ASHKHABAD, Turkmenistan, July 6--The leaders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan have discussed prospects for a pipeline that would carry natural gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan. Reaching out to Turkmenistan’s violence-plagued southern neighbor in talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, new President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov also promised to provide Afghanistan with electric power worth US$300,000 (-220,000) at no cost, AP wrote.
“This is a big gift from the Turkmen people to the Afghan people,“ Berdymukhamedov, who came to power after the December death of autocratic longtime leader Saparmurat Niyazov, told a joint news conference with Karzai after talks Thursday.
Karzai said the discussions focused on a potential trans-Afghan gas pipeline--an idea raised more than a decade ago, but stymied by violence and political instability in Afghanistan. Turkmenistan, Central Asia’s largest gas producer, now depends on Russian lines for its exports. “Afghanistan is interested in receiving income from the transit of Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India,“ Karzai said. Speaking through an interpreter, he said that “one of the main conditions of the project“ is the issue of how much money Afghanistan would make for the transit of gas.
“We are not taking this project off the agenda,“ Berdymukhamedov said of the pipeline. “We will work together to resolve this issue,“ he said.
Karzai said Berdymukhamedov proposed building a railroad linking the two countries, calling it “very interesting“ and saying the Afghan government will consider it. He said he would discuss the pipeline and railroad projects with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Karzai attended Berdymukhamedov’s February inauguration and won a deal scrapping US$3.8 million in debt for electric power. According to the Turkmen Energy Ministry, Afghanistan is to buy 287 million kilowatt-hours of electricity from Turkmenistan for US$5.74 million (-4.2 million) this year.
Karzai said Afghanistan wants to boost trade with Turkmenistan.
The two countries’ economics ministers signed agreements Thursday governing trade ties and cargo transit.

CAIRNS, Australia, July 6--APEC trade ministers pledged strong support for global trade talks but revealed they were also examining the possibility of an Asia-Pacific free trade area, in a communiquŽ issued Friday. Trade ministers from 21 APEC economies, collectively representing almost 50 percent of world trade, said there was an urgent need to advance the World Trade Organization’s stalled Doha round of global trade talks, AFP reported.
The ministers, who have been meeting for two days in the northern Australian resort town of Cairns, felt so strongly about the need to push the WTO talks forward that they issued a separate statement on the issue. “We will demonstrate the necessary political will and flexibility, and call upon other WTO members to do the same,“ it said. The statement said an “ambitious and balanced“ approach was needed for the talks to succeed. “This means we need to make cuts in agricultural and industrial tariffs which result in real and substantial improvements in market access, and real and substantial reductions in trade-distorting agricultural subsidies,“ it said.
But the trade ministers also ordered a report into establishing a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said before the meeting that FTAAP talks were likely to intensify if Doha failed.
The trade ministers stressed that Doha remained their priority but a draft report on regional economic integration would be prepared for the APEC leaders’ summit in Sydney in September. “We agreed that the time is right to further examine the prospect for an FTAAP, including its implications,“ they said. “We agreed that scope exists for more intensive activity across APEC’s agenda in support of regional economic integration.“
The Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks are stalled over trade tariffs and a row about agricultural subsidies granted to farmers by the United States and the EU.
Critical discussions between the so-called “G4“--the European Union and the United States on one side and Brazil and India on the other--aimed at reviving the talks collapsed two weeks ago in Germany.

Picture shows an Xbox 360.

LOS ANGELES, USA, July 6--Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday said it would take a more than $1 billion charge to fix “an unacceptable number of repairs“ to its Xbox 360 video game consoles and had missed shipment targets for the end of June.
Microsoft is under pressure with mounting complaints about Xbox 360 failures on the Internet and growing expectations that Sony Corp. (6758.T) could slash the price of its rival PlayStation 3 console at a video game exposition next week, Reuters said.
So far Microsoft has the lead on Sony in the battle for high-end video game machines, but it shipped only 11.6 million 360s by the end of June, compared with a target of about 12 million, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said during a conference call with analysts on Thursday.
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, said the timing of the announcement about the charge for the quarter ending in June and a new extended warranty were unrelated to any potential move by Sony. “This is just one of those things that happens when it happens,“ Bach said in an interview. “We reached our conclusion early this week and because it’s a financially meaningful issue we had to announce it immediately.“
The hardware issue has marred a string of successes for Xbox 360, which has built an early lead over the PlayStation 3 with Microsoft’s strong lineup of games and popular online service. But it is also finding increasing competition for some parts of its business, such as Apple Inc.’s incursion into television shows delivered over the Web, which is also a feature of the Xbox online service.
Microsoft said it had investigated the sources of hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console and had identified “a number of factors“ that can cause such failures.
Bach said many of those factors took time to show up in the consoles, explaining why the number of repairs had grown in the second year of the Xbox 360’s release. He would not say exactly how many Xbox 360s had been returned due to hardware issues except that “the number is too large.“

A four-cylinder engine is shown at the Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Detroit, USA, on June 13, 2007.

DETROIT, USA, July 6--Large number of US car shoppers pick thriftier small engines in the face of gas prices that continue to hover around $3 per gallon (58 euro cents per liter), considered high in the US. The percentage of four-cylinder engines in US vehicles has been rising slightly since 2002, but it still was only 25.4 percent of the US engine mix in 2006, according to data collected by Ward’s Automotive Group, AP reported.
Still, in midsize vehicles where consumers have a choice, the majority has picked four-cylinder engines so far this year in nearly all of the best-selling models made by the top five US auto sellers.
At DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group, 72 percent of Sebring buyers drove off with four-cylinder engines through May, compared with 53 percent in the previous version of the Sebring, which was phased out last year. Chrysler, in preparing to launch the new Sebring, looked at government gas price statistics and made last-minute changes in its lineup to offer a four-cylinder engine even in decked-out versions of the vehicle, said Joel Schlader, brand manager for the car.
Four-cylinder engines generally get better gas mileage and pollute less than their larger counterparts, although they often are noisier and don’t accelerate as well. In many cases, the sticker price of a four-cylinder car is lower than the V-6 version, sometimes by more than $1,000 (-730).
Before the recent spike in gas prices, buyers of midsize cars made by the DETROIT Three typically went for more powerful and quieter V-6 engines, while those who bought the popular Toyota Camry and Honda Accord Japanese midsize cars generally bought more four-cylinder engines, Schlader said. “People thought maybe we were crazy,“ in putting out more four-cylinder Sebrings, Schlader said. “The demand is clearly there, so if we wouldn’t have done that ... I think it’s safe to say we might be missing some business.“
At Ford Motor Co., where 54 percent of midsize Fusion buyers have bought four-cylinder engines through May, demand for the smaller engines has shifted with gasoline prices since the car was introduced in late 2005, said George Pipas, the company’s top sales analyst.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 6--The European Commission launched Thursday a project to help consumers choose electricity and gas suppliers after EU energy markets were thrown open to competition at the weekend. The so-called energy consumers’ charter would define peoples’ rights and provide information on contracts, prices and dispute settlements as well as warn them against unfair business practices.
The Commission, the European Union’s executive body, hopes that the energy industry, businesses and regulators will sign up to the charter in December, following a period of public consultation, AFP reported.
“Liberalization of the energy market is a must but we need at the same time to have a very strong message to consumers and suppliers,“ EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva told reporters in Brussels. “I’m watching you,“ she warned suppliers. “I will watch this market, I will make contact all the time on the basis of this charter with business, but also with citizens or with non-governmental organizations.“
The entire EU energy market was opened up to competition on Sunday, allowing consumers to choose their gas and electricity suppliers and spelling an end for monopolistic state-run utilities. The liberalization process has been resisted in some countries and welcomed in others, highlighting different attitudes to competition and the notion of protecting national interests in the energy sector.
Consumers entitlements under the charter are likely to include the right to change electricity or gas supplier free of charge, to have energy prices that are transparent and easily comparable and to a simple complaints procedure.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 6--Indonesia has lowered a limit on foreign ownership of cellular operators from 95 percent to 65 percent, as part of new restrictions aimed at protecting national security, an official said Thursday.
Meanwhile, The Jakarta Post quoted trade minister Mari Pangestu as also saying that the restrictions see the number of closed sectors rise to 25 from 11 previously, while 69 sectors would now be more open to foreign investors. Pangestu had told a press briefing that under the new rules, foreign ownership in insurance companies would also be cut from 99 to 80 percent and the pharmaceutical company limit would drop from 100 to 75 percent.
The regulation could not immediately be obtained. “The move follows a presidential regulation signed on July 3, 2007, regarding investment areas,“ an official at the trade ministry spokesman’s office told AFP.
The regulation covers an array of industries, he said, referring to a statement on the ministry’s website quoting Pangestu as saying the move “prioritizes national interest and the future of the nation.“
Fixed line telephone companies have a foreign ownership limit set at 49 percent. Indonesia’s fixed line business however is currently monopolized by state-owned Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).
Minister for the economy, Budiono, said in the statement that the new rules did not apply retroactively. They apply to newly established companies, or to those which are still seeking a license to operate from the government.
Ryan Arjadi Suwarno, an analyst with Dongsuh Kilibindo Securities, said the new rules would have long term rather than any immediate implications. “At least it will not be applied retroactively and it will be reviewed again after three years,“ he told AFP. “The impact will be more long-term and overall for now it has not caused any big impact. The stock market is still making fresh highs,“ he added.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 6--Malaysia may make the use of biodiesel--a mix of palm oil and diesel--mandatory by next year, a government official said Thursday.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui said the Malaysian Biofuel Industry Act is expected to become legally enforceable by the end of the year--a move that may lead to compulsory blending of biodiesel with fossil fuel. Chin, speaking at a biofuels conference, did not specify details but said that the proposed program would be supported by government subsidies, AP reported.
Palm oil is a key ingredient used by the Malaysian biofuel industry, and its price hit a record high last month amid expectations of rising demand from the biofuels industry. Several biofuel producers have said it might not make
sense to produce palm oil-based biofuel now because the cost of the ingredient is nearly as much as that of the end product itself.
Malaysia and neighboring Indonesia are the world’s largest producers of palm oil.
Officials have said the fruit’s oil on its own or in diesel mixtures has been used to power private vehicles in Malaysia since 1984. Some palm oil factories in rural plantations have used the waste from processing edible oil to run their tractors or other equipment.
Sabri Ahmad, chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, said Thursday that palm oil prices are expected to remain firm because of robust demand from China and India amid a slowdown in production in Malaysia and Indonesia.