Dark clouds over China-US ties: The political glow from two China-US summits is fading, and dark clouds are gathering as Beijing's trade surplus swells to new record levels. US under secretary of commerce David Aaron last week bluntly warned Chinathat its surplus with the United States, likely to jump 20 percent this year to $60 billion, was " politically unsustainable". Not only had Beijing failed to drop trade barriers fast enough to join the World Trade Organisation it was erecting new barriers, Aaron complained.

HK workers reluctant to suffer economic pain: Last week's public backlash against pay-cut demands by major Hong Kong employers points up a reluctance to deal with the pain of a necessary economic adjustment, economists and analysts said. Buckling under intense public pressure, Hong Kong Telecommunications Ltd on Tuesday suspended a plan to impose a 10 percent wage cut on its 13,800 employees. Thousands of workers demonstrated at Hongkong Telecom headquarters, while radio talk-show circuits were buzzing with callers blasting the company for asking the staff to make big sacrifices.

Creditors back debt cuts for Kia Motors: Creditors of the crippled South Korean carmakers Kia Motors Corp and Asia Motors Co Ltd are willing towrite off 4.5 trillion won ($3.25 billion) of debt in a third attempt to sell the firms, local media said on Sunday. State radio quoted an unidentified government official as saying creditors reached a tentative agreement to make the writedowns at a meeting in the presidential Blue House late on Thursday with company and government representatives.

Iran approves first non-governmental bank: Iran's parliament on Sunday passed a bill to set up a bank run by Iranian cooperatives, the first non-governmental bank since the 1979 Islamic revolution. After a debate carried on Tehran radio, deputies approved by a wide margin the establishment of the cooperatives' bank.