■MANUFACTURING
European beats estimates
Europe’s manufacturing industry expanded at a faster pace than initially estimated last month as reviving global demand prompted companies to step up output. A manufacturing index based on a survey of euro-area purchasing managers rose to 56.6 from 54.2 in February, London-based Markit Economics said yesterday. That’s above an initial estimate of 56.3 and the fastest pace since November 2006. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. An index of UK manufacturing rose to a 15-year high, a separate report showed.
■AVIATION
Pentagon extends deadline
The deadline for bids on a US$35 billion contract for refueling jets will be extended by 60 days so the European maker of Airbus can compete, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the military still planned to award the contract this fall. The decision is aimed at encouraging competition in a program that critics say has been poorly managed and unfairly favors the Boeing Co. Northrop Grumman Corp, which had been partnered with the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co, said last month that it would not bid because it didn’t think it could win.
■SMARTPHONES
RIM posts Q4 earnings rise
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) on Wednesday said earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 27 were US$710 million, or US$1.27 per share. That was up 37 percent from a year earlier and was nearly in line with analysts’ predictions of US$1.28 per share. Yet its revenue of US$4.08 billion, while rising 18 percent over the same period a year earlier, was short of the US$4.31 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
■MINING
Vale Amazon plant approved
Brazilian mining giant Vale on Wednesday got the government’s green light to build a US$3 billion steel plant in northern Para state, in the Amazon jungle, company president Roger Agnelli said. “Our role is promote the growth of steel production in Brazil and to do that we’re looking for the best technologies and processing methods,” Agnelli said in a statement. The new plant will have an annual output of 2 million tonnes, Vale said.
■AUTOMAKERS
Toyota’s Japan sales surge
Toyota sales are booming in Japan, up a hefty 50 percent last month, shrugging off any fallout from massive global recalls. Toyota Motor Corp sales in Japan totaled 204,514 vehicles, up from 135,700 the same month last year, for the eighth straight month of on-year rise, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said yesterday. Japan’s auto sales have been recovering, with sales jumping 10 percent in the year ending last month from the same period a year earlier to 3.2 million vehicles, the group said. It said that was the first year-on-year increase in seven years.
■REAL ESTATE
Singapore prices keep rising
Singaporean real-estate prices rose for a third consecutive quarter in the January-March period despite government efforts to cool the hot property market. Private residential property prices rose 5.1 percent in the first quarter after jumping 7.4 percent in the fourth and 15.8 percent in the third, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said yesterday. Prices have bounced back strongly after diving 25 percent in the 12 months to the middle of last year as the city-state’s economy rebounds from last year’s recession.
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