Analysts have put grain exports for the current 2000-01 season at between 1.5 million and 2 million tons. Corn and barley are expected to account for most of that with wheat exports totaling a mere 100,000 tons, compared with 1.908 million tons exported in 1999-00. The country is looking to rebound from its worst wheat harvest since 1945. The U.S. plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter in early April, provoking tension between China and the United States. According to the newspaper, the Pentagon has planned to finally get the plane out of China the crew has long since been released in late May and has asked Antonov whether it would do the job.
China insists that the U.S. plane be hauled out by a Chinese aircraft.
Mobile phone provider Kyivstar GSM announced that it had reached 500,000 customers, just two months after topping 400,000 in late March.