CHINA

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.

Nikon Corp's newest advanced cameras and a lineup of fresh faces will help it outrun rival Canon Inc in a scramble for loyal fans throughout Asia, Nikon executives said on Thursday.

Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, said on Thursday India overtook the United States in the second quarter to become its second-biggest market by sales after China.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, the world's biggest bank by market capitalisation, beat forecasts with a 61.6 percent jump in first-half profit, helped by widening interest margins and fee income growth.

China's main stock index climbed for the first time above the 5,000-point level on Thursday, passing another milestone in a spectacular bull run that has more than quadrupled the index since the start of last year.

Every cloud supposedly has a silver lining, and Chinese industry's bill for complying with stepped-up safety standards after a string of embarrassing product recalls is no exception.

Foreign sales of some Chinese products have been shaken by reports of dangerous goods, but the country's fast-rising exports show most consumers remain untroubled, senior Chinese officials said on Thursday.

Lower oil prices dented first-half earnings at oil giant PetroChina and offshore specialist CNOOC, but helped Asia's top refiner Sinopec, though rebounding crude prices may reverse their fortunes in the second half.

China, the world's top soy importer, has accused the United States of exporting substandard soybeans even as its own exports come under growing scrutiny abroad over safety concerns.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on Wednesday for a broader Asia partnership of democracies that would include India, the United States and Australia but leave out the region's superpower, 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.