Asian and European leaders urge world finance reform

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World leaders call for IMF help

Leaders from Asia and Europe have ended a summit in Beijing with a call for thorough reforms in the global financial system.

The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said lessons needed to be drawn from the current crisis, and that financial regulation was more important than financial innovation.

The forty-three nations also stressed that the International Monetary Fund should play a greater role in helping countries seriously affected by the global crisis.

The European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the countries which represent more than half of the world's economy would be working together to prepare for the conference that'll discuss the financial crisis in Washington in three weeks' time.

Palestinian forces deploy in Hebron

	Troops are to patrol Palestinian-inhabited areas only

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has deployed more than five-hundred security officers in the city of Hebron, in an operation aimed at expanding his control over the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian local security chief said his forces were there to impose law and order but Israeli security officials, who approved the deployment, said the intention was to strengthen Mr Abbas against the rival Hamas movement.

A Hamas spokesman accused Mr Abbas's forces of co-operating with the Israeli occupation, and trying to liquidate Hamas and what he called the resistance.

Noodle sabotage fears in Japan

	Instant noodles are hugely popular in Japan

A leading Japanese food manufacturer has found insecticide in one of its best selling products, the second company to be hit in two days.

Nissin, which invented the instant noodle fifty years ago, recalled half-a-million cups of the product on Friday after a customer fell ill.

Another big food company, Myojo, now says it too has found insect repellent in its noodles.

Nissin says the noodles could not have been contaminated at any of the company's factories, leading to fears that the products are being targeted by a saboteur.

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