CHINA

Heavy rain and storms have triggered floods and landslides across large parts of Asia, killing hundreds of people. Here is an overview of the five Asian countries worst affected by this year's monsoon weather.

British bank Barclays raised its bid for Dutch group ABN AMRO to 67.5 billion euros ($93 billion) on Monday, helped by some of the biggest ever overseas investments by China and Singapore. The bid still falls short of a rival $71 billion-euro bid from a group of European banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland.

India's success in trimming its fiscal deficit has surprised even itself but progress in the next two years will be harder as dizzying growth slows and pressure for populist spending rises before elections.

Storms are expected to batter large swathes of China again on Monday after floods, landslides and lightning killed more than 150 people last week alone, state media said.

Seoul shares briefly hit a record on Monday but then headed lower as exporters fell after China raised interest rates and on worries that troubles in U.S. subprime mortgages would hurt the world's largest economy.

The dollar fell to another record low against the euro on Monday, hit by fresh fears of a global spill-over from the U.S. mortgage market crisis that buoyed safe-haven bonds and forced Asian stocks into a retreat.

Provincial governors of China's central bank have given it high marks for its use of various tools in the first half of the year to rein in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Beijing's Silk Alley Market, famous for knock-off designer gear from North Face jackets to Louis Vuitton bags, has been raided again after state media had heralded a clean-out of fake goods.

Britain's Barclays is in talks with the governments of China and Singapore to raise 10 billion pounds ($20.6 billion) to help fund its planned purchase of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, the BBC reported on Monday.

One in four Americans think China will beat the United States in the next decade as the world leader in innovation, according to a survey released on Sunday by Zogby International.

David Schlesinger and Simon Webb OPEC is concerned about the potential impact of the near-record price of oil on the world's economy but has seen little sign that growth has been hit by higher energy costs, the group's president said on Sunday.

China said on Friday that it strongly opposed decisions by the United States to initiate anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations on imports of some woven sacks and steel pipes from China.

Oil steadied on Friday near $78 a barrel, supported by concern that rising demand will strain supplies already thinned by U.S. refinery glitches and output disruptions in Africa.

Move is one in a series of tightening steps aimed at keeping inflation under control.

European stocks reversed course after China raised interest rates and corporate earnings disappointed on Friday, while the cost of insuring risky European debt rose on fears for the health of the U.S. credit market.

Six-party talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions enter a third day on Friday after envoys settled on a set of tasks the United States said could be carried out this year, rather than a disarmament timetable.

China has cancelled the business licenses of two firms that exported wheat protein tainted with toxic chemicals that wound up in pet food in the United States, a senior quality control official said on Friday.

China National Petroleum Corporation, announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to import 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year for 30 years from Turkmenistan through a planned pipeline.

In a public-private partnership, Australian agribusiness ABB Grain signed a A$5.7 million deal with the University of Adelaide to develop new malting and feed barley varieties for export and domestic markets.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday that subprime mortgage losses could hit $100 billion and threaten consumer spending, but he sought to reassure lawmakers that the central bank was working quickly to strengthen lending regulations.

Scrutiny of banking transactions after 9/11 has led European and Canadian banks to cut back on dealings with Cuba.