TOKYO — Honda, which has been repeatedly forced to suspend production in China because of strikes, again halted operations there today as a fresh walkout disrupted parts supplies.

Japan's No. 2 automaker said production at one of two auto assembly plants at Honda joint venture Guangqi Honda Automobile was suspended. Honda said it was unclear when the plant would resume production.

The shutdown was caused by a shortage of parts caused by the strike. But Honda declined to give further details, including the name of the affected parts supplier.

CHEORWON, South Korea — South Korean and Japanese activists floated hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon toward the border with North Korea today to condemn the country's government amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.North Korean defectors living in the South and other activists regularly fly leaflets across the heavily armed frontier in a campaign to urge North Koreans to rise up against leader Kim Jong Il's authoritarian regime.The leaflets sent today criticized North Korea's late founding father Kim Il Sung for starting the 1950-53 Korean War and blamed the current government led by his son, Kim Jong Il, for a botched currency reform and the downing of the warship, which killed 46 sailors.

MOSCOW — Oil prices fell below $78 a barrel today as downbeat economic data from Europe and a drop in U.S. crude supplies suggest a recovery in demand is likely to remain uneven.Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 37 cents to $77.48 this morning in London in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 76 cents to settle at $77.85 on Tuesday.The drop in oil prices mirrored losses in stocks. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.6 percent in London after the Dow Jones industrial average closed 1.4 percent lower overnight.