BRUSSELS, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Shareholders in Belgian-Brazilian brewery giant InBev on Monday approved the planned takeover of US rival Anheuser-Busch.

An extraordinary general meeting of the world's biggest brewer backed the 52 billion dollar (33 billion euro) bid, which required the support of shareholders representing at least 75 percent of Inbev's total equity.

SHANGHAI, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - China's biggest beer maker Tsingtao Brewery said Wednesday it would own a Shanghai brewery outright after agreeing to buy the 25 percent stake in the firm held by Denmark's Carlsberg.

Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant said on Thursday it raised second-quarter net earnings by 8.6 ...

Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant said Thursday it had managed to post an 8.6 percent rise in second ...

LONDON, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - A pint of beer may be an official 'Icon of England', but sales have sunk to the lowest level in Britain since the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to figures released on Monday.

MELBOURNE, July 16, 2008 (AFP) - Australia's largest brewer has launched a super premium lager with a price tag you'd expect to find on a bottle of wine, saying it wants to take the nation's love of a cold beer to a new level.

MUNICH, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - China, already the world's top beer-producing country, has boosted its market dominance, according to a German study released Tuesday.

The world's most populous country produced 22.0 percent of the global beer supply last year, versus 20.6 percent the year before, the study commissioned by German hop trader Joh. Barth and Sohn showed.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2008 (AFP) - US brewing giant Anheuser-Busch filed suit to block a hostile takeover by InBev, claiming the Belgian-based rival used 'illegal' and 'deceptive' conduct, court documents showed Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2008 (AFP) - Anheuser-Busch dug in its heels Monday in the face of a move by Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev to oust the board of the leading US beermaker as part of a hostile takeover bid.

NEW YORK, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - US beer giant Anheuser-Busch said Monday a move by Belgian-Brazilian rival InBev to oust the board of the American group was a 'self-serving' effort that failed to alter an inadequate takeover bid.

BRUSSELS, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev raised the stakes Monday in its takeover battle for Anheuser-Busch by lauching legal action to oust the board of the US brewer.

BRUSSELS, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev stood by its takeover offer for Anheuser-Busch on Tuesday after being turned down last week, but left the door open for a hostile bid.

SALMON, Idaho, May 25, 2008 (AFP) - Like apple pie and baseball, beer has achieved favored status in the lexicon of American traditions, with US sales of the drink outstripping purchases of liquor and wine by billions of dollars.

BRUSSELS, May 23, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant Inbev is preparing a 46-billion-dollar bid for Anheuser-Busch, US maker of Budweiser beer, the Financial Times website reported Friday.

The deal would create a close to 100 billion dollar business in the most ambitious act of corporate consolidation since the start of last year's credit crunch shook the markets.

SYDNEY, May 13, 2008 (AFP) - An Australian driver has been fined for putting a seatbelt around a carton of beer instead of a five-year-old passenger, police said Tuesday.

Constable Wayne Burnett told reporters he was 'shocked and appalled' to discover the driver's priorities when he pulled a sedan over on the Ross Highway south of the desert town of Alice Springs.

BRUSSELS, May 8, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev reported on Thursday a 'difficult start' to 2008 with first quarter profit falling unexpectedly 11 percent in the face of soaring raw material costs.

COPENHAGEN, May 7, 2008 (AFP) - Danish brewer Carlsberg, which together with Heineken acquired rival Scottish and Newcastle (S&N) earlier this year, posted Wednesday a first-quarter loss, surprising the market which had expected to see a profit.

BRUSSELS, April 3, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission approved on Thursday Dutch brewer Heineken's purchase of Scottish and Newcastle's businesses in Belgium, Britain, Finland and Portugal.

However, it referred Heineken's purchase of Scottish and Newcastle's assets in Ireland to competition authorities in the country following a request from them to review the deal.

BRUSSELS, March 7, 2008 (AFP) - EU competition regulators approved on Friday Danish brewer Carlsberg's purchase of some of the assets of British rival Scottish and Newcastle.

'After examining the operation, the (European) Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede competition,' Europe's top antitrust watchdog said in statement.

BRUSSELS, Feb 28, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev reported on Thursday a better-than-expected profit in 2007, while warning that the group could face tougher times this year.

AMSTERDAM, Feb 20, 2008 (AFP) - Dutch brewer Heineken reported on Wednesday that net profit last year slumped by 33.4 percent owing to extra costs in contrast to exceptional gains in 2006, and said costs were pushing up its beer prices.

Net profit amounted to 807 million euros (1.187 billion dollars) from 1.211 billion euros the previous year.

COPENHAGEN, Feb 19, 2008 (AFP) - Danish brewer Carlsberg on Tuesday announced a 22-percent rise in net profit in 2007 to 2.29 billion kroner (308 million euros, 454 million dollars) and said it was optimistic about 2008.

Operating profit soared by 30 percent to 5.26 billion kroner, while sales climbed by 8.9 percent to 44.75 billion from 41.08 billion a year earlier.

COPENHAGEN, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - Danish brewer Carlsberg has developed a special 'grand cru' beer that sells for 2,008 kroner (270 euros, 400 dollars) a bottle and features an original lithograph on the label, it said on Friday.

FRANKFURT, Jan 29, 2008 (AFP) - Germans, fiercely proud of their beer drinking prowess and traditions, are drinking less and less of the brew, continuing a trend established over the past several years, official figures showed Tuesday.

LONDON, Nov 20, 2007 (AFP) - Sales of beer in Britain have dropped to the lowest levels since the 1930s, brewers said Tuesday, as the country turns increasingly to wine and spirits.

The number of pints per day sold in British pubs peaked in 1979, but has slumped by 22 percent -- or seven million pints -- since then, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

BRUSSELS, Nov 8, 2007 (AFP) - InBev, the world's largest brewer by volume, reported weaker-than-expected profit for the third quarter Thursday on rising raw material costs, sparking an 11 percent fall in its shares.

COPENHAGEN, Nov 7, 2007 (AFP) - Danish brewer Carlsberg said Wednesday it posted a near 25 percent gain in third quarter net profit, keeping it on track to meet 2007 targets as sales in all regions except Asia rose.

COPENHAGEN, Nov 7, 2007 (AFP) - Danish brewer Carlsberg said Wednesday it posted a near 25 percent gain in third quarter net profit, keeping it on track to meet 2007 targets as sales in all regions except Asia rose.

SYDNEY, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - A cold glass of beer is about to become more expensive in much of Australia, after prolonged drought wiped out much of the winter barley crop.

The price of other staples such as meat and bread will also rise by as much as 10 percent, New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said.

After little or no rain in September, almost 80 percent of New South Wales state is now in a state of drought, compared with 71 percent last month.

PARIS, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - It may be the longest hangover in the history of binge beer drinking.

When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow, Scotland last October complaining of 'wavy' vision and a non-stop headache that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British journal The Lancet reported Friday.

MUNICH, Germany, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - Munich opened the beer taps on Saturday to launch Oktoberfest, with an estimated six million people expected to attend the beer celebration over 16 days.

Munich Mayor Christian Ude ordered the tapping of the first beer barrel, the ritual kick-off for the 174th edition of the party.

The festivities are held at Theresienwiese, a 31-hectare (12.4 acre) park with 14 large tents where drinkers, many wearing traditional Bavarian costumes, take their spots at long wooden tables.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - Danish brewing company Carlsberg said on Tuesday it was creating a joint venture with Vietnamese state brewing company Hanoi Beer & Beverage Corporation (Habeco) to build a new brewery in the south of the country.

Carlsberg and Habeco will each hold 29 percent of the joint venture, while other unnamed external investors will hold the rest, Carlsberg said in a statement.

The brewery will be called the Hanoi Vung Tau Joint Stock Company and will have 500,000 hectolitre capacity, it said.

PRAGUE, Sept 2, 2007 (AFP) - The Czech Republic's last remaining brewery in state hands, Budejovicky Budvar, could be partially sold off with a strategic shareholder preferably brought in, the minister of agriculture said Sunday.

'We can perhaps sell a minority stake to a strategic investor or on the Prague stock exchange,' Petr Gandalovic said in a debate on Czech public television.

In the long term, Gandalovic said he believed a strategic investor should be brought in to run the country's third biggest brewer.

BRUSSELS, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev posted Thursday a better-than-expected 27 percent increase in second-quarter net profit, boosted by a strong performance in emerging market countries.

The brewer, which owns such brands as Stella Artois, Beck's and Brahma, booked a net profit of 499 million euros (681 million dollars) for the period from April through June, up from 394 million in the same period of 2006.

HARARE, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - Beer has joined the list of commodities fast running out in Zimbabwe, with the high demand for lager a sign of people hitting the bottle to drown economic hardships, a drinks company said Friday.

'We have witnessed an unprecedented demand for our lager beer products. Average sales are rising fast and approaching 300,000 litres per day,' George Mutendadzamera, general manager-corporate affairs of the country's biggest beverages producers, Delta Beverages, said in a statement.

PRAGUE, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - Czech breweries produced a record 9.92 million hectolitres in the first half of the year thanks to heavy demand caused by hot weather and strong exports, the Czech Beer and Malt Association announced on Friday.

The 3.9 percent rise in production puts producers on course to beat last year's total output of 19.7 million hectolitres, the best performance since the country was created in 1993.