TORONTO
Toyota is selling its first “minicar” in Japan as demand increases for the tiny vehicles which are popular for short commutes.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s top automaker, launched the tiny Pixis Space minivehicle manufactured by group company Daihatsu Motor Co., on Monday.
Minivehicles, or “kei,” are defined under Japanese regulations as having maximum length of 3.4 meters (11.15 feet), width of 1.48 meters (4.86 feet), height of 2 meters (6.56 feet) and engine displacement of less than 660 cc.
Taxes are lower for minicars, which now make up about a third of Japan’s annual vehicle sales.
Toyota is planning two more minicar models for the Japanese market, although it has not said when those will go on sale. Toyota is targeting annual minicar sales of 60,000 in Japan for all three models in total.
The Pixis Space starts at 1.12 million yen ($14,700).
Minicars are popular not only for the tax savings but also with people who use cars for short commutes or grocery shopping, as well as with those who don’t see cars as status symbols as did the older generation.
Think of 100,000 St. Louis homeowners as hungry kids with their noses pressed against the window of a financial candy store cash advance loan no fax.
Luckier homeowners are getting something really sweet
Security forces clashed with thousands of mourners and opposition factions Friday after the funeral march for a man whose relatives say died after inhaling tear gas fired at Shiite-led protesters in the Gulf kingdom.
The skirmishes erupted shortly after mourners joined in anti-government chants that included cries for Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to step aside after more than seven months of unrest on the strategic island, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
Tensions could further increase before next week’s elections to fill 18 seats in the 40-member parliament that were abandoned in a walkout by Shiite lawmakers to protest the sweeping crackdowns. Top Shiite political blocs have called for a boycott of the Sept. 24 voting.
Security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades and chased protesters along narrow streets of Shiite-populated neighborhoods in Sitra, Bahrain’s oil hub.
Before the funeral, Bahrain’s most senior Shiite cleric accused Sunni authorities of treating opponents as “enemies of state.” Bahrain’s rulers have taken some steps at outreach, including reconciliation talks in July, but they have failed to quell the opposition.
Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain’s population, but claim they face deep-rooted discrimination such as being blocked from key government and security posts. The Sunni dynasty, which has ruled for more than 200 years, has retained crucial support from the West and Gulf Arab neighbors. Among their fears is that Shiite powerhouse Iran could widen its influence with Shiite gains in Bahrain.
The funeral for 35-year-old Sayyed Jawad Ahmed was the latest rallying point for the opposition. The kingdom’s health ministry confirmed the death in a statement Thursday, saying Ahmed died from “acute respiratory syndrome distress.”
More than 30 people have died since February when protests started in Bahrain, inspired by other Arab uprisings.
Hundreds of activists have been detained and brought to trial on anti-state charges in a special security court set up after authorities imposed marital law and invited a Saudi-led Gulf military force in the country to help deal with dissent in the tiny island nation.
“The regime has designated the section of society asking for rights as enemies of state,” Sheik Isa Qassim said during Friday’s sermon at a mosque in the opposition stronghold of Diraz, northwest of the capital Manama.
Bahrain lifted emergency rule in June. Since then, government opponents have clashed with police almost every night.
ConAgra Foods Inc. is giving Ralcorp Holdings Inc. a week to start talking about its takeover proposal.
The ultimatum sent Ralcorp’s shares down $7.64, or 9 percent, to $77.50 in aftermarket trading.
ConAgra, which owns brands like Chef Boyardee, Orville Redenbacher’s and Healthy Choice, repeated its latest bid for $5.17 billion cash, or $94 per share. The Omaha company says Ralcorp, of St. Louis, has until 5 p.m. Monday to start discussions or it will walk away.
Ralcorp has rejected several bids from ConAgra since March, including turning down the $94-per-share offer last month.
A Ralcorp representative could not immediately be reached for comment. The company has said its plan to spin off its Post cereal business to focus on its private-label foods business will provide better value for shareholders.
The problems that have weighed on investors all summer
ConocoPhillips is defending its handling of oil spills off China’s eastern coast, denying allegations that it sought to deceive authorities by falsely claiming to have stopped and cleaned up the seeps.
The spills began in June and last week led to an order to halt all production in the affected Penglai 19-3 oil field in Bohai Bay. They have prompted a chorus of criticism against ConocoPhillips in China’s state-run media, along with calls from environmentalists for harsher penalties for damages.
The China arm of ConocoPhillips operates wells in Penglai 19-3 in a venture with state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., whose role, despite its majority 51 percent stake in the venture, has drawn little public attention.
ConocoPhillips said in a statement Monday it was committed to complying with the law and conducting “all business activities with the highest ethical standards.”
“This commitment fully applies to how we conduct our business in China,” it said.
ConocoPhillips requested a correction of a weekend news report on state-run China Central Television. The report claimed that a ConocoPhillips China employee interviewed by marine radio said the company was deliberately deceiving the State Oceanic Administration in reporting that the oil spills had been fully contained and cleaned up.
“The ConocoPhillips China employee interviewed by CCTV did not make the negative comment which CCTV is attributing to him,” it said.
The State Oceanic Administration said Friday that its investigation found ConocoPhillips had failed to fully comply by an Aug. 31 deadline with its orders to completely clean up damage from the spills and to ensure they would not recur.
ConocoPhillips said it was working with CNOOC to bring output to a halt. CNOOC said the suspension of production in Penglai 19-3 would reduce output by 40,000 barrels a day, in addition to the 22,000 barrels a day lost with the shut-down of the two wells where the spills occurred.
The spills, which occurred June 4 and June 17, released about 700 barrels of oil into Bohai Bay and 2,500 barrels of mineral oil-based drilling mud onto the seabed, according to the company.
It says small amounts of oil and mineral oil-based drilling mud, used as a lubricant, that are still emerging are from earlier seeps that have been shifting under layers of sand on the seabed.
But the State Oceanic Administration said that monitoring by satellite, underwater robots and other means showed that the oil was not fully cleaned up and was still seeping. It repeated criticism over ConocoPhillips’ containment measures, deeming them not a permanent solution, and questioned the company’s operating procedures.
It ordered the company to strictly comply with CNOOC’s supervision.
The official newspaper China Daily, in a harshly worded commentary, said Monday that a joint investigation by seven government departments found ConocoPhillips China had “seriously violated operating rules.”
“Not only is the oil spill worse than the company reported but, despite its assurances to the contrary, it has failed to bring the situation under full control and find and stop the sources of the spills,” it said. “Obviously, China needs to learn a lesson from this incident.”
The maritime authority has said it is preparing to file lawsuits on behalf of those who suffered losses due to pollution from the spill.
Areas along the Gulf coast could get up to 20 inches of rain from a system that could blow into tropical storm strength, leading Louisiana’s governor to declare a state of emergency Thursday because of the threat of serious flash flooding.
Tropical storm warnings are out for the Gulf coast from Mississippi to Texas. The National Hurricane Center said the system that is now a depression in the Gulf of Mexico will dump 10 to 15 inches of rain over southern areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama through Sunday and as much as 20 inches in some spots.
As for Katia (KAH’-tee-yah) in the Atlantic, it weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm, though forecasters say it will again grow stronger. It was about 930 miles (1497 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands and moving west near 18 mph (30 kph) with maximum sustained winds Thursday evening near 70 mph (113 kph), a 5 mph decrease. It could become a major hurricane this weekend.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it’s too early to tell if Katia will hit the U.S. It is expected to pass north of the Caribbean.
In the Gulf, the declaration by Gov. Bobby Jindal allows him to activate the National Guard to help and lets the state homeland security office to take whatever action is necessary. In the state’s low-lying Lafourche Parish, president Charlotte Randolph also declared a state of emergency, saying coastal areas there might get up to 18 inches of rain through Monday.
The depression has sustained winds of 35 mph and was moving toward the northwest at about 6 mph. On this track, the center of the depression should approach the Louisiana coast on Saturday. Forecasters say it could strengthen into a tropical storm.
Tropical storm warnings are out from Pascagoula, Miss., to the Texas state line.
It was still unclear where the system would head next, but it could bring much-needed relief to drought-plagued Texas.
The Gulf system already has forced two major petroleum producers to remove crews from a handful of production platforms. Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil said they would also cut off a small amount of production. Both moves affect only a fraction of production.
In yet another system, the hurricane center said a slow-moving low pressure system about 360 miles (579 kilometers) north of Bermuda stood a 50 percent chance in the next two days of becoming a tropical cyclone, the first step toward a tropical storm.
Kate and Arthur Ruff spent some 60 hours combing census data, scouring school scores and searching the Internet from Massachusetts, keen to make sure their move to Toronto landed their family in the right neighbourhood.
In the end, their happy relocation to the Christie and Dupont area was prompted largely by an innovative new web tool called Neighbourhood Match, a sort of eHarmony for house hunters.
That and the coffee question; Do you prefer Tim
Stocks rose sharply Monday, shaking off a four-week losing streak.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 83 points, or 1 percent, to 10,903 in late morning trading. The Dow fell 4 percent last week as worries deepened that the U.S. economy could slip back into a recession.
Stocks have been swinging wildly over the past two weeks after a downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating and new signs of economic weakness led investors to dump risky assets and seek safety in Treasury bonds and gold. So far in August the Dow has had eight days with moves of more than 200 points.
Many traders are looking ahead to a speech by Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, at an annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo. on Friday. Last year, Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole set the stage for a $600 billion program to stimulate the economy through buying Treasury bonds. Some analysts believe the Fed may make another move to help the flagging U.S. economy.
Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s equity research, cautioned against reading too much into the market’s moves Monday. “It’s natural in a declining market to have some days that run counter to the overall trend,” he said. “It’s normal to have a bounce back.”
After falling four weeks in a row, some stocks are too cheap for investors to pass up, Stovall said. Stovall also thinks some investors are banking on Bernanke offering some soothing words in his speech Friday. “Even if the Fed just lets people know they’re not asleep, that would help,” he said.
Brent crude prices fell to near $107 a barrel after Libyan rebels swept into Tripoli, the country’s capital cash till payday. If the uprising succeeds in toppling Moammar Gadhafi, the OPEC nation’s oil exports could resume soon.
The gains early Monday were broad; all 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose. Technology stocks rose 1.8 percent, the most of any industry in the index. Hewlett-Packard Co. rose 5 percent, the most of any stock in the Dow Jones industrial average.
Boeing Co. rose 1.8 percent after Britain’s Royal Air Force said it would buy 14 Chinook helicopters for $1.6 billion.
Lowe’s Cos. rose 1.5 percent. The home improvement retailer said it will buy back up to $5 billion stock over the next two to three years. Last week, Lowe’s lowered its sales forecast for the second half of the year as shoppers grow more worried about the economy.
The S&P 500 index rose 7 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,131 in Monday morning trading. The Nasdaq rose 20 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,362.
Stocks have fallen for each of the past four weeks on worries that the U.S. might enter another recession. The S&P 500 index lost 4.7 percent last week. The sharpest drops came Thursday with news of weaker manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic states and an increase in the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits.
No major economic reports are due out Monday. Later in the week, traders will be sorting through figures on new home sales, durable goods orders and weekly claims for unemployment benefits to see if another recession could be on the way.
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