China puts restrictions on investments in auto industry
Beijing: Extending controls already imposed in other sectors to cool off an economic boom that could spark a financial crisis, China has announced restrictions on investment in its auto industry. Under the new controls, automakers who want to expand their factories have to show that sales were more than 80 pc of last year's authorised output according to China's main planning agency, the National Reform and Development Commission. Auto sales are expected to grow 22 pc this year to 7 million vehicles and expand by 15 pc next year.

However national production was only 71.5 pc of capacity last year, leading to fears of a glut, the NDRC said on its Web site. It said China has more than 100 companies producing cars.

The world's major automakers have factories in China, including GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, Toyota and Nissan.
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Saddam Hussein to hang within 30-days: Iraqi appeals court
Baghdad: An Iraqi appeals court has upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence for crimes against humanity and said he should hang within 30 days.

Human rights groups condemned his trial as seriously flawed and called on the government not to carry out the sentence, which comes amid raging violence between Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ites. However, the White House said the court's decision was a "milestone" in replacing tyranny with rule of law.
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