[b]OPEC mulls
OPEC mulls cutting crude output by 6% to lift prices
OPEC mulls cutting crude output by 6% to firm up oil prices
With Saudi Arabia now calling for OPEC to cut production, energy analysts say other members of the cartel are sure to agree to tighten their taps to try to reverse the recent slide in oil prices.
Fears of a global recession and dwindling demand for oil will dominate the debate when delegates of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet Wednesday in Vienna, Austria.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told a news conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting Saturday that the oil cartel's 11 member countries, including Venezuela, have reached a "definite" consensus to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day and perhaps as much as 1.5 million barrels per day.
Several non-OPEC producers have agreed not to hike their production, Chavez said, without naming any countries. Mexico and Norway have publicly demurred, while oil companies in Russia were reported on Friday as willing to trim output at some of their wells.
2. Gates (1 x 24)
'Tech-industry will rebound'
Bill Gates promises tech-industry rebound at COMDEX computer fair
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in a speech here late Sunday that the computer technology boom of the 1990s, currently in a slump, will revive over the next decade.
"The productivity gains that technology will drive during this digital decade will be double those of the 1990s," Gates told a crowd of nearly 15,000 at this year's COMDEX -- the world's largest computer electronics trade fair.
This year's COMDEX is being staged at a tough time. Computer sales have flattened this year for the first since IBM sold its first personal computer in 1981.
Meanwhile, a weak economy, coupled with travel jitters resulting the Sept. 11 terror attacks, has cut attendance here by 25 percent to an estimated 150,000 attendees, down from the usual 200,000.
3. Stock (2 x 18)
Asian stocks close mixed; Tokyo down
Asian stocks close mixed;Tokyo down on Banking industry
Asian stocks closed mixed Monday, with Japan and Hong Kong slipping as investors sold market heavyweights while smaller markets finished mostly higher.
In Japan, stocks plunged on worries over the country's debt- ridden banking sector and the sagging economy.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average closed down 134.15, or 1.3 percent, to 10,081.56 after making modest gains early in the session. On Friday, the average fell 216.08 points, or 2.1 percent.
The Hang Seng Index slipped 16.80 points, or 0.2 percent, to 10,592.45. On Friday, the index gained 70.63 points, or 0.7 percent.
Indonesian shares ended lower on continued selling in cigarette and telecommunications blue chips as investors worried about the weakness of the local currency. The JSX Composite Index tumbled 5.978 points, or 1.6 percent, to 371.362.
4. HK ( 1 x 27)
HK's Tung sees negative growth
HK's leader sees negative growth for a few quarters
Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa confirmed on Monday that the territory was staring at its second recession in four years as the global economy slows.
"Our economy is going through major difficulties," Tung told a luncheon.
"Hong Kong being an externally oriented economy, we are very badly affected, and I see that we would have negative growth for a few quarters," he said in the government's gloomiest economic assessment yet.
Hong Kong last fell into recession -- commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction -- after the onset of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
The economy grew just 0.5 percent in the second quarter year- on-year and is widely expected to shrink by some 0.3 percent in full-year 2001 as the United States falls into recession. The U.S. is Hong Kong's second-largest trading partner after mainland China
5. Ican ( 1 X 30)
Concerns dominate Internet meeting
Security concerns dominate Internet meeting
Computer geeks and public-policy wonks arriving here to take part in the annual meeting of the body that sets standards for the Internet's addressing system will find that, like everything else, Sept. 11 has profoundly changed the online world.
In the wake of the devastating hijacking attacks in Washington and New York, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided to devote its annual meeting to a discussion of computer security.
The meeting, which starts Monday, will feature an array of panels, lectures and discussions intended to bolster the stability of the addressing system that allows computer users anywhere on the globe find a Web site by typing in a name like www.nationaldynamite.com, rather than a long string of numbers.
More traditional concerns of the nonprofit body, such as dispute-resolution processes and new domain suffixes like ".info" and ".museum", will be pushed to the margins.