■ENERGY
OPEC head warns on prices
Oil prices, which reached a new record last week, will keep rising if the dollar continues to fall and if oil producer Iran is attacked, the president of the OPEC said. “It’s not the supply and demand that is influencing oil prices now, prices go up with the falling dollar and the growing threat of war on Iran,” Chakib Khelil, who is also Algeria’s oil minister, told reporters on Saturday in Algiers. “If there is war and the dollar continues to slump, prices will go higher and higher.” Oil jumped as high as US$147.27 a barrel on Friday. Crude oil for delivery next month rose US$3.43 or 2.4 percent, to settle at US$145.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
■ENERGY
Minister calls for cuts
Japan must take steps to cut energy consumption and promote alternative resources to cope with rising oil prices, as it can’t regulate speculation in the oil market, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota said yesterday. “It’s hard to take measures that could alleviate the pain temporarily,” Ota said during a talk show on NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster. She gave no specific ideas on what Japan could do to combat the rise in oil prices. The climb in oil’s price is being sustained by growth in demand from emerging economies, Ota said. To curb the rise, it’s necessary to improve market fundamentals, such as investment in the infrastructure of oil-producing countries, she said.
■AGRICULTURE
Chinese trade deficit grows
China registered a US$7.57 billion trade deficit in agricultural products during the first five months of this year, up by more than 14-fold over the same period last year, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. China imported US$23.75 billion in agricultural products in that period, up 59 percent over last year, Xinhua said, citing the agriculture ministry. The nation exported US$16.18 billion in agricultural products during the period, up 12 percent over the first five months of last year, it said.
■TECHNOLOGY
Windows XP most common
Windows XP remains the most common computer operating system among Internet users, a survey conducted by a German marketing firm showed. The survey by Fittkau & Maass found that 75.8 percent of Internet surfers use Windows XP while only 13 percent use Vista Online, which has been on the market since early last year. Next in popularity come Windows 2000 (4.6 percent), Mac OS (3.8 percent) and Windows 98 and ME (both at 1.3 percent). Only 1.2 percent of surfers use Linux. The results were based on an Internet user survey of more than 100,000 German-speaking computer users.
■HOUSING
Broker urges rate hike end
Australia’s slowing home-lending market signals the central bank should avoid raising interest rates from a 12-year high, the nation’s largest mortgage broker said. Home-loan approvals fell 7.9 percent in May, the biggest drop in eight years, a report said yesterday. The decline suggests the Reserve Bank of Australia may not need to raise interest rates any further, said Paul Lahiff, managing director of Sydney-based Mortgage Choice Ltd. “Are we close to the top of the interest rate cycle? I think we are,” Lahiff told Sky News Australia yesterday. Traders have reduced bets on the Reserve Bank raising rates after the home-loan approvals report, and after a second measure showed consumer confidence fell to the lowest since 1992.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’