center Hopes for Threefold Expansion by Year End
[ Read More ]
05/03/2013

Bunchball Unveils Augmented Gamification Tools for Jive Platform
[ Read More ]
04/08/2013

Teleperformance Earns the Multimedia Contact Center Award
[ Read More ]
03/19/2013

Shangri-La Unveils Customer Contact Center in China
[ Read More ]
03/13/2013

B. Braun Uses NextiraOne for UC and Contact Center Support
[ Read More ]
03/12/2013

Contact Centre Australia Generates Job Growth in Wellington, New Zealand
[ Read More ]
03/04/2013

[ View all Contact Center Solutions Articles ]

Contact Center Solutions Glossary of Terms

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

Featured Whitepaper

Microsoft® Lync® in the Contact Center: Integrating with Customer Interaction Center™ to Provide a Barrierâ€free Customer Experience To implement contact center functionality, organizations using Microsoft Lync Server 2010 can follow the unified communications blueprint of open standards interoperability and integrate to a contact center solution of their choice. Customer Interaction Center (CIC) from Interactive Intelligence is a proven best of breed contact center solution that merits consideration ...

Featured Success Story

Interactive Intelligence all-in-one IP communications software suite integrated with Microsoft Lync helps Bentley save $200,000 annually.

Featured Product Demo

Contact Center Solutions Interaction Analyzer™

Interaction Analyzer™
Real-time word and phrase spotting. Alerting. Analytics. Scoring. Coaching. Watch how Interaction Analyzer turns every moment, of every past and present call, into data that lets you deliver an exceptional customer experience.