New Delhi, Oct. 20 : India''s "Look East Policy" came in for severe criticism from South East Asia experts while discussing Asian security architecture here today.

Initiating the discussion on "Regional Security Architecture in Asia: Role of CSCAP in ARF Track 2 Process" at Observer Research Foundation, Professor Tony Milner, a prominent member of Australia''s Foreign Affairs Council, said India could have done "much better" while "deep changes are on the way" in the region where the security architecture in a messy situation. He opined that India''s soft power could have been used for better results.

Hong Kong - Banks in Hong Kong, China and Macau have been asked to help finance construction of a 37-billion-Hong-Kong-dollar (4.74-billion-US-dollar) bridge across the Pearl River estuary, government officials said Monday.

The institutions, including some of the region's largest financial players including HSBC, Standard Chartered and the Bank of China, have been approached to see if they are willing to partially bankroll the 35-kilometre-long link.

Beijing/Khartoum  - Nine Chinese oil workers have been kidnapped by an unknown group in Sudan, state media said on Monday.

The nine workers were seized at an oil field in Southern Kordofan State close to Sudan`s strife-torn Darfur region, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese embassy officials as saying.

No group has claimed responsibility for kidnapping the workers, who were employees of the China National Petroleum Corporation, the agency reported from Khartoum.

Beijing/Khartoum - Nine Chinese oil workers have been kidnapped by an unknown group in Sudan, state media said on Monday.

Beijing - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Monday toured a "special economic zone" in the southern island province of Hainan as he began a six-day visit to China.

Members of the 70-strong Vietnamese business delegation travelling with Nguyen wanted to learn from China's experience in developing its special economic zones, the official Xinhua news agency reported from Hainan.

China developed the economic zones from the 1980s as insulated coastal areas designed to attract foreign capital and pilot the opening of the economy.

Nguyen visited Hainan's Yangpu economic zone on Monday and will attend a Sino-Vietnamese economic cooperation forum on Tuesday, the agency said.

London, Oct. 20 : Emerging economic powerhouses India and China will be most reluctant support the wider global economy during its downturn phase, as Deutsche Bank survey has warned.

The warning comes as world leaders have agreed to hold a “Bretton Woods (type) meeting for the 21st century” in New York to assess the global economy’s health.

The Deutsche Bank also warned that major industrialised economies will suffer the worst slump since the 1930s, and added that Britain will be more vulnerable than the United States.