CHINA

CITIC Securities, China's biggest listed brokerage, said on Thursday it has raised 25 billion yuan ($3.31 billion) in a heavily oversubscribed new share offer to finance expansion.

Chip giant Intel Corp. is optimistic amid steady PC demand and a rollout of new products

Wall Street bank Bear Stearns Cos, which is building up its business outside the United States, has appointed John Moore, co-head of fixed income for Europe, to be its chief executive for Asia.

China has sent a notice to the World Health Organisation defending its food safety standards and sentenced another food and drug watchdog official for bribery, its latest moves to assure the world its exports are up to par.

Seagate Technology, the world's largest maker of disk drives, has dashed speculation that a Chinese firm wanted to buy the firm, saying it had received no such offer and had no intention of selling.

With the Made in China brand under threat, steering the world's third-largest exporter through the public relations minefield of food and product safety is one of its leaders' biggest immediate tasks.

Taiwan's Acer announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire U.S.-based Gateway for $710 million, zooming past China's Lenovo to become the world's third largest computer maker behind U.S. makers Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

The world's biggest casino opens in Macau on Tuesday, the most ambitious throw of the dice yet in a $24 billion effort to build a Las Vegas-style neon alley in this once-sleazy Chinese gambling enclave.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged China on Monday to do more to halt climate change, prompting the response that the developed West has been polluting the skies for much longer than the newly developing Chinese.

Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals said they were stopping a late clinical liver cancer trial with Nexavar in the Asia-Pacific region so patients can get the drug sooner after encouraging results.

Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd, China's best known beer brand, posted a 63.4 percent increase in first-half profit as rising Chinese incomes boosted demand for beer and a taste for more expensive brews.

China Life Insurance Co, the country's top life insurer, said on Monday its first-half profit more than doubled, topping forecasts, thanks to investment gains in a strong stock market and rising premiums in the fast-growing Chinese economy.

Three Asian banks' heavy exposure to the limping U.S. home loan sector reinforced global credit wobbles on Friday but Germany, France and Italy saw no signs of new problems.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will push for tougher global action against climate change on a tour of China and Japan next week which will also have business interests high on the agenda, officials said on Thursday.

Smog is menacing Japanese cities for the first time in 30 years and cropping up in rural areas for the first time ever, alarming the government and prompting experts to point the finger at neighboring China.

The United States will press China to do more to ensure the safety of its exports at a regional summit meeting next month in Sydney, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Wednesday.

Brazil wants to see an open race to head the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Guido Mantega was quoted on Friday by Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency as saying.

Shares in Bank of China and its subsidiary BOC Hong Kong slid on Friday amid worries that higher-than-expected exposure to sub-prime mortgages would eat into their earnings.

Officials launch a campaign to fix problem products that have damaged confidence in the 'made in China' label.

Asian stocks fell on Friday on concern that problems in the U.S. housing and credit markets could push the world's biggest economy into recession, while the yen steadied against the dollar and euro.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday it was taking more steps to make sure its toys are safe after Mattel Inc's recall this month of millions of Chinese-made toys.