美国有线新闻 CNN 台风莫兰蒂逼近中国东南部地区 拜耳660亿美元收购孟山都（在线收听）

First up, it's been almost half a century since a storm this strong threatened southeastern China. Its name is Typhoon Meranti. It grew from the equivalent of a category one hurricane, to a category five in just a days time. It was labeled a "super typhoon". At one point, Merenti had sustained wind speeds of 190 miles per hour.

And after roaring across southern Taiwan early today, it was targeting China's mainland with tremendous winds and torrential rain.

The storm weakened a bit after hitting Taiwan. It was the equivalent of a category four hurricane then. The forecasters said it stayed at typhoon or hurricane strength for at least 12 hours, and authorities in China deployed emergency response plans and warned sailors that waves as high as 42 feet could be expected in the South China Sea.

Population density is greater in southeastern China and the ground is relatively flat. So, storm surges and inland flooding posed a greater threat as Meranti approach.

AZUZ: Next story, it's the biggest business takeover so far this year. It involves two companies — Bayer, a massive German pharmaceutical company known partly for producing the drug aspirin, and Monsanto, a massive American agricultural biotechnology company. It's the world's biggest seller of seeds and producer of genetically modified crops.

Bayer is planning to buy Monsanto for $66 billion. Why? For one thing, Bayer would benefit from Monsanto's technology in agriculture and seeds.

It would broaden the German company's reach in the U.S. market and it would reportedly make Bayer more competitive with its rivals who are merging with other companies themselves.

This deal would create a huge combined company that would do business in pharmaceutical drugs, health products and pesticides. But it's not certain if the deal will go through. Though the two companies have agreed to it, it must first be approved by regulators around the world who work to insure that no one company has too much control over a specific market.