Beijing - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Monday said the purchase of Dresdner Bank by Commerzbank, in the face of competition from a Chinese bank, would be "good for Germany."

"This is good for Germany as a financial location and strengthens the financial centre," Steinbrueck said in a statement issued in Beijing, where he met top Chinese officials on Monday.

Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen said his government had used "no political influence" over the sale by Germany's Allianz of Dresdner Bank for 9.8 billion euros

Beijing - Shares on China's main stock market lost more than 3 per cent of their value Monday, following similar falls in other Asian markets.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currency, lost 72.23 points to end the day at 2,325.14, down 3.01 per cent.

New Delhi, Sep. 1 : Experts have said that China is concerned, if not annoyed with India’s plans to have a fleet of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines in the next decade and recently tested nuclear-capable missiles that put China''s major cities well within range.

New Delhi’s decision to reopen air force bases near the Chinese border has also invited negative reactions from officials in Beijing, they claim.

London, September 1 : The May 12 earthquake in Sichuan, China, that claimed the lives of more than 65,000 people, has forced geologists to think that similar regions may also be in danger and that seismic hazard maps should be redrawn as a result.

According to a report in New Scientist, a coalition of geologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Sichuan, is thinking to redraw the seismic hazard maps.

Using historical, geological and GPS records, the scientists modelled movements in the Earth''s crust that led to the quake.

Hambantota (Sri Lanka), Sep. 1: India and China are reportedly competing to gain a commercial and strategic edge in the busy sea lanes of the Indian Ocen, even as China has secured the Sri Lankan Government’s approval to build a new port in southern Hambantota.

Foreign news agency reports claim that once the port is completed, it could serve as an ideal point for international competition over energy supply routes that fuel much of the global economy.