■ MOTORCYCLES
Thai farmers boost sales
Thailand’s new registrations of motorcycles reached 150,126 units last month, a 10-month high attributed to Thai farmers’ improved purchasing power, media reports said yesterday. “Since January, motorbike sales have been in positive territory,” said Thirapat Jiwapong, sales director for AP Honda, the market leader in Thailand. “Farmers, our major potential target, have gained more from the rise in agricultural commodities prices,” Thirawat told the Nation newspaper. Since January, international rice prices have more than doubled, while corn, sugar and tapioca prices have also seen price increases. Thailand is the world’s leading exporter of rice, and among the world’s top 10 net food exporters.
■IRON ORE
Rio Tinto plans expansion
Rio Tinto Ltd, the world’s second-largest iron ore producer, said yesterday it would spend US$667 million on a plan to boost production from northwestern Australia, including research into a new mine. The plan is part of London-based Rio Tinto’s broader strategy to increase output from its operations in Australia’s Pilbara region to 320 million tonnes per year. Rio Tinto and its Pilbara partners will spend US$518 million to begin infrastructure works and buy long-lead items such as heavy mobile equipment for the expansion, the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
■ENERGY
Petrobras to supply Japan
Brazil’s state-controlled energy company Petrobras will begin sales of biofuel for motor vehicles in Japan as early as this year, a report said yesterday. Petrobras, one of the world’s largest biofuel producers, will supply gasoline blended with ethanol to independent gas stations, which number 10,000 in Japan, the Nikkei business daily said without citing sources. The wholesale price is expected to be ¥1 to ¥2 per liter lower than ordinary gasoline, it said. Petrobras plans to mix gasoline and ethanol at a refinery plant in Okinawa operated by energy firm Nansei Sekiyu KK, which the Brazilian giant acquired in April, the newspaper reported.
■AVIATION
AirAsia expands menu
Budget carrier AirAsia on Wednesday unveiled plans to boost income with a wider in-flight Asian menu and offering online merchandise to help offset rising fuel costs. AirAsia, the region’s biggest low-cost airline in fleet size, first introduced a limited menu of hot meals on its flights three years ago, which has proven to be a best seller, chief executive Tony Fernandes said. It will add other popular Malaysian, Indonesian and Thai fare such as chicken rice, yellow glutinous rice and “satay,” or meat on skewers, on regional flights next month, he said. Customers can prebook their meals online and enjoy savings, he said.
■ECONOMY
US outlook ‘subprime’
The US economy will likely avoid a formal recession, but its outlook through the end of next year is decidedly “subprime” with the deep housing downturn restraining growth to just above 1 percent, a UCLA Anderson Forecast report released yesterday said. A “witch’s brew of the popping of the housing bubble, a wounded financial system and increasing inflationary pressures coming from rising commodity prices will keep the economy on a subprime growth path for the next several quarters,” the forecasting unit’s report said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique