'Fraud' foiled

AN ATTEMPTED dollars 10bn ( pounds 6.5bn) fraud involving officials at a leading Chinese state bank, a New York-based company and a fictitious Russian bank has been uncovered, the China Daily reports. The newspaper says officials at a provincial branch of the Agricultural Bank of China agreed to process a dollars 10bn letter of credit on behalf of United Asia Corp of New York in the name of the National Republic Bank of Russia. But the attempt was foiled after the Agricultural Bank's head office found the Russian bank did not exist.