■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.
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