Euroseas, () a drybulk shipper, agreed to buy 2 Handysize containerships for $18.7 mil each from an undisclosed seller. With the purchase, it now has 13 vessels in its fleet. Shares rose 3.5% to 14.26.

Xerox, () a maker of office machines, said its Global Imaging Systems unit bought Blackstone Valley Office Systems. Terms weren’t disclosed. It dipped 0.3% to 18.48.

Steel Dynamics, () a steel maker, said it is increasing its buyback by 5 mil shares. Shares rose 1% to 41.91.

Mattel, () the toy maker, obtained rights to Warner Bros.’ DC Universe comics portfolio, including Superman and Wonder Woman. It rose 0.4% to 25.29.

Millions of Muslims streamed into Arafat yesterday for the peak of this year’s Hajj. The pilgrims, who had made the short but chaotic journey from Mina, spent the day outside, upstanding in prayer and meditation despite the unforgiving heat.

Standing in prayer at Arafat is a compulsory ritual and carries great religious significance. The prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: “Hajj is Arafat”, indicating that a Muslim should be there in order for the Hajj to be complete. On the Day of Arafat, as it is known, Allah forgives the sins of those who seek his pardon and fulfills their prayers.

With so much at stake, road number six was soon teeming with buses, pedestrians, coaches and cars as pilgrims rushed to find a spot on its famous granite hill. Some of the keener pilgrims spent the night on the mountain, Jabal Al-Rahma or the Mount of Mercy, nestling in cracks between boulders. Peddlers lined the streets selling food and umbrellas - an essential for pilgrims who could not find shade in Namirah mosque.

As on so many other occasions, pilgrims quickly occupied every possible surface in time for the afternoon prayer, including rooftops, the top of toilet cubicles and the tops of trucks, their white-clad figures stretching back to the horizon. It was from the pulpit of Namirah mosque that the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia delivered a fiery sermon to a capacity crowd of more than two million, telling the congregation to hold fast to their faith.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh said: “If the ummah returns to its religion, no force in the world will be able to defeat it. The enemies have been targeting the ummah and its faith. They are aiming at its economy and are attempting to annex it to their economic system,” he warned. However, he added, Muslims had contributed to his by abandoning the fundamentals of their religion.

The sombre mood continued into the afternoon, with people crying and wailing as they begged for Allah’s forgiveness. For one Lebanese woman, Scheherezade, the throng and the heat was too much. “I walked miles to be on that mountain, but it is hard to be spiritual when there is so much pushing and shoving,” she said. “People are desperate to be on that hill. And it was hot, so hot and I didn’t have an umbrella and of course when I went to find one there were none to be found.”

As midnight approached, the pilgrims left Arafat for Muzdalifah, where they collected 70 pebbles for the following day’s “stoning the devil” ritual. The camps where they had stayed were abandoned, as if a swarm of locusts had lain waste to everything in sight.

ANTING, China: Automakers racing to find affordable ways to make cars environmentally sustainable are zeroing in on polluted, fuel-scarce China to help them take clean car concepts from the laboratory to the market.

Mounting alarm over global warming and soaring crude oil prices was evident among automakers showcasing their latest green technologies at the Challenge Bibendum, held this week in Shanghais “Auto City” - an automaking industrial zone west of the city.

At the 2004 Shanghai Bibendum, named after the puffy mascot of the sponsor, the French tire maker Michelin, the talk was all of phasing in various technologies over decades.

With crude oil prices near $100 a barrel, the talk is of moving ahead with all technologies as soon as possible, especially in China, where environmental crises and fuel shortages resulting from its embrace of the auto make it a microcosm of global trends.

“We used to talk about time frames of short-, mid-, long-term,” said Elizabeth Lowery, vice president for environment, energy and safety policy at General Motors. “Now all of them are in play to figure out what are the different options for the different markets.”

With its huge market and high velocity growth, China is critical to the effort to reduce dependence on petroleum and carbon dioxide emissions, Lowery said in an interview.

In both oil consumption and vehicle sales, China ranks second globally after the United States and is fast catching up. Vehicle sales jumped 25 percent last year to 7.2 million units, including trucks and buses.

Spurred by the countrys growing dependence on oil imports, the government made cleaner cars a priority in February 2006 as part of a broad range of efforts to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency.

It has promised grants and tax breaks to support industry efforts and recently issued rigorous standards for makers of alternative-fuel vehicles.

The urgent need for progress was evident outside the Bibendum venue, where a gray haze hung over the sleek concept cars whizzing around the parking lot.

Worldwide, carmakers are investing billions to develop more ecofriendly vehicles to meet stricter standards on auto emissions and fuel efficiency, helped by recent advances in battery and fuel cell technology.

Late last month, GM announced plans for a $250 million alternative-fuel research center in Shanghai.

Both Toyota and Honda produce hybrid vehicles, powered by electricity and gasoline, in China, and GM has said it plans to start selling a gasoline-electric hybrid here next year.

The challenge remains making the technologies affordable, and that hinges on raising production volumes to reduce manufacturing costs per vehicle. Automakers are looking to the double-digit growth in China and other developing markets like India to help realize those economies of scale.

“What really counts is applying the right technology on volume vehicles,” said John Viera, director for sustainable business strategies at Ford Motor.

Herbert Kohler, chief environmental officer and vice president at Daimler of Germany, echoed that sentiment. “The No. 1 issue is commercialization: to get the cost down.”

Viera urged that Beijing promote clean cars, both hybrids and others, with tax breaks and other policy incentives.

“When we have government support, we shall launch these products for Chinese consumers,” he said. “We need governments to be our partners.”

So far, progress toward commercialization has illustrated the lack of a one-size-fits-all solution. For some countries, like the major biofuel producer Brazil, ethanol is a viable option. Others are increasingly relying on hybrids and other advances in traditional fuels while they experiment with fuel cell technology.

China has sought to curb an expansion in biofuel production to help protect food supplies and control prices. Thus automakers like Ford, Daimler and Volkswagen are focusing on diesel, which can be processed from a variety of resources, including coal and natural gas.

“Our aim is to make diesel as clean as gas engines and gas engines as efficient as diesel,” Kohler said.

Meanwhile, tire makers and chemicals manufacturers are developing new materials to reduce vehicle weight, wind resistance and ground friction, which can account for causing about a third of the emissions that are tied to global warming.