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Crude oil futures rose yesterday as traders closed out December contracts and also on investors' belief that supplies are not as plentiful as a government report at first suggested. Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $1.67 to settle at $95.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But January crude, which now becomes the front-month contract, closed $1.26 below that, settling up $1.77 at $93.84 a barrel. December crude had lost 66 cents in the previous session after the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected 2.8 million barrel increase in inventories last week. But much of that supply build occurred on the West Coast, where the energy infrastructure is largely isolated from the rest of the U.S., analysts said. "I think the market may have realized overnight that that EIA report wasn't that bearish," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois. Reports that ministers from

CORN fell the most last week on speculation that higher supplies in China, the world's largest consumer of the grain, will cut demand for imports. China will produce 145 million metric tons of corn this season, up from 143 million estimated in October, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report on Friday. That would push the country's reserves to 28.1 million tons before the next harvest, up from 25.7 million estimated a month ago. Still, the stocks would 14 percent off from the previous year, Bloomberg News said. "The trade is unlikely to think that the Chinese are going to import corn anytime soon," said Mike Zuzolo, president of Risk Management Commodities Inc in Lafayette, Indiana. Speculation that China would become a net importer of corn for the first time in 12 years helped push corn prices up 12 percent in the past two months, he said. Corn futures for December delivery fell 2.75 cents, or 0.7 percent, to US$3.8675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade,

NINE senior officials at China's biggest liquor maker have been handed over to prosecutors on charges of corruption and bribery, Xinhua news agency reported today. Wang Xiaojin, former chairman of Anhui Gujing Group Co, has been expelled from the National People's Congress, the report said. Illicit money involved in the case ranged from 300,000 yuan (US$40,214) to five million yuan, the report said. Guo Xinmin, deputy manager of the sales department of Gujing Distillery Co, allegedly received more than five million yuan in bribes and Zhu Renwang, former general manager of the department, received a total of two million yuan from more than 30 clients, Bozhou prosecutors said. Vice president Li Yunjie received more than two million yuan, the prosecutors said. Other involved officials are Ruan Kunhua, Gan Shaoyu and Li Wanlin, the prosecutors said. Wang and his wife were taken from their home by the Party's disciplinary personnel in April. Previous reports said that