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Typhoon Nuri continued to intensify as it maintained its course towards south China on Wednesday, according to the meteorological station in southeast China’s Fujian Province.

The eye of Nuri, the twelfth tropical storm this year, was 700 kilometers south of Xiamen City at 8 a.m., packing winds of up to force-13, or 144 kilometers per hour, in the center, said the station.

Nuri was moving towards southeastern coastal areas at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, and would enter the South China Sea on Thursday.

Fujian’s seashores were hit by gusts of up to force 8 (51 kilometers per hour) on Wednesday morning. The observatory forecast heavy rain in most areas in the province in the next two days.

Fujian and neighboring Guangdong Province in south China had been dominated by lingering heat with temperatures rising to 37 degree Celsius. The observatories expected the impending typhoon to cool the air.

The meteorological station in Guangdong forecast heavy rain in the eastern part of the province from Friday to Saturday.

The Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday night issued an urgent notice requiring fishery and agricultural departments in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangxi and Guangdong, to keep the public informed and help fishing vessels avoid risks.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Sunday during his visit to Baghdad that it was the right time for the two countries to promote bilateral ties.

“We feel that it is the proper time to visit Iraq and go deeper into better relations between Iraq and Egypt,” Abul Gheit told reporters after holding talks with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari.

The two sides have agreed to reopen the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad, Abul Gheit said, adding that he had visited several locations to select a suitable one for the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad.

For his part, Zebari said that both countries could benefit from strong ties and that Egypt could help Iraq to develop its infrastructure.

“We can both make advantage from our better relations and Egypt can also take part in helping us in rebuilding infrastructure and agriculture,” Zebari told a joint news conference together with Abul Gheit.

Meanwhile, Abul Gheit revealed that Egyptian Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi, who accompanied him, had met with Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, and both sides agreed on enhancing cooperation in the fields of oil and gas.

The landmark visit is a sign that Arab nations are trying to restore normal ties with Iraq after over five years of U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

In July 2005, an Egyptian top diplomat Ihab al-Sherif was kidnapped and killed by suspected al-Qaida militants in an attempt to prevent Arab and Islamic countries from holding diplomatic ties with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Iraq has been urging world countries to establish ties with it, particularly calling on the Arab world to name their ambassadors and open their embassies in Baghdad.

Sunni Arab countries had been reluctant to restore close ties because of the ongoing warfare, and have been cool to the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.

The United States repeatedly encouraged Arab allies to strengthen their ties with Iraq as a way of countering the growing influence of Iran and reinforcing its Arab identity.

When the government offered an emergency loan to insurer American International Group in September, eyebrows shot up at the $85 billion price tag. Now it looks like pocket change.

The size of the AIG lifeline swelled to more than $150 billion on Monday, a record for a private company. But the head of the broader financial rescue package was cool to other companies reaching for a piece of the bailout pie.

The new AIG package includes a $40 billion chunk of the $700 billion financial bailout. It’s the first time money from the big rescue bill has gone to any company other than a bank.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, burning through cash and bleeding jobs, are prodding the government for more help. The leaders of the House and Senate have urged Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to get some of the $700 billion to the Big Three.

The automakers, covering all their options, are also pushing to get help as part of a new, multibillion-dollar stimulus package for the economy if Democrats push it through Congress when a lame-duck session convenes next week.

President-elect Barack Obama has said his transition team would explore options to provide relief to the auto industry, and President Bush’s press secretary said Monday the White House would “listen to” Congress if they try to help automakers.

Any money would be on top of the $25 billion in loans that Congress passed in September to help retool auto plants to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Neel Kashkari, the interim head of the $700 billion bailout program, was cool to the idea of funneling the money to companies beyond banks and AIG.

“This morning’s action with AIG was a one-off event necessary for financial stability. It is not the establishment of a new program,” he said at a financial conference in New York.

In a separate development late Monday, the Fed granted the request of credit card company American Express Co. to become a bank holding company.

Although the new status will subject the company to greater regulatory scrutiny, American Express will also gain access to the Fed’s emergency lending program. The company, which last month announced plans to slash its global work force, has been hard hit by the credit crisis as even the more affluent consumers the company caters to struggle to pay off their debts.

The original Fed loan to AIG was $85 billion, and the Fed added a $38 billion loan in October. But that has not been enough to firm up the company, which is so big and interconnected to other firms that its failure would devastate the economy.

Under the new plan, the Fed will provide $60 billion in loans. The Treasury will provide $40 billion to buy up preferred stock. And the government will spend close to $53 billion to buy up mortgage-backed assets and other AIG contracts on debt.

Total package: $153 billion. And AIG has also taken advantage of a federal plan to buy up short-term debt routinely issued by companies, known as commercial paper.

The $40 billion going to AIG will buy preferred shares of company stock, giving taxpayers an ownership stake. In turn, restrictions will be placed on executive pay at the firm.

The Fed stepped in with an $85 billion loan in September because the company is so big — linked to mutual funds and retirement products held by millions of Americans, not to mention ties to U.S. mortgages — that its failure would have devastated the economy.

“The bailout continues, and essentially exemplifies the notion of `too big to fail,’ said Anthony Sabino, a professor of law and business at St. John’s University. “But the question must be asked: Where does it end?”

AIG also came under fire for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a California retreat just days after the Fed loan was announced in September.

In other bailout news Monday, mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said it may have to tap a $100 billion government lifeline as early as next year after posting a massive third-quarter loss.

Fannie Mae, seized by federal regulators more than two months ago, posted a staggering loss of $13 per share for the July-to-September quarter, compared with a loss $1.56 a share, for the same period last year.

The company’s net worth — what it owns minus what it owes — fell to $9.4 billion at the end of September, from $44.1 billion at the end of last year. If that number turns negative, Fannie Mae said it would be required to tap Treasury for help.

The new package for AIG was unveiled as the insurer issued new, bleak quarterly results. It lost $24.5 billion in the third quarter after turning a $3.1 billion profit in the third quarter of 2007.

Under the restructuring, AIG also gets easier terms on the Fed loans, reducing the risk AIG will have to sell off assets at firesale prices to pay back the government.

“This is a very big deal for AIG. It essentially plugs two of the biggest holes that the company had,” said Rob Haines, analyst at CreditSights.

Fed officials expressed confidence the money would eventually be repaid to taxpayers, and presidential press secretary Dana Perino said it would also be good for the fragile U.S. economy.

The federal help “will allow AIG to continue to restructure themselves in a way that will not hurt the overall economy. AIG is a large, interconnected firm,” she said.

AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy called the plan a “win-win.”

“It sends a strong signal to our policy holders, to government, to regulators around the world, to our business partners and counterparts that AIG is in fact on the road to recovery,” he said.

Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the current Bangladeshi caretaker government, will wrap up his two-year rule early next month after the parliament elections and establishment of a new elected government.

Ahmed, 68, a former governor of Bangladesh Bank (2001-05), assumed the office of the chief adviser (equivalent to prime minister) of the caretaker government on Jan. 12, 2007 at a critical juncture of the nation with a prime task to put an end to political anarchy that had threatened to sweep the troubled nation and hold free and fair parliament elections.

Just before he took over, the political turmoil over an abortive parliament election supposed to be held on Jan. 22, 2007 engulfed the entire country until President Iajuddin Ahmed promulgated the State of Emergency on Jan. 11, 2007 to cool down the volatile situation.

According to the country’s Constitution, a caretaker government is supposed to be in power for three months to hold the elections but the political reality on the ground extended the caretaker government headed by Ahmed for two years.

The caretaker government strengthened the Anti-Corruption Commission. For a country widely perceived as one of the world’s most corrupt, the most dramatic aspect of Ahmed’s rule is his anti graft campaign.

More than 160 senior politicians, top civil servants and business magnets were arrested on suspicion of graft and other economic crimes.

The anti corruption campaign had also netted former ministers from the two main political parties of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League, including former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.

The arrest of suspected corrupt politicians and businessmen brought laurels for Ahmed from home and abroad to clean up the corrupt politics.

But, the people in general were apparently disappointed when they saw both the ex-prime ministers and their party heavy weights were released on court bails ahead of the Parliament elections.

Ahmed’s caretaker government is seen as reformist government for bringing about dozens of major reforms in the judiciary, administration and financial sectors.

Since he rules the country mainly under state of emergency which was lifted on Dec. 17, 2008, law and order situation is better and calm prevailed in political arena.

One of the striking features of Ahmed’s rule is that he finally separated the judiciary from the executive control, a long-cherished aspiration of the people.

In the past many political governments made pledges but did not do it at the end because the political governments tried to influence the judiciary, particularly the lower judiciary in the way of appointment, promotion and transfer of judges.

Ahmed’s caretaker government set up a Regulatory Reforms Commission and separated the Election Commission from the control of the Prime Minister’s office.

Preparation of a digital voter list of more than 81 million voters and national Identity Cards with the help of the army and donor countries within a short period are seen as a milestone of his rule.

Ahmed’s caretaker government strongly handled the issue of terrorism and hanged to death nearly a dozen top leaders of banned Islamic outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) responsible for simultaneous bomb explosion in the country’s 63 out of 64 districts on Aug. 17, 2005.

The caretaker government successfully tackled the aftermath of two successive floods and Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and earned fame.

The Bangladesh army played an important role in facing the challenges posed by the natural disasters.

Although Ahmed has many success stories to his credit, but his government is blamed for unprecedented price-hike of rice and other essential items and economic slowdown.

Ahmed took over power with huge popular support but steps down with declining popularity because of price-hike, unemployment and absence of development activities.

The caretaker government had to import rice and open fair prices hops to stabilize the price. Business was markedly slowed down due to anti-corruption drive. Foreign investment also came down as overseas investors have been waiting for an elected government to run the country.

With only one day before the long-waited 9th Parliamentary election, the two-year rule of the caretaker government is coming to an end. Since taking office, the caretaker government has been promising to organize a fair and free election, now it is the time to see.

The church at Curahuara de Carangas, Bolivia is a long way from the grandeur of the Vatican. It sits on the lonely plateau close to Chile’s border, 120 miles south of La Paz.

It’s a place where llamas graze, where the air is cold, arid and thin. That cool, dry air has kept murals inside the 400-year-old church in nearly mint condition.

This ‘Andean Sistine Chapel’ is a colorful fusion of Renaissance and Baroque painting, mixing indigenous beliefs and sensibilities to create a style known as ‘mestizo baroque’.

Father Gabriel Antequera:

SOUNDBITE: Father Gabriel Antequera, saying (Spanish):

“The good condition of the paintings is because of the geographic location of the church. It’s a cold place. There’s no humidity and very little natural light gets in. You can see that in this section next to the door, the color is losing intensity compared to what is in the baptismal room where not much light gets in.”

Among the churches’ treasures are intricately stitched priests’ robes once used for saying mass in Latin.

Although the mastery of Michelangelo’s brush is missing, the murals, painted by four artists from Peru, tell a different story than those of the Sistine Chapel.

They show the Catholics’ efforts to convert indigenous people, either by baptism by water or blood, and a stark image of hell shows a clawed demon herding nude and chained subjects into a flaming dragon’s mouth.

These images were meant to clearly spell out the Catholic’s message for local Indians even if they couldn’t read the Bible.

Now the priest wants to ensure that all this is preserved.

The German embassy in the Bolivia recently donated $35,000 for restoration efforts.

It seems Katie Holmes is someone Victoria Beckham can rely on when she needs a friend to look after her children at the last minute.

After reportedly falling out with her mother-in-law over babysitting arrangements, it was Katie Holmes’ turn to take charge yesterday.

The actress was seen out and about in Los Angeles with two-year-old daughter Suri and Victoria and David’s youngest two boys, Cruz, four, and Romeo, six, MailOnline reported.

Along with another helper, thought to be a nanny for the Beckhams, they all ventured out in Santa Monica to go to The Children’s Arts Studio.

Suri looked cute as she held Katie’s hand, dressed in a blue-spotted dress and red-striped cardigan, complete with her favourite accessorry - a cuddly toy.

Meanwhile Cruz and Romeo cut a cool look in jeans and shirts and looked excited as they headed into the centre.

Perhaps Victoria had asked Katie to babysit as a favour after falling out with her mother-in-law Sandra recently.

The fashion designer was reportedly forced to rush back from Milan last week, where David is on loan to A.C. Milan, after her mother-in-law Sandra decided she wanted to go home to London.

Sandra was babysitting her three grandchildren, including Brooklyn, 10, while Victoria was househunting in Milan.

But a source revealed: ‘Victoria had been househunting in Milan, but then Sandra decided she wanted to be at her daughter’s birthday, so Victoria had to fly back early. Sandra and Victoria had a row.’

After looking gaunt and tired recently following a punishing detox diet, Katie is said to have undergone a £30,000 makeover during a recent trip to Tokyo.

She reportedly spent just under 48 hours camped out at the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo for intensive pampering sessions by a team of beauty experts.

Among the purchases were hair extensions, spa treatments and tooth veneers.

If you dream of being one of those wacky people who illuminate parties with comedy magic tricks and hilarious pranks, the bizarre Dream & Dragon, a block west of Yugong Yishan, might be for you.

This little shop, co-owned by Harry Potter (he swears it’s his real name), is filled with an intriguing and quite random selection of stuff, from magic cards (25-85RMB) to handkerchiefs from which flowers miraculously blossom (35RMB), plus a cool game where you draw a track with a magic pen, which is then followed by a trippy selection of plastic turtles and shells

Prince Harry reminded New Yorkers on Saturday how much his mother had loved their city, then climbed onto a pony for a rousing game of polo to raise money for impoverished children in Africa.

On a brilliantly sunny day on Governors Island in New York Harbor, the 24-year-old prince drew a crowd that included stars like Madonna, actresses Kate Hudson and Chloe Sevigny, and rapper LL Cool J, but also lots of ordinary New Yorkers out for a rare sight: a polo game in the city.

“You see this out in the Hamptons, but not so much in the city,” said Vincent Hodgins of Manhattan, who brought his two sons to watch the prince play.

The Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic was a fundraiser for Sentebale, the charity that Harry has set up with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help poor children and AIDS orphans in that small African nation surrounded by South Africa.

“Prince Seeiso and I both lost our mothers when we were very young,” Harry said in brief remarks before the match. “We set up Sentebale in their memory, and because my mother loved this city, it makes this occasion all the more poignant for me.”

His team, named after the charity, proceeded to defeat the opposing Black Watch team 6-5. Harry assisted on the winning goal in the last seconds, drawing the biggest cheer of the afternoon. Both teams included prominent polo stars like Argentine Nacho Figueras, also a Ralph Lauren model, who played for Black Watch.

It was the second and final day of Harry’s first official visit to the United States, which began with a sober visit Friday to the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. On Saturday morning, the prince toured Harlem’s Children Zone, a community organization that offers families social and educational services. He and Prince Seeiso chatted with students working preparing for a Regents Exam.

“Who’s the best pupil?” Harry asked the ninth-graders. “I was always the worst!”

Harry, the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, is third in line to the British throne, after his father and older brother, William. He’s been dubbed the “party prince,” and his New York trip seemed designed partly to counter that image with a focus on his charity work.

“I won’t bore you with statistics, but please believe me when I say that Lesotho is a mere microcosm of what is so wonderful, but also so tragic about Africa today,” he said before the match, reading from notes. “This beautiful kingdom has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS and poverty, leaving thousands of children without their parents.”

The event was free to the public, but guests in the VIP tent on the opposite side of the field had paid from $50,000 a table down to $500 a head to picnic on the lawn. In true polo-watching fashion, there were more hats than at an Easter parade; for the women, they were topped by flowers, feathers and even butterflies climbing up a wire trellis.

Harry, though, was casual before the match in a navy blue blazer, open-collared shirt and white jeans, and loafers. And Madonna, accompanied by her sons, Rocco and David, was positively dressed down: She wore jeans and a denim jacket as she chatted with designer Marc Jacobs.

In the bleachers, Mike Hallman, visiting the city from North Carolina enjoyed the match with his family. “My kids have never seen polo before,” he said. Added his 9-year-old son, Jason: “It’s pretty exciting. I have never seen a prince.”

Another spectator who’d never seen a polo match was LL Cool J.

“Hopefully, it’ll be quite good,” Harry told the singer during the reception.

“Are you going to win?” LL Cool J asked. “Mmmm. I don’t know. Hopefully it’s fixed,” joked Harry.

The prince also said his visit had been “wonderful.”

“It’s been a whirlwind,” he told The Associated Press. “I haven’t had a chance to let the jet lag set in, and it’s time to go already.”

But his trip wasn’t over after the match: Leaving Governors Island, the prince took a Coast Guard cutter up the Hudson River for an unannounced visit to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Manhattan’s west side.

He inspected the World War II aircraft carrier and checked out the cockpit of a retired British Airways Concorde jet. Museum president Bill White said the staff presented the prince with a section of the 1943 carrier’s original wooden flight deck. Also present was a British Marine commando, Joe Townsend, who lost both legs while on duty in Afghanistan.

The prince’s visit began Friday morning with a prayerful stop at ground zero. There, he spent about 15 minutes quietly speaking to a half-dozen relatives of 9/11 victims.

Harry then attached a wreath to a chain-link fence overlooking the Sept. 11 memorial under construction, bowing his head in silence for a few minutes. He also visited the firehouse across the street that houses Engine 10 and Ladder 10, which lost five members on Sept. 11, talking and laughing with firefighters there.

Later Friday, Harry formally named the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square downtown to honor the 67 British victims of the terrorist attack. He also visited Manhattan’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center, touring a clinic that treats veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and the prosthetics facilities.

China is still on high temperature alert Thursday, as the heat wave that has hit many northern and western parts continued.

Temperatures remained above 35 degrees Celsius as the National Meteorological Center (NMC) maintained the second highest alert level Thursday morning, after issuing the alert at Wednesday noon. The NMC said the heat was expected to ease Sunday.

The second highest alter level, or the orange alert, means the maximum temperature will rise above 37 degree Celsius in 24 hours.

The maximum temperature would be more than 37 degree Celsius in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, most parts of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan, and some parts in Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui and Xinjiang in the west, meteorologists said.

The temperature would hit a high of 40 degree Celsius in some parts of the above regions, including the southern parts of Beijing.

The maximum temperature was read at 39.6 degree Celsius at an observatory in the southern suburb of Beijing on Wednesday, to top previous records and become the highest ever.

The city also reported this year’s new high of daily electricity load Wednesday, at 11.84 million kw, up nearly 20 percent from a year ago.

He Lifu, NMC’s chief forecaster, said such extreme cases of continuous high temperature in north China would persist before cold air arrives on Sunday.

NMC’s He explained that such high temperature in the north was a result of both a lack of rain and sustained sunshine that increased evaporation, which led to higher temperature in the near-earth atmosphere.

He played down the impact of such high temperatures on power and water consumption of residents who seek to cool themselves, and added that no severe impact was expected as such hot weather would not last long.

China Construction Bank (CCB), the country’s third-largest lender, said its net profits increased in the third quarter.

According to a release posted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s website Friday night, CCB’s net profits grew 11.95 percent to 25.6 billion yuan (3.74 billion U.S. dollars) from July-September.

Net interest income rose 14 percent to 57.1 billion yuan in the third quarter. Net earnings were 0.11 yuan per share, based on domestic accounting standards. That’s up 10 percent from the same period last year, the release said.

From Jan. to Sept., the lender’s net interest income totaled 168.2 billion yuan, up 20.73 percent year on year. The amount of bad loans, in the same period, was 6.63 billion yuan less than the end of last year. CCB’s total amount of bad loans currently is 78.54 billion yuan.

At the end of September, the lender held subprime mortgage securities valued at 244 million U.S. dollars, according to the release. It also had 191 million U.S. dollars in bonds issued by Lehman Brothers and 1.51 billion U.S. dollars in bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The government’s latest tax initiatives, which exempt first time property buyers from paying the stamp tax, helped buoy the country’s cooling real estate sector.

China also lowered the down payment from 30 to 20 percent for first time home buyers which strengthened the property market.

Analysts said these adjustments boosted CCB’s profitability as it is the nation’s leading mortgage lender.