Singapore - Following the global economic downturn, profits at Singapore's largest insurance group, Great Eastern Holdings, halved in 2008, the company said on Tuesday.

Full year profit for 2008 tumbled to 272.4 million Singapore dollars (178.56 million US dollars), a 50 per cent drop compared to the record high of 546.9 million Singapore dollars the group achieved in 2007.

"For 2008, the group's performance was affected by the financial downturn which directly impacted the investment performance of all the funds," the company said in a statement.

For the fourth quarter of 2008, Great Eastern reported a profit of 76.5 million Singapore dollars, a drop of 47 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

New York  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday pledged to strengthen ties with Asia, offering North Korea normalized relations if it abandoned nuclear weapons and appealing to China for a more cooperative relationship.

During a speech at the Asia Society in New York Friday, two days before she leaves on a four-nation tour of Asia, Clinton said she would deliver a "message about America's desire for more rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement" in Asia.

Beijing - Police have detained 12 people after a blaze caused by fireworks engulfed a new hotel tower in central Beijing, state media said on Thursday.

The 12 detained included four employees of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), which owns the tower, and eight workers from the company which set off the fireworks on Monday night, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Among those detained was Xu Wei, CCTV's construction manager for the nearly completed tower, who was suspected of "starting the fire by using banned fireworks," the agency quoted Beijing police as saying.

The eight employees of the fireworks company were arrested in the nearby city of Langfang after they fled the scene of the fire, the police said.

New Delhi, Feb 10: The two-day meeting of the SAARC's Committee of Economic Cooperation (CEC) is being held here today.

The meeting is being attended by Commerce Secretaries of all the eight member countries, including Pakistan''s Suleman Ghani.

Ghani''s visit for the meeting is the first by a Pakistani official delegation to India since the Mumbai terror attacks.

Issues like the progress on the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), the issue of non-tariff barriers and permitting transit routes for trade with third party will be discussed during the meeting.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to China, Japan and other Asian countries this month in her first trip abroad since becoming the nation's top diplomat.

Clinton will stop in Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China during the February 16-22 trip for talks on bilateral relations, regional issues and the nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea.

Clinton will also discuss the global economic turmoil, humanitarian issues, security and climate change, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

Melbourne, Feb 4 : A Kiwi businesswoman is trying to spice up the romance of Valentine''s Day by offering chocolates fortified with Tongkat Ali - a potent herb from South-East Asia which is claimed to stimulate testosterone production in men.

Last year, Hanna Frederick, a former food scientist, made headlines by feeding beer-flavoured chocolate to brewers and deer antler chocolate to meat industry heads at business conventions.

Now, the Auckland lady is hoping to capitalise on the commercial day of romance with the "aphrodisiac" chocolates, reports the CourierMail.