CHINA

Rep. Ron Paul, R-TX, on Saturday easily won the presidential straw poll for the Republican Leadership Conference 2011 as the congressman pursues a bid to gain the Republican nomination for President in the 2012 race.

Motorola Droid 3 aka Milestone 3 has now officially (and quietly) been launched in China and the slider smartphone sounds and looks sound enough to give the next generation iPhone (dubbed iPhone 5) a run for its money.

South Korean Marines fired rifles at a South Korean commercial aircraft flying near the sea border with North Korea, thinking it was one of the communist North's jet fighters, but they never hit their target, military sources said on Saturday.

Toronto-listed Sino-Forest, already under pressure from a short-seller's report alleging theft and fraud, appears to have substantially overstated its forestry holdings in China's Yunnan province, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper said on Saturday.

South Korean marine Corps troops fired at a passenger jet, mistaking it as communist North's jet fighters. No damage has been reported.

With the announcement of the Chromebook from Google, tech analysts, investors and consumers are watching closely to see if Google is more than a two trick pony. Google isn’t the only company betting big on the cloud either - Apple, Microsoft and Amazon have all made big moves into the cloud.

It had all the signs of another dotcom bubble: A start-up without a convincing business plan or any foreseeable chance of turning a profit saw its shares soar in the first hours after its stock market debut.

The latest figure to hit the front pages about China’s corruption problem is that $120 billion have been embezzled and smuggled out of the country since the mid-1990s, according to a Chinese government report.

It had all the signs of another dotcom bubble: A startup without a convincing business plan or any foreseeable chance of turning a profit saw its shares soar in the first hours after its stock market debut.

Thousands of corrupt Chinese government officials have stolen more than $120-billion from the mid-1990s to 2008, according to a report from China’s central bank.

The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth on Friday and warned Washington and debt-ridden European countries that they are playing with fire unless they take immediate steps to reduce their budget deficits.

A deal on steps to curb food price volatility between G20 agriculture ministers next week is reachable but far from guaranteed, French Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday.

In the United States, big hotel chains get to float above the fray. India brings them down to earth.

Mexican Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens, a contender to head the International Monetary Fund, said on Friday that it would be premature for him to comment on whether he earned Japan's support for his bid to become head of the fund.

Xunlei Ltd, a Chinese Internet platform company in which Google Inc has a small stake, decided to postpone its initial public offering of up to $200 million in the United States because of unfavorable market conditions, IFR reported on Friday, quoting a source with knowledge of the decision.

The teeming Chinese metropolis of Shanghai could become the world’s largest financial center in a decade, according to a report from KPMG and FTSE.

Xunlei Ltd, a Chinese Internet platform company in which Google has a small stake, decided to postpone its initial public offering of up to $200 million in the United States because of unfavorable market conditions, IFR reported on Friday, quoting a source with knowledge of the decision.

The Philippines on Friday announced that it will send its World War II vessel to a borderline part of the South China Sea after China headed its coastal patrol vessels in the waters.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Warren Resources, MannKind Corp, Affymetrix, AutoNavi Holdings and Cathay General Bancorp. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Research in Motion, China Finance Online, Merit Medical Systems, Mitcham Industries and Motricity.

Software widely used in China to help run weapons systems, utilities and chemical plants has bugs that hackers could exploit to damage public infrastructure, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A breed of cyber pranksters known as hacktivists appears to be on a campaign to embarrass the U.S. government, but such types of attack are unlikely to breach the computer firewalls that protect important official secrets, independent analysts say.