Beijing - China's central bank lowered its interest rate Wednesday - the fourth time since mid-September - to help ease the impact of the global financial crisis and aid economic growth.

The People's Bank of China said the benchmark rates for one-year loans and deposits will both fall by 1.08 percentage points, bringing the cost of one-year borrowing to
5.58 per cent and one-year deposit rates to 2.52 per cent.

The central bank also slashed the reserve requirements by 1 percentage point for six big banks, down from 17 per cent, and by 2 percentage points for smaller banks, down from 16 per cent.

Hong Kong - Job creation in Hong Kong has fallen to its lowest level in 30 months as the global financial crisis takes its toll, according to a survey published Wednesday.

The number of jobs created by the average company in the wealthy city of 6.9 million during the third quarter of 2008 was 0.51, lower than for the previous quarter and the same period in 2007.

Announcing the survey findings, the Institute of Human Resource Management said it expected job creation in Hong Kong to worsen with further decreases in 2009.

The institute, which calculated job creation rates by the number of news jobs minus jobs cut in around 1,000 Hong Kong companies, said the third quarter rate was the lowest since early 2006.

Beijing  - China is already the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, according to some estimates, putting it at the centre of international debate on how to combat climate change.

An action plan last year reaffirmed China's commitment to reduce energy consumption compared to economic output by about 4 per cent annually, and emissions of major pollutants by 2 per cent a year to 2010.

Those targets looked ambitious, but the widening global financial crisis may benefit China's pollution control efforts by cutting industrial carbon emissions and by accelerating investment in projects designed to reduce emissions.

Athens - China and Greece signed a 1-billion dollar port deal Tuesday in a bid to intensify cooperation in maritime shipping which and help gain access for Chinese products in the European Union.

The port deal signed between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis came as thousands of port workers protested through Athens in opposition of the agreement which they say will result in hundreds of layoffs.

The deal will see China's Cosco Pacific Ltd manage two container wharfs at the Greek capital's main port of Pireaus for 35 years.

New Delhi, Nov. 25 : United States foreign policy would continue to be guided by its national interest as it had been since the World War II, feels Brajesh Mishra, National Security Advisor in the Vajpayee Government.

Chairing a discussion on the "Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Impact on Asian Security Framework" at Observer Research Foundation, Mishra said the Bush Administration had been working on two key US strategies of expanding eastward in the Europe and balancing of China.

Beijing, Nov. 25: China has launched a propaganda broadside against American rock band Guns N'' Roses, citing their comeback album as an attack on the nation.

The album, entitled Chinese Democracy, went on sale in Europe yesterday amid a huge promotional drive.

But the Communist Party''s mouthpiece Global Times newspaper, in an article headlined "American band releases album venomously attacking China", reported that unidentified Chinese internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn".

The article said the album "turns its spear point on China".