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World Business Quick Take

■ Textiles
EU official cautions China
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called on China to restrain its textile exports with "moderation and caution" and take stock of the effect its economic strength has on the rest of the world. China began taxing some of its textile shipments and limiting expansion of its clothing industry in December, after the US and EU threatened to raise border barriers to stem an expected flood of exports from China when quotas ended on Jan. 1 under a 1994 World Trade Organization accord. "Six weeks ago China reaped a remarkable down payment from WTO membership," Mandelson said, according to a copy of a speech given today in Beijing. "This liberalization is a major prize for you. Already its effects are beginning to be felt" in the EU and poor textile-exporting nations, and "there is much concern" that China's own efforts to stem its exports won't be enough.

■ Oil
Cold causes fuel worries
Crude oil rose to a four-month high on concern that a longer-than-expected cold spell will drain stockpiles of heating fuels. Freezing temperatures across Northwest Europe and the US are boosting consumption of heating oil and diesel. US inventories of such fuels probably dropped by 1.75 million barrels last week, a survey showed. "It's mainly the cold snap that's added US$4 or US$5 to prices, particularly with Europe having a freeze from Siberia," said Jason Kenney, an analyst at ING Financial Markets in Edinburgh. Crude for April delivery jumped as much as US$0.58 to US$51.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Nov. 1. It was up US$0.38 at US$51.55 at 9:06am London time, up 49 percent from a year ago.

■ Internet
Google adds film service
Google Inc, the most-used Internet search engine, added a feature for searching movie showtimes and reviews, matching existing services provided by Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp's MSN. The movie feature allows users to search for showtimes by entering a zip code and the name of the movie, the Mountain View, California-based company said on its Web log. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Time Warner Inc.'s America Online are offering competing features to attract more users and the advertisers trying to reach them. Google added a test version of online maps on Feb. 8 and in March last year started a free e- mail service, matching earlier Yahoo offerings. They've more than doubled since the company's initial public offering in August. The service also provides movie recommendations.

■ Computers
New, better iPods released
Apple Computer Inc released new versions of its popular iPod digital music player Wednesday, cutting prices and expanding memory capacities. The price of the 4-gigabyte iPod mini was cut US$50 to US$199. A new 6-gigabyte version will sell for US$249. The battery life of the second-generation mini models has also been improved. The playback time on a single charge is now 18 hours, up from 8 hours of previous models. The slim and colorful line of minis, first introduced in January last year, played a key role last year in doubling Apple's share in the portable music player market from 30 percent to 60 percent, said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of hardware product marketing.

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