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BP oil spill was the topic that users of Yahoo's search engine have been most interested in for the year of 2010, the Internet company said on Wednesday.

The disaster grabbed the No. 1 spot on Yahoo's newly-announced top 10 search list for the past year, which Yahoo said is a barometer for worldwide consumer interest.

"People turned to the Web to watch the live feed of the oil leak, search for answers to the spill's impact, and get details," Yahoo said in a press release on its ranking of this year's most popular search queries.

"In 2010 consumers watched the BP disaster unfold like a slow- motion horror film," the press release quoted Web trend analyst Vera Chan as saying.

World Cup ranked No. 2 on Yahoo's search list, and Yahoo noted that search trends showed excitement around the players and teams throughout the FIFA World Cup tournament held this summer in South Africa.

Pop culture celebrities and topics made up most of the rest of the top 10 list, which was as follows: Miley Cyrus; Kim Kardashian; Lady Gaga; iPhone; Megan Fox; Justin Bieber; American Idol; Britney Spears.

"This year, online activity on Yahoo was dominated by the public's transfixion with the BP oil spill, pop culture's leading ladies, gadgets starting with 'I,' and a newfound fascination with soccer," Yahoo summarized in the press release.

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Containing a class of 17 chemical elements, rare earths have been widely employed in manufacturing sophisticated products including flat-screen monitors, electric car batteries, wind turbines, missiles and aerospace alloys. However, mining the metals is very damaging to the environment.

Chinese officials have said on many occasions that China will strictly protect its non-renewable resources to prevent environmental damages due to over-exploitation and reckless mining.

China started the quota system on rare earth exports in 1998 and later banned it in processing trade. In 2006, China stopped granting new rare earth mining licenses and existing mines have since been operating according to government plans.

In early September, the State Council, or China's Cabinet, unveiled regulations to encourage merger and acquisitions within the industry.

However, China's restrictive policies were criticized by Japan, the United States and other European countries, claiming China's management violated World Trade Organization rules.

"China has no choice but to take such measures," Chen Deming, China's Commerce Minister, said in August. He pointed out that exports of rare earths should not threaten the country's environment or national security.

In response to the increasing criticism of China's rare earth exports management, the spokesman for China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said last week that China "will not use rare earths as a bargaining chip".

"It is the common strategy of some countries, such as the United States, to use global resources while conserving their own in their homeland," said Zhang Hanlin, director of China Institute for WTO Studies in China's University of International Business and Economics.

"Creating conflicts on resource issues for their self interests is a common practice," he said.

China is the world's largest producer and exporter of rare earths. With about one-third of all proven rare earth reserves, China's exports account for more than 90 percent of the world total.

"This shows some countries are conserving rare earth resources," said Yao.

Early media reports said China would reduce the export quotas by up to 30 percent in 2011. Yet, this was denied as "false" and "groundless" by the Ministry of Commerce.

The ministry said the Chinese government will set the 2011 export quotas based upon the rare earths output, market demand and the needs for sustainable development.

It also said China would continue to supply rare earths to the world. Meanwhile, it will also take measures to limit the exploitation, production and exports of rare earths to maintain sustainable development, which is in line with WTO principles.

"Some countries managed to meet the openness requirement of international trade policies when limiting its resources exports," said Feng Jun, a director of the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Center.

"China should learn from the experiences and explore its own way of protecting its strategic resources," said Feng.

China will reduce its rare earth export quotas next year, but not by a very large margin, Yao Jian, spokesman of China's Ministry of Commerce, said Tuesday.

"To protect the environment and natural resources, China will stick to the quota system to manage rare earth exports next year, and quotas will also decline," Yao told Xinhua.

Though giving no clear extent of the decline, Yao's remarks echoed the comments of Wang Jian, a vice minister of commerce, made Monday at a press conference.

"I believe China will see no large rise or fall in rare earth exports next year," said Wang.

Wang emphasized that China has no embargo on rare earth exports, even though it uses a quota-system as a method of management.         between wodai ni hao ma

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Hong Kong land sale beats estimates

HONG KONG sold a luxury residential site at auction for 26 percent more that analysts had estimated, a sign developers are confident home prices will withstand tighter mortgage rules and increased supply.

Kerry Properties Ltd., controlled by the family of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, paid HK$1.29 billion (US$165 million) for the land in the Kowloon Tong district Tuesday. The plot set a per-square-foot record for the Kowloon Peninsula of HK$16,587, according to real estate broker Midland Holdings Ltd. Prices have exceeded estimates in both land auctions held since Hong Kong stepped up efforts to cool the property market last month. Singapore joined Hong Kong in imposing anti-speculation measures this week, underscoring the risk of asset bubbles in Asia as record-low U.S. interest rates and the region's economic recovery spur demand.

Citigroup to hire up to 7,500 in China

CITIGROUP Inc. planned to almost triple its workforce in China by hiring up to 7,500 people in the next three years, an executive said Tuesday.

Citigroup, which has 4,500 employees in China, will hire more in the country than in any other Asia-Pacific market, according to Stephen Bird, Citigroup's co-chief executive officer for the region. Bird said last week that Citigroup planned to open two branches a month on average in China for the foreseeable future, the maximum allowed by regulators.

Anti-subsidy duties on U.S. chicken

CHINA had imposed anti-subsidy duties for five years on imports of U.S. chicken products after concluding producers received improper support, the commerce ministry said yesterday amid a string of trade spats with Washington.

Importers must pay tariff rates ranging from 4 percent to 30.3 percent on U.S. broiler or chicken products, starting Aug. 30, the ministry announced. The ministry said producers benefited from government subsidies that lowered feed prices and hurt Chinese competitors. The tariffs apply to chicken parts and whole birds but not to live chickens or cooked products such as chicken sausage.