■ Internet
eBay abandons pet plan
Howls of thousands of online users caused eBay to back off the idea of allowing pets to be sold on the major US Internet auction Web site, a company spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. EBay floated the notion on its online discussion boards on Friday and received thousands of replies during the weekend, company spokesman Hani Durzy said. People feared changing eBay policy to allow sales of creatures other than fish and snails would invite abusive animal breeders such as "puppy farms" into the pack of online buyers and sellers at the site, according to eBay. EBay then proposed limiting online pet postings to animal shelters, but users argued it would be too difficult to cull the illegal breeders from legitimate shelters, Durzy said. Opposition to the move far outweighed support, according to eBay. EBay scuttled the pet-peddling proposal on Monday, according to Durzy.
■ Retail
Instant checkout tested
In a bid to make the queue at the cashier a thing of the past, a Japanese convenience store will test a checkout system that scans shopping baskets instantly. The trial run will take place at a FamilyMart convenience store in Tokyo for a month from Jan. 30, using special tags on 500 kinds of goods and electronic money, trading house Itochu said yesterday. If a shopper places the basket on the checkout counter, the system scans the prices in one second without the sales clerk having to scan each item. Including the time for procedures such as putting the goods in a bag, "it takes less than 10 seconds to leave the counter," company spokesman Yasuhiko Takahashi said. It is not decided when the system will be put to practical use.
■ Banking
Official sentenced to death
A Chinese bank official has been sentenced to death for accepting bribes and embezzling public funds worth 15 million yuan (US$1.85 million), Chinese media said yesterday. The China Daily said a Beijing court handed the sentence down on Tuesday against Wen Mengjie, 49, former director of the science and technology department in the Beijing branch of the Agricultural Bank of China. It said Wen received 10.7 million yuan in bribes from four information technology firms between 1999 and last year when he was in charge of purchasing electronic equipment and software for the bank, and that he embezzled 4.3 million yuan in 2003 and last year while he was purchasing automatic teller machines.
■ Oil industry
OPEC expects stable prices
Oil prices are expected to remain stable and trade within a defined range, the head of OPEC said yesterday, adding that the cartel's stocks could reach a 55-day reserve in the next three months. "Prices as we see them remain within a defined range that they have not breached," Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, also Kuwait's energy minister, said before leaving on a trip to Russia and China. He said the 11-nation OPEC will allow its stocks of oil to build up to a reserve of 54 to 55 days over the next quarter. OPEC's production quota stands at 28 million barrels per day and it decided at a meeting in Kuwait on Dec. 12 not to renew its offer for emergency extra output of 2 million barrels per day. The cartel will meet again on Jan. 31 in Vienna to assess an expected seasonal drop in demand for energy between April and September, with a possible cut in output on the cards.
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