Morning business round-up: Foxconn factory brawl

What made the business news in Asia and Europe this morning? Here's our daily business round-up:

Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, a major supplier for Apple, has halted production at a plant in northern China after a fight broke out among workers.

Foxconn confirmed that a "personal dispute" escalated into an incident involving about 2,000 workers, injuring 40 of them.

Meanwhile elsewhere in China, Toyota Motor has resumed all operations, after protests over a territorial dispute caused disruptions for Japanese businesses in the country.

Last week, Japanese car company showrooms were attacked, and some production halted.

The chief executive of the Chinese-owned carmaker Volvo has from his post for a month, after suffering a mild stroke.

Stefan Jacoby, 54, is handing the reins over to Jan Gurander, the chief financial officer, who will serve as the acting chief executive.

China's international business interests continue to proliferate. The country has signed a range of security and economic agreements with Afghanistan.

China's domestic security chief Zhou Yangkang, who signed the deals, is the most senior official to visit the country for almost 50 years.

In Europe, senior officials are warning that it is proving harder than ever to reach an agreement on the European Union's next multi-annual budget.

Ministers are meeting on Monday for further talks and EU leaders will hold a special summit in November to try to strike a budget deal.

Meanwhile, business confidence in Germany fell for the fifth month in a row in September, according to the closely-watched Ifo survey.

Europe (unlike China) does at least have some rosy news for the world's biggest company. Apple has been voted the coolest brand in the UK.

It beat Aston Martin, which has taken the top spot in six of the previous seven annual CoolBrands surveys.