CHINA

Twenty of the world's top polluting nations have agreed to discuss binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Germany's environment minister said on Tuesday.

Soldiers in motor boats rescued thousands of marooned people and helicopters air-dropped food as the number of people made homeless after some of the worst flooding in years in India's northeast rose to 3.5 million.

U.S. and Chinese officials agreed on Tuesday to take immediate steps to stop the use of lead paint in toys made in China following toy recalls that have scared American parents ahead of holiday shopping.

McDonald's Corp. on Tuesday reported an 8.1 percent rise in August same-store sales, easily beating analysts' expectations on strong breakfast and beverage sales in the United States and extended store hours in China and Australia.

Toyota Motor Corp. should hit its target of 5-percent U.S. sales growth this year despite a recent slowdown and building concerns about the knock-on effect of the subprime mortgage crisis, the automaker's chief financial officer said on Monday.

China's product safety chief has urged his officials not to be discouraged by current global concern about Chinese goods, but warned them in the same pep talk their jobs may be at risk if they don't perform up to scratch.

Blackstone Group has agreed to buy 20 percent of chemical maker China National BlueStar (Group) Corp for up to $600 million, the private equity groups said on Monday, marking its first major investment in the fast-growing market.

In the apparently pure Arctic air, a research station on a Norwegian island mountain ridge finds tiny chemical traces from factories in Russia, pesticides in Israel or China's coal-fired power plants.

To the chagrin of green groups, APEC members signed a voluntary non-binding agreement to cut greenhouse gases.

Asia-Pacific leaders said on Sunday they saw real progress in world trade talks now underway in Geneva and pledged flexibility and the political will to forge a deal by the end of 2007.

China's booming economy is creating more than 70 millionaires a day, but foreign banks don't have enough products, client managers or offices to tap into the market for top-end private wealth services.

Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's third-largest PC maker, said on Thursday its nascent overseas consumer market will grow eventually to match the dominate position it enjoys in its home market.

Asia-Pacific officials agreed on Friday to a draft climate statement which reaffirms a U.N. treaty on fighting global warming, while urging non-binding aspirational targets for greenhouse gas reductions, a delegate said.

Chrysler has lured another high-profile executive, this time from Asia, into its ranks on Friday, following a similar move a day earlier as the company seeks to revive its struggling operations.

Asia-Pacific leaders will fire a shot in the battle against corruption at their weekend summit, endorsing a code of conduct banning companies from paying bribes to speed up deals or making dubious political contributions.

At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Bush said he would consider a peace treaty with North Korea if it gave up nuclear arms.

Microsoft Corp. said on Friday it may take decades to tackle software piracy in large emerging economies despite some recent progress and called on Asian governments to invest more in policing the practice.

Asia-Pacific ministers agreed on Thursday to accelerate global free-trade talks, saying that negotiations were at a crucial and probably final phase.

Twenty-one years after Chernobyl, the industry says nuclear power is clean, safe energy alternative.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said on Thursday that Beijing took product safety very seriously, as Asia Pacific ministers agreed to set up a food safety taskforce to ensure the health and safety of the region's population.

China has been overwhelmed by the storm of criticism and level of interest in recent product safety problems, but it will be a good learning experience, a public relations executive said on Thursday.