■ECONOMY
Recovery by year end: OECD
Economic recovery in the OECD group of rich countries will begin toward the end of the year, the organization’s head said on Tuesday. “There will be a recuperation at the end of 2009 or the start of 2010,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said to reporters in Mexico City. “We’re going to change color from red to black.” The US would be one of the first countries to climb out of the recession due its enormous economic stimulus packages, Gurria said. In response to a question on whether GDP in OECD countries would shrink by 4.6 percent this year, Gurria said it would be around that figure.
■FOOD
KFC expands in China
Fast food giant KFC is planning to open about 370 outlets in China this year, with the firm boosted by growing local sales, while revenues fall at home in the US, state media said yesterday. “KFC has [been] and will be opening at least one more store every day” this year, said Han Jilin, vice president of the China division of Yum!, KFC’s parent, the China Daily reported. The move will mark KFC’s most ambitious expansion in China since its entry into the country in 1987, the report said.
■RETAIL
Sainsbury’s funds expansion
British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s said yesterday it would raise some £445 million (US$732 million) by placing shares and issuing bonds to fund expansion. “The fund raising announced today will provide us with the financial flexibility to take advantage of current opportunities to grow our business further and faster,” Sainsbury’s chief Justin King said in a statement. The company said the funds would enable it to increase its planned gross space growth over the next two years from between 10 percent and 15 percent.
■TRADE
Singapore exports stabilizing
Singapore’s non-oil exports fell last month from a year earlier but rose from the previous month, suggesting the city-state’s most important economic sector may be stabilizing. Exports fell 12 percent last month from the same month last year to S$10.9 billion (US$7.5 billion) following a 19 percent drop in April, Trade and Industry Ministry figures showed yesterday. But compared with April, exports rose a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent.
■LABOR
UK unemployment rises
Britain’s unemployment rate hit 7.2 percent in the three months to April as the number of people claiming jobless benefits jumped to 2.26 million, official data showed yesterday. Both the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed stood at their highest levels since 1997 amid a deep recession in Britain, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
■AUTOMOBILES
Michelin announces cuts
French tiremaker Michelin confirmed on Tuesday a plan to cut 1,093 jobs over a three-year period, starting next year. The company said the cuts will be made on the basis of voluntary departures and that no workers will be laid off. French media reports this week had said Michelin would fire 1,500 workers. Demand for tires is down globally as a result of the economic crisis and Michelin already has furloughed workers this year in its plant in Oklahoma.
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
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
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
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