■AGRICULTURE
China raises rice price
China has boosted the price it pays for rice by up to 10 percent this year to encourage farmers to plant more and increase production, state media said yesterday. China’s economic planning agency set the minimum purchase price for short grain rice at 105 yuan (about US$15) for every 50kg, a 10.5 percent rise over last year, the People’s Daily said. The lowest price to be paid by state granaries for long grain rice was increased by 5.4 percent, the paper said, citing the National Development and Reform Agency. China’s consumer price index rose 1.5 percent last month, compared with the same month a year earlier.
■LABOR
Athens bans customs strike
An Athens court is declaring a strike by customs officers illegal and the government says it expected them to return to work yesterday. “The decision will be transmitted today to the customs officers, who must return to work tomorrow,” a Ministry of Finance announcement said on Saturday. The strikers called a meeting of their executive yesterday to decide what course to take. The strike, which began on Tuesday and which the customs officers wanted to extend to Wednesday, has caused fuel shortages and disrupted imports and exports.
■SMARTPHONES
Apple cleans up App Store
Apple has begun removing risque iPhone and iPod Touch applications from its online App Store, including some that had previously been approved for sale, according to reports on Saturday. Technology blog TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal said the new policy on adult-themed contents had resulted, for example, in the deletion of applications featuring bikini models. TechCrunch said Apple had begun notifying application developers earlier this week that apps with “overtly sexual content” were being removed. The Journal said the move appeared to be part of an effort by Apple to clean up the App Store ahead of the shipping late next month of its new iPad tablet computer.
■WINE
Foster’s wants to pull vines
Australian drinks giant Foster’s yesterday warned one-quarter of the nation’s grape vines needed to be pulled up to reverse a damaging wine glut forcing growers to let their fruit wither on the vine. Chief executive Ian Johnston said global wine growers were experiencing a “very painful period” because of the global economic downturn, and a significant amount of Australia’s vineyards needed to be pulled up. “The commonly held number is somewhere around 30,000 to 40,000 hectares, about a quarter of what is planted,” Johnston told ABC television’s Inside Business program. Foster’s last week reported a 13.5 percent plunge in first-half profits.
■ECONOMY
Riyadh positive on inflation
Saudi Arabia may see inflation pressures ease in the first quarter as the prices of food and beverages stabilize, the central bank said. “Inflationary pressure in the kingdom is expected to continue during the first quarter of 2010 but at a lesser level than in the fourth quarter of 2009,” the central bank wrote yesterday in its quarterly inflation report. Some pressures will persist due to housing costs, the central bank said. Inflation in the kingdom slowed to 5.1 percent last year compared with 9.9 percent in 2008 as crude prices fell from a peak of US$147 and the global economic crisis crimped consumer demand. Since July, inflation has held at around 4 percent.
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