Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed on Monday lifting a decades-old ban on private companies investing in the state-run oil industry, a cornerstone of Mexico?s national pride that?s seen production plummet in recent decades. The reform would allow profit-sharing contracts with private companies that have exploration know-how in deep water and other difficult areas that the state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn?t have. Such contracts are currently prohibited by the constitution, which would have to be changed. The leftist Democratic Revolution Party says it won?t support constitutional changes, but Pena Nieto?s Institutional Revolutionary Party and the conservative National Action Party have enough votes combined to secure the two-thirds majority needed in the Senate to pass the change.
Visteon to sell stake in Chinese JV for $1.25 bn
Visteon is selling its stake in a Chinese joint venture for $1.25 billion. The auto parts supplier says it will apply proceeds from the sale of its 50% stake in Yanfeng Visteon Automotive Trim Systems on a $1.2-billion share buyback programme that runs through December 2015. Visteon is selling its stake in Yangfeng to Huayu Automotive Systems. Visteon says it expects to receive about $1.1 billion of the cash proceeds before December 31. The US company also will pay about $70 million to gain control of the majority of Yanfeng Visteon Automotive Electronics from Huayu. Visteon earned $65 million in the second quarter on $1.89 billion in revenue.
?Dalai Lama?s China site hacked, infects others?
A prominent computer security firm warned that the Dalai Lama?s Chinese-language website has been hacked and is infecting visitors? computers with viruses in what may to be an effort to spy on human rights activists who frequently visit the site. Kaspersky Lab researcher Kurt Baumgartner said technical evidence suggests the group behind the campaign was also responsible for previous breaches on that site as well as attacks on groups that focus on human rights in Asia, Baumgartner said. Those breaches involved a two-stage attack technique known as ?water holing?, where hackers first infect a site that is frequently visited by people whose computers they want to control. That compromised site automatically seeks to infect the PCs of all visitors, downloading malicious software that the hackers can use to take control of their computers.
N Korea unveils ?secure, homemade? smartphone
North Korea, one of the most isolated and censored societies on the planet, has unveiled what it says is a domestically-produced smartphone. Industry analysts say the ?Arirang?, built around Google?s Android OS, is likely manufactured in neighbouring China, however. Some analysts suggest the ?Arirang? is aimed at getting North Koreans to use an officially-approved phone that can be properly monitored. While internet access is virtually non-existent in North Korea, which comes bottom of any media freedom survey, the country is not a complete IT desert. Cell phones were introduced in 2008 through a joint venture with the Egyptian telecom firm Orascom, which says there are now two million users in North Korea. A domestic intranet was launched in 2002 and some state bodies have their own websites.
Hyundai to restart talks with S Korea labour union
Hyundai Motor offered to restart wage talks with its South Korean labour union starting on Friday as workers continued to cast ballots on whether to stage a strike. Union negotiators plan to decide Wednesday whether to accept the company?s offer after the results of the strike vote. In a letter to the union, the company expressed ?deep concerns? about the strike move. A walkout would hurt Hyundai?s brand image and production, especially after the company suffered a production loss of 83,030 vehicles because of weekend production stoppages from March to May this year, the company said. The talks were proposed to start at 2 pm Friday Korean time.
