Brussels - The European Union, China and the United States said Monday they were committed to creating common safety standards for toys and other consumer products.

While "we may come from different angles" on safety, "we are moving in the same direction," said Meglena Kuneva, the EU's consumer protection commissioner, after a meeting in Brussels with top consumer protection officials from the US and China.

"If we speak with one voice... industry will listen," said Nancy Nord, head of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Hong Kong - Banking giant HSBC axed 450 jobs in Hong Kong Monday because of the impact of the global financial crisis, a government-run radio station reported.

The bank blamed the cuts among the 20,000-strong Hong Kong workforce on the deteriorating global economy and a pessimistic outlook for 2009, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

Both front and back office staff have been affected by the job cuts, the radio station said.

Beijing - A small cave-in and surface cracks preceded the collapse of a road into a subway tunnel in eastern China, but did not lead to the suspension of construction work, state media said on Monday.

Rescue workers were still removing the steel frame from the tunnel so that they would be able to dig for 14 people still missing since the collapse on Saturday in the city of Hangzhou, China Central Television said.

Hong Kong - Scores of office workers were evacuated from central Hong Kong Monday as police detonated a suspected Second World War bomb unearthed on a building site.

The bomb was discovered on the site of the new government headquarters next to Victoria Harbour on Hong Kong island on Monday morning, police said.

Bomb-disposal experts were called in, the site was cordoned off and a section of the busy harbour-side road closed down while the detonation took place. No one was injured.

Hong Kong was heavily bombed throughout World War II as British and Japanese armies battled for control of the strategically located former colony.

Brussels - The European Commission and China agreed Monday to beef up controls on potentially dangerous Chinese products and foods exported to the European Union.

The deal follows a major scandal involving contaminated milk powder that left at least four infants dead and 53,000 others hospitalized in China.

China will now be obliged to inform the European Union about what it is doing to track down dangerous goods.

In return, Chinese officials will be given access to the EU's Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF), where controlling authorities can exchange information about what measures are being taken to ensure food safety.

Beijing - A flood trapped up to 34 people in a shaft at a coal mine in central China's Henan province on Monday, the government said.

Water flooded into the shaft at the Gaomendong mine in Henan's Jiaxian county, near the city of Pingdingshan, as 42 miners were underground at 7:20 am, the State Administration of Work Safety said.

The safety administration said 33 miners were trapped and nine escaped after the flood, but later state media reports said 34 people were still trapped underground.

The township-level mine was licensed to produce up to 60,000 tons of coal annually, the safety administration said.