“We are confident that Wahaha will continue to be highly successful under its future management.”
Danone remains committed to China, Riboud said, adding the company was “keen to accelerate the success of our Chinese activities”.
The dispute had sparked a series of retaliatory moves in China and abroad, including in the United States and Sweden.
A Chinese court ruled last year that Wahaha owned the trademark, which was valued by the state-controlled China Daily newspaper at 2.4 billion dollars.
“China is an open country. Chinese people are broad-minded people. Chinese companies are willing to cooperate and grow with the world’s leading peers on the basis of equality and reciprocal benefit,” Zong said in the statement.
The feud began when Danone said it had discovered that Wahaha chairman Zong Qinghou had set up an entire production and distribution network in parallel to the French firm’s joint ventures with Wahaha.
In mid-2007 the French firm sought an arbitration ruling, accusing the Chinese beverage giant of breach of agreement by selling Wahaha-branded drinks without its permission.
“The collaboration between Danone and Wahaha helped to build a strong and respected leader in the Chinese beverage industry,” Danone chairman and chief executive Franck Riboud said in the statement.
“We are confident that Wahaha will continue to be highly successful under its future management.”
Danone remains committed to China, Riboud said, adding the company was “keen to accelerate the success of our Chinese activities”.
SHANGHAI, September 30 - Food giant Danone and China’s largest soft drink maker Wahaha put an amicable end to their long-standing feud Wednesday, with the French firm selling its full 51 percent stake in their joint ventures.
The deal between the companies, which together ran 39 joint ventures, is still subject to the approval of Chinese authorities but has the “support” of the governments in Paris and Beijing, the companies said in a joint statement.
“The completion of this settlement will put an end to all legal proceedings related to the disputes between the two parties,” they said.
The statement did not give any financial details of the deal, and Wahaha spokesman Shan Qining declined to release any figures.
Odierno said statistics show violence has dropped in Iraq.
“Overall attacks have decreased 85 percent over the past two years from 4,064 in August 2007 to 594 in August 2009, with 563 in September so far,” Odierno said. “In that same time period, U.S. military deaths have decreased by 93 percent, Iraqi Security Force deaths have decreased 79 percent.”
Odierno said there were still security questions.
“Although security is improving, it is not yet enduring. There still remain underlying, unresolved sources of potential conflict,” Odierno said.
Odierno pointed to the August 19 bombings in Baghdad that targeted the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs that killed more than 100 people as an example of ongoing challenges in Iraq.
However, Odierno gave a vote of confidence to the Iraqi forces who had taken over security for Baghdad after U.S. forces handed over control.
“The Iraqis wanted to be in charge; they wanted the responsibilities; and they have demonstrated that they are capable,” he said.
The United States will withdraw another 4,000 troops in Iraq by the end of October, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said in prepared testimony for a congressional hearing Wednesday.
U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno is expected to tell the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that there has been a significant drop in violence in Iraq recently, according to the statement obtained by CNN.
President Obama has said the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010. Obama also said he plans to keep a range of 35,000 to 50,000 support troops on the ground in Iraq after combat troops are out.
“We have approximately 124,000 troops and 11 Combat Teams operating in Iraq today. By the end of October, I believe we will be down to 120,000 troops in Iraq,” Odierno said in the remarks.
“He wasn’t the only one who took the book bags,” Khan said during an interview inside his cluttered apartment. When asked about the scale, Khan said he had no idea of its existence.
“They [federal investigators] said they found it here, but I never saw it,” Khan said. He added that JTTF agents who raided his apartment took his laptop computer and cell phone along with his roommates’ cell phones.
Khan has said he knew Zazi only as an acquaintance from the neighborhood, someone he used to run into at the local mosque before Zazi left New York last year.
Khan says the scrutiny and suspicion has put a strain on him and his roommates.
He says he’s caught up in something he doesn’t understand.
“I barely knew [Zazi]. How was I to know what was in his mind?” he said.
“Your life can change without warning,” he said, “and you are helpless.”
Zazi has been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Investigators say evidence will prove that he conspired with others to detonate improvised explosive devices within the United States.
Authorities say they found nine empty backpacks and a scale in Khan’s apartment. Investigators say the items are of interest because backpacks were used in the London, England, and Madrid, Spain, mass transit attacks; scales are sometimes used to measure explosive ingredients.
Khan told CNN on Monday those backpacks belonged to his uncle, one of five men who live in the two-bedroom apartment. Khan says the backpacks were given to his uncle by a store that was “going out of business or getting rid of merchandise.”
He said his uncle took them to give to relatives in Pakistan during his next visit.
Naiz Khan says he is exhausted and just a little scared.
Khan is a 26-year-old man whose rented apartment in the Flushing section of Queens was raided by members of the Joint Terror Task Force more than two weeks ago. He’s entangled in a terrorism investigation, he says, because he gave Najibullah Zazi — an Afghan man facing terrorism charges for allegedly planning to bomb a target in New York — a place to stay when Zazi arrived in New York on September 10.
Khan is a former coffee-cart vendor who says he was due to fly to Pakistan to see his family when Zazi was arrested more than a week ago. That trip is indefinitely postponed. Khan says he has no job and is enduring intense media attention and constant surveillance by federal agents camped in the street outside his apartment building.
Both she and Fidelino said residents have banded together to help one another. Lim said that after her electricity was restored, she got on Facebook, where she saw numerous posts from people seeking missing friends or loved ones. Members of the media and even the government were trying to help on the social networking site, asking them to send more information.
Some people are putting together “relief bags” of food and other items to distribute to those in shelters, while others were bringing canned goods, Lim said. “Everyone is united right now to help feed everyone,” she said.
Others are just trying to feed themselves. John Gonzalez, 11, has been pushing a trolley through his flooded neighborhood in Manila’s Marietta Romeo village for two days.
“The flood went above the height of a man,” he said. “Way above our heads. Today, the water just comes to my mouth. That’s why we are out looking for food.”
Officials worried that if the rains return, they could bring more floods if reservoirs burst.
“We’re hoping that there will be no more breaching of the dams,” Gordon said. “That’s one of the things that are very disconcerting to many people right now.”
Fidelino said many Filipinos aren’t sure if the flooding was caused by the typhoon or by the opening of dams. “It was so sudden,” he said. “It was sort of a flash flood.”
The floodwaters contained all sorts of animals as well — snails, snakes, Lim said. Two crocodiles escaped from the zoo, she said — “it’s funny, but it’s scary.”
“I’m happy that I’m a lot better off than so many other people I see on TV, clinging to electric posts, electric wires, so they won’t be carried away (by the water),” she said. “I have friends who are still missing their siblings, missing their dogs.”