Japan’s economy shrank more than estimated in the first quarter after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disrupted production and prompted consumers to cut back spending, sending the nation to its third recession in a decade.
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The cost of living in the U.S. rose in April, led by increases in food and fuel that are starting to filter through to other goods and services.
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China’s central bank said taming inflation is its top priority, signaling that more tightening is possible even after a manufacturing survey showed that growth may be moderating in Asia’s biggest economy.
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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Gas prices keep going up in the United States with prices climbing 2 cents per gallon overnight to reach an average of above $3.90 per gallon nationwide on Friday.
In some places prices were even worse, including Youngstown, OH, where horrified motorists paid as much as $4.15 per gallon for unleaded regular on Thursday.
On Friday, the statewide average in Ohio was up 12 cents per gallon from Thursday to $4.054 a gallon.
Friday’s average pump prices for Ohio and the nation came from a survey by motoring organization AAA.
Prices have gone up 38 days in a row, an average of 10 percent during that time, or 36 cents a gallon.
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The U.S. economy slowed more than forecast in the first quarter as government spending declined by the most since 1983 and household purchases cooled.
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Purchases of new houses in the U.S. rose in March from a record low as the weakest industry in the economy strained to recover.
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Redmond, WA, United States (AHN) – Microsoft Corp. announced over the weekend that it has sold more than 350 million licenses of its operating system Windows 7 in a span of just 18 months after the system’s launch.
The sales broke Microsoft’s own record of selling 330 million licenses of Windows Vista after 24 months. Compared to the first 18 months of sale, Windows Vista sold 180 million licenses.
IT experts, however, pointed out that Windows 7 is far behind compared to Windows XP, which is used in about 50 percent of computers around the world. The experts added that over 90 percent of businesses are shifting to Windows 7, partly because of an average savings of $140 a year for every PC.
For the same 18 months in which Windows 7 OS was sold, between 517 to 523 million PCs were shipped worldwide, which translates into about 67 percent of the new PCs shipped using Windows 7 as their operating systems.
In contrast, only 44 percent of PC shipments used Windows Vista during the first 18 months of sale.
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China’s growth probably slowed in the first quarter, helping to defuse the risk of overheating in an economy where inflation is estimated to be running at its fastest pace since 2008.
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Asian stocks rose, sending the regional benchmark index to a third day of advance, as raw material producers gained after China’s imports rebounded last month, fueling optimism that demand is robust in the world’s second-biggest economy.
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – The Ontario government approved Wednesday a law that banned Toronto Transit Commission works from striking by declaring the firm as an essential service.
The province’s legislature approved the request of Toronto by a vote of 68 to 9.
The law’s passage came at the time that the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113′s contract with the TTC lapses Thursday midnight.
ATC Local 113 President Bob Kinnear warned Toronto not to bully their workers while the union and TTC sit down to negotiate a new collective contract. Talks are going on between the two sides, but the union and the transit have yet to place their offers on the negotiating table.
Toronto pushed for the strike ban because previous job walk offs have cost the city’s economy $50 million daily, while making life difficult for 1.5 million TTC riders.
At the same time, Ontario will allow Toronto to push through with a $12.4-billion project that would fund the construction of two extensions to Toronto’s Sheppard subway.
Upon construction, the LRT under Eglinton Avenue would be the longest all-new subterranean transit lit built in Canada since the 1960s which would connect the city’s midtown district with distant suburb neighborhoods in the east and west.
The $12.4-billion cost is broken down into $8.2-billion for Eglinton line and the cost of replacing the aging Scarborough Rapid Transit elevated train with LRT technology, and $4.2-billion for the expansion of the Sheppard subway.
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