POLITICS

A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced a television reporter to one year in jail for fabricating a report that Beijing dumpling makers used cardboard as a filling.

Years of economic policy mistakes after the fall of Saddam Hussein left unemployed young Iraqis easy targets for recruitment by al Qaeda and other insurgents, a U.S. Defense Department official said on Sunday.

China's economic indicators may have entered the danger zone, forcing the central bank to continue tightening steps to prevent the economy from overheating, a senior central bank official said in remarks published on Monday.

Noisy protests against a historic but controversial nuclear energy deal between India and the United States disrupted the Indian parliament on Monday as lawmakers demanded the government cancel the agreement.

The quality of Chinese home loans is worse than in the United States, where a subprime mortgage crisis is causing turmoil in global financial markets, according to a prominent academic quoted in a Hong Kong newspaper on Sunday.

Between the shelves of product catalogues on the wall of a spartan office in an eastern German lighting factory sits a framed quotation, in bold black lettering on silver paper, from Winston Churchill.

Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC), top shareholder of South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank Corp., will pick preferred bidders for a 35 percent stake in the refiner, sources close to the deal said on Monday.

U.S.-financed China Public Security Technology will provide software that links to at least 20,000 police surveillance cameras being installed along streets in southern China, according to the New York Times on Sunday.

Japan's economy grew an anemic 0.1 percent in the April-June quarter, reinforcing expectations that a shake-out in global markets will prompt the central bank to rethink a rate hike this month.

Politicians need to address problems such as pollution and accelerating urbanization to ensure sustainable wealth creation in Asia, the United Nations said.

Credit spreads and collateralized debt obligations may not mean much to the average U.S. consumer, but if market gyrations persist, Wall Street's pain may come home to hurt Main Street.

South Korea may be ready to offer billions of dollars to rebuild the failing North Korean economy when leaders meet for only the second ever summit between the enemy states later this month, analysts said.

Homes and farmland drowned in increasingly severe floods are affecting some 500 million people a year and straining relief efforts, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.

Chinese-made toys are overwhelmingly safe and the number of unsafe products is dwarfed by the total export value, state media said on Friday, a week after Mattel pulled goods because of fears about lead in paint.

Seventy-seven percent of Indians -- about 836 million people -- live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies, a government report said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown reassured farmers on Friday that an outbreak of foot and mouth was restricted to a limited area of Britain and promised swift compensation for those hit by the livestock disease.

The Bush administration said on Friday it would increase scrutiny and impose heftier fines on U.S. businesses that employ illegal immigrants as it sought to step up enforcement despite Congress's failure to reform immigration laws.

Central banks around the globe pumped billions of dollars into banking systems on Friday in a concerted effort to beat back a widening credit crisis, and pledged to do more if needed. n all, central banks in Europe, Asia and North America have pumped out more than $300 billion over 48 hours in an effort to keep money flowing through the arteries of the global financial system, hoping to prevent a credit market seizure that could imperil economies.

U.S. consumers generally expect the labor market to stay healthy, with only a third anticipating a rise in the unemployment rate in the coming year, according to a survey released on Friday.

Sweden's financial regulator said on Friday it had requested information from Borse Dubai regarding its move this week to acquire shares in OMX and was considering whether a statement from the state-run firm may already represent an offer to buy all of OMX.

A gauge of future U.S. economic growth fell in the latest week on lower stock prices and higher interest rates, and the measure's growth rate was down almost 1 percent, a research group said on Friday.

U.S. retail sales excluding cars rose a modest 0.2 percent in July, as declining gasoline prices reined in overall sales growth, according to data from SpendingPulse released on Friday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve provided the banking system with $38 billion on Friday, the largest amount of liquidity since the days after the September 11 attacks six years ago, adding ample funds for the second day running as financial markets fretted over credit conditions.

The European Central Bank mounted a second day of action to calm panicky credit markets on Friday, after Asia central banks joined a global campaign by monetary authorities to inject extra cash into banking systems.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern, playing down jitters in global money markets, said on Thursday that subprime mortgage problems were limited in scope and the Fed routinely injects substantial liquidity into the banking system.

U.S. and Canadian regulators said on Thursday they were reviewing AstraZeneca Plc's widely used stomach drugs, Nexium and Prilosec, after data raised concern about heart problems with long-term use.

A rule change that has made it easier for short-sellers to execute trades may be partially responsible for wild swings in the stock market over the last several weeks.

Mexican consumer prices jumped 0.42 percent in July, accelerating from June and pushing 12-month inflation above the 4-percent limit the central bank says is acceptable.

American International Group, one of the biggest U.S. mortgage lenders, warned on Thursday that mortgage defaults are spreading.