CHINA

China will have trouble cutting its dependence on coal despite growing pressures to fight global warming, a leading Chinese official said.

Desperate efforts to save 181 Chinese coal miners from two shafts flooded with water and mud faced near impossible odds on Wednesday, as a safety official said mine owners had failed to anticipate the threat of disaster.

Toyota Motor Corp aims to sell around 10.4 million vehicles worldwide in 2009, up 18 percent from last year as it grabs market share in North America and taps growing demand in China and other emerging economies, business daily Nikkei reported on Wednesday.

Most Asian stocks tiptoed higher in early trade on Wednesday, lifted by hopes that the U.S. might cut interest rates to calm turbulent markets, but the stronger yen weighed on Japan's exporters, such as Toyota Motor.

China raised interest rates on Tuesday for the fourth time this year, aiming to counter expectations of accelerating inflation after consumer prices rose in July at the fastest pace in more than a decade.

A U.S.-based workers' rights group said it found brutal conditions and labor violations at eight Chinese plants that make toys for big multinationals, and called on the companies to take steps for better standards.

China, the world's top emitter of sulphur dioxide, has managed to cut emissions of the acid-rain causing pollutant in first half of 2007, but the government said on Tuesday that meeting national targets would be tough.

The cut is meant to stabilize inflation after consumer prices rose in July at the fastest pace in more than a decade.

China Minsheng Banking Corp is in the final stages of talks to buy control of a domestic trust firm, as it diversifies in the financial sector, two sources familiar with the situation said on Monday.

Plants that can be grown for fuel are often touted as a vast, clean energy source -- except by those who say precious food is being diverted into gas tanks, and that biofuel crops are using up dwindling land and water.

Asian companies will have a tough time raising funds and face weaker export demand if the global credit squeeze persists and a deteriorating U.S. housing market crimps consumer spending.

Google Inc revealed on Monday that it had acquired a stake in Chinese community Web site Tianya.cn, indicating a foray by the global search leader into social networking in the world's second-largest Internet market.

Retailer Toys R Us on Friday said it removed all Hamco Inc.'s vinyl baby bibs, which were made in China, from its shelves as a precaution after an independent tester found two samples of bibs containing excessive amounts of lead.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., China's second-largest life insurer, posted a 140 percent gain in first-half profit late on Thursday, driven by a contribution from its banking operations and strong investment returns amid a booming domestic stock market.

St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole said on Friday rising protectionism in the United States was a worry, but avoided any mention of the current economic or policy outlook in a speech.

Many Chinese toy workers have lost their jobs following Mattel Inc.'s global recall of toys, an industry body said on Friday, but insisted overall confidence in their products was high ahead of the key Christmas season.

Nearly 15 percent of Chinese food products failed a recent quality check, the government said on Friday in a report that nonetheless sought to reassure rattled consumers that tainted products are disappearing from shelves.

China may be a trade giant but ineffective controls have kept it a quality weakling and are sapping competitiveness, the nation's safety watchdog said, as fears grow in the United States about the made-in-China label.

China will send delegations to the United States in August and September to discuss food and product safety following a spate of product recalls, a Chinese Embassy official said on Wednesday.

Beijing objects to an attempt by the United States to use the World Trade Organization to impose new obligations on China to crack down on pirated goods, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Oil dropped $2 on Thursday as credit and economic fears pounded global financial markets and as a storm threat to U.S. Gulf refineries and rigs receded.