GENEVA (Reuters) - Fuel-saving technology that Daimler AG is offering on its new vehicles will not erode the carmaker's profitability, research chief Thomas Weber told Reuters at the Geneva motor show.

"We have to make sure that we keep an eye on the profit situation," he said in an interview.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Small human-like skeletons found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island were actually human and their miniature features probably due to nutritional deficiency, some researchers in Australia say.

Writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, the scientists said these were more likely to be cretin offspring of normal mothers who suffered from iodine and other dietary deficiencies.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to focus on its efforts to improve 21 technologies to help the world halve greenhouse gases by 2050, a trade ministry official said on Wednesday.

The technologies that need to be improved to combat global warming include coal-fired power generation, power generation using natural gas, solar power, vehicles powered by fuel cells or biofuels, and hydrogen-based steelmaking, the official said.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Car makers are becoming more optimistic that European authorities will grant them more time to meet proposed limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from their vehicles -- a major point of contention between them.

As part of an effort to cut emissions linked to global warming, the European Commission has drafted tough legislation to reduce CO2 emissions from cars, with steep fines on manufacturers that fail to comply.