Beijing, Oct. 13 : Top managers of the country''s three leading dairy companies - Mengniu, Yili and Bright Dairy –have issued a first public apology for their companies'' involvement in the ongoing contaminated milk scandal.

During a talk show program, Dialogue, broadcast last night on the economic channel of China Central Television, executives of the three companies admitted to "the problems and mistakes" of their firms.

New Delhi, Oct 13: Chinese scientists have worked out the first genome draft map of the giant panda to figure out exactly what makes the endangered species tick.

“By sequencing the genome, we have laid the genetic and biological foundation to gain a deeper understanding of this peculiar species,” said Wang Jun, a scientist with the Beijing Genomics Institute’s Shenzhen branch (BGI Shenzhen), a core participant in the International Giant Panda Genome Project.

The number of cars on the road is increasing day by day. So is the competition between various companies.

Chris Buxton, Bentley Motors Regional Director (Middle East, Africa and India) said in a press meeting” There has been a slowdown in the global automobile market and we are expecting to compensate this slowdown, by increased demand in emerging market like India, China and Middle East”.

Taipei - Taiwan will hold talks with China on financial market investments, including permission for China investment in local stocks and Taiwanese investments in mainland securities and banking institutions, a top official said Sunday.

"They will be included in our upcoming talks as the follow-up agenda," said Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the island's top China policy planning body.

China is all set to become a leading trade partner of India in next five years. US is a top trade partner of India by now. The mutual trade between two countries is expected to touch $100-bn mark by 2013-14. The bilateral trade between the two countries would reach at 50 billion dollar mark in the fiscal ending March 2009.

India has a significant economic partnership with European Union with 56 billion euro trade. The trade would reach at 100-billion euro in the next five years as per the target of recent India-EU Summit at Marseilles (France).

Beijing  - China plans to build homes in towns and villages for nearly 500,000 members of Tibetan herding families in the south-western province of Sichuan, state media said on Saturday.

The Sichuan provincial government said it will help 470,000 Tibetans to "settle down in permanent brick houses" in the next four years, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The province will invest some 5 billion yuan (735 million dollars) in the project, which will include new primary schools, clinics, offices and "other public service infrastructure", the agency said.