Tokyo  - Stocks in Japan were up slightly on Wednesday despite bad news about the state of the country's economy and businesses.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average was up 95.68 points, or 1.14 per cent, at mid-trading, as traders pin their hope on fiscal stimulus packages around the world.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues rose 0.56 per cent to 822.5.

Hamburg - For decades cars have become bigger and heavier with more luxurious and safety gadgets, but several car makers are bucking the trend with new lightweight materials and design principles that save both fuel and resources.

Heavier cars mean more fuel consumption and more wear-and-tear of components such as suspension and tyres.

Audi pioneered weight-saving technology 10 years ago with aluminium bodies which are two-thirds lighter than conventional steel. It is alloyed with magnesium and silicon for additional strength.

Bogota  - Wilson Bueno Largo, a young former member of Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels, left the country late Tuesday bound for exile in France.

Largo, also known as Isaza, gained hero status for freeing a kidnapped Colombian lawmaker, Oscar Tulio Lizcano, 62, whom he dragged to freedom in October, earning a 400,000-dollar reward.

The 28-year-old was accompanied to Paris by another former FARC hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, and his girlfriend, who deserted from the rebels three months earlier.

Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, who was freed by the military in July after eight years as a FARC hostage, proposed the exile to Largo, as a message to other rebels still holding hostages.

Melbourne, Dec. 10 : Former South African off-spinner Pat Symcox has criticized the current team's moves to excessively talk about their talent and skills ahead of their cricket series against Australia as pathetic.

Symcox insisted that the Proteas are living in false hope by believing that their recent 2-0 Test series romp over minnows Bangladesh is an adequate form line for tangling with Australia, the current world champions.

Munich - Many car seats including headrests do not offer maximum protection against whiplash in the event of an accident, a test conducted by Germany's automobile association ADAC found.

In a rear collision test conducted on 25 car models, only five seats were described as "good" while eight were given a poor rating by the testers.

Hong Kong  - An investigation was under way Wednesday into why a giant panda in Hong Kong bit the female keeper who had been looking after him for seven years.

The keeper was hospitalized after being bitten on the leg by giant panda An An, whose name means Peace in Chinese, in his enclosure at the Ocean Park theme park in Hong Kong on November 30.

The attack by the 22-year-old panda only came to light after a video of it taken with a mobile phone camera by a park visitor was circulated on the internet video channel YouTube.