Manila - The Philippine Stock Exchange halted trading near the end of the trading day Monday after share prices fell more than 10 per cent.

Trading was stopped when the 30-share composite index fell 10.03 per cent, triggering an automatic break that was instituted last month amid volatility in the market.

The suspension was called 37 minutes before the end of Monday's session at noon (0400 GMT). Trading resumed 10 minutes later with the main index continuing to fall, closing 239.66 points, or 12.27 per cent, lower at 1,713.83.

Taipei - A Taiwan delegation flew to China Monday to hold preparatory talks on the upcoming Taipei-Beijing dialogue aimed at expanding exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

The 11-member delegation is led by Kao Kung-lien, vice chairman of the Straits Exchange Association. The talks will be held Monday afternoon in Shenzhen, south China.

The talks would pave the way for the November 3 formal dialogue between Taipei and Beijing to discuss expanding exchanges as proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou.

China negotiator Chen Yunlin will be the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan since 1949, when Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War.

Bangkok - December's summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been moved from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to avoid ongoing anti-government protests in the capital, media and ministerial sources said Monday.

Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat announced the shift over the weekend during a visit to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, located 550 kilometres north of Bangkok, the Bangkok Post said.

The change in venue, however, has yet to be confirmed with Thailand's fellow ASEAN members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

"It's 90-per-cent certain, but this will have to be ruled on soon," Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said.

Washington - The race for the US presidency was entering the backstretch Monday as Democrat Barack Obama pushed to keep Republican John McCain on the defensive in states long regarded as Republican strongholds - like Virginia and Florida.

Senator Obama was to deliver a speech in the hotly contested manufacturing-intensive Rust Belt state of Ohio that his campaign called his "closing argument."

Rio de Janeiro - The Workers' Party of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has suffered severe losses in mayoral elections, losing in such metropolises as Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre.

In Sao Paulo, the nation's largest city and its financial hub, incumbent Gilberto Kassab of the conservative Democrats won by a landslide with 61 per cent of the vote in Sunday's runoff against Workers' Party candidate Marta Suplicy.