China's business press carried the following stories on Tuesday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Baidu service breakdown, hacker attack suspected -- www.money.163.com

Baidu, China's largest search engine, was inaccessible early Tuesday morning. Internet users across China suspect a hacker attack.

Users were greeted with the message, "This site has been hacked by Iranian cyber army," when they logged onto the site.

Baidu said the breakdown was caused by unauthorized changes to the domain name at its U.S. domain name register.

Access to the site gradually resumed at noon.

China's oil prices set to rise -- National Business Daily

China's refined oil prices are expected to rise again as crude oil prices in the global market are set to remain at more than US$80 per barrel.

Industry analysts predict an increase of 150 yuan to 200 yuan per ton at the end of this month, the first rise this year.

China changes the benchmark retail prices of oil products when the international crude oil price rises or falls by a daily average of 4 percent over 20 days. The benchmark price of gasoline currently sits at 7,100 yuan a ton. Diesel is 6,360 yuan a ton.

Iron ore import rises 41 percent in 2009 -- China Business News

China's iron ore imports in 2009 rose 41.6 percent year over 2008 imports to 628 million tons, according to the latest figures from the General Administration of Customs.

December imports set the second monthly high in history by increasing 80 percent over December 2008 to reach 62.16 million tons.

Spot prices of the import have been skyrocketing in the past two months, with prices setting a record high in 2009 by rising to US$133 per ton, compared to a record low of US$59.1 per ton at the end of March last year.

Analysts believe that rising import and prices will diminish China's leverage in price negotiations in 2010.

Expert: new loans expected to hit 3 trln yuan in Q1 -- China Business News

China's loans will surpass expectations and reach 3 trillion yuan in the first quarter of the year, said Ba Shusong, deputy director-general of the Finance Research Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council. New loans in January alone are set to reach 1 trillion yuan.

As the economy recovers, corporate loans will see a rebound, Ba said.

The country's huge investment in fixed assets will continue to support loan growth as new projects started before November 2009 are expected to cost 13.69 trillion yuan, he said.

Commercial banks tend to lend more at the beginning of a year to avoid possible policy restrictions later in the year.

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