ENERGY

ENERGY

No Drop in Oil Demand Seen

Oil prices pushing well past $100 a barrel will do little to stop worldwide demand, said the economics chief of the International Energy Agency, which advises 27 member countries.

Subsidies in China, India and oil-producing countries will combine with strong economic growth in those areas to support demand even with prices rising, Fatih Birol of the IEA told a panel at the energy industry's Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. That prospect runs counter to history, he said.

"We shouldn't expect too much from the price, in terms of bringing demand down," he said. "China and India are transforming the energy markets by the sheer size of their populations."

Crude prices have soared in the past year, with futures touching a record $122.73 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as demand from emerging-market economies rises.

ETHIOPIA

Origin Logo to Go on Coffee Bags

Starbucks and Caribou Coffee, the largest and second-largest U.S. coffee chains, respectively, have agreed to display a new logo promoting Ethiopian coffee on bags of beans originating from the African country a year after Starbucks and Ethiopia settled a public dispute over trademarks on premium varieties of Ethiopian coffee.

Bagged coffee sold by the two retailers as well as by roughly 70 other companies will carry the logo "Ethiopian Fine Coffee" as part of a voluntary licensing agreement with the Ethiopian government, said Crispin Reed, managing director of Britain-based Brandhouse, a design firm hired by the Ethiopian government to develop the strategy.

france

Alstom Executives Questioned

French authorities have questioned officials at Alstom, the French engineering company saved from bankruptcy in a 2004 state bailout brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, then finance minister and now president of France, as part of a probe into alleged corruption and misappropriation.

French and Swiss officials are investigating whether Alstom paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to gain contracts in Asia and South America from 1995 to 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In February, a French investigative magistrate questioned Alstom's general counsel, Fred Einbinder, and its compliance chief, Jean-Daniel Laine.

EARNINGS

Adidas said its first-quarter profit rose as its acquisition of Reebok International gave it more leverage with suppliers. Profit at the German company was about $265 million. In euros, that represented a 32 percent increase from a year ago. Sales were $4.05 billion, up 3 percent in euros.

Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.