China will phase out battery-powered electric bikes that exceed national speed and weight restrictions -- even as Beijing seeks to reduce pollution and ease chronic traffic jams in major cities.

Electric bikes must not weigh more than 40 kilos (88 pounds) or travel faster than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) per hour, four government agencies said Tuesday.

French wine and spirits group Remy Cointreau said Tuesday it had sold its Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck champagne business to EPI for 412.2 million Euros ($590 million).

Remy Cointreau said the sale also includes the Piper-Heidsieck and Piper Sonoma brands in the United States as well as debt of some 240 million Euros.

EU capitals now consider the appointment of French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as the next head of the IMF is a done deal, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed her candidacy, a European official told Agence France Presse at the G8 summit.

"Lagarde? It's done," the senior source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as the decision depends on the IMF and not on EU or G8 leaders.

The British embassy has raised funds totaling $18,000 for two Lebanese non-governmental organizations during its ‘Royal Wedding Gala charity Lunch’ hosted on April 29, the embassy said in a statement Monday.

To present these funds, British Ambassador Frances Guy hosted a reception at her residence, in the presence of representatives of the two charities, and the event sponsors, the statement said.

Banking giant HSBC said Monday it was thinking of introducing Islamic financial services in Australia where the government is keen to use such offerings to grow as a regional finance hub.

"We are a major player in Islamic finance globally and that's an area that we are keeping an eye on," HSBC Bank Australia chief executive officer Paulo Maia told Dow Jones Newswires. "It could be the next one."

The European Union and Japan said Saturday they had agreed to work towards a multi-billion-euro free trade deal linking the world's third biggest economy to the globe's largest market.

A statement issued after a Japan-EU summit said leaders "agreed to start the process" for "negotiations for a deep and comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA)/Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), addressing all issues of shared interest to both sides.”

Nearly a quarter of the Tunisian population is living below the poverty line and some 700,000 people are unemployed, according to figures by the social affairs ministry on Saturday.

Some 24.7 percent of the North African country's 10.4 million population live off less than two dollars a day, the international poverty threshold, said figures quoted on the official TAP news agency.

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly attended the commencement of the second phase of the Lebanon Investment in Microfinance (LIM) on Thursday.

A $12 million U.S. funded program, LIM provides loans to small businesses, farmers and others so that they can grow their own businesses and create jobs.

HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale are among a number of banks holding $53 billion (37 billion euros) of Libyan state assets, documents leaked to an NGO revealed on Thursday.

Global Witness said that on June 30, 2010, HSBC held $292.69 million across 10 accounts and Goldman Sachs had $43 million in three accounts, in various currencies.

Ferrari launched its first dealership in India on Thursday, seven years after it entered China but with the same aim of satisfying demand for flashy cars from the growing class of Asia's super-rich.

The full range of sports cars from the Italian manufacturer will be on sale, with the cheapest model, the California, priced at 22 million rupees (485,000 US dollars) after punitive import tariffs of more than 100 percent are applied.