CHINA

France's finance ministry was subject to a cyberattack in December targeting information related to its presidency of the Group of 20 nations, officials said on Monday.

The dramatic rise in China's interest in silver is evident from the fact that the country imported an unprecedented 14 percent of global silver in 2010, whereas it was net exporter of silver till recently.

Countries that have come to depend on China for large amounts of rare earths metals should understand that Beijing has environmental concerns for curtailing exports, the Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Monday.

Japan's unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Monday refused to step down after the resignation of his foreign minister over a political funding scandal that has added to pressure on him to quit or call a snap election.

Chinese police had nothing to do with the beating of foreign reporters covering a possible protest last month, the foreign minister said on Monday, as security forces intensified their monitoring of journalists.

China's largest metals trader has called for government to consolidate the rare earth industry and nurture competitive domestic firms in the sector, the Xinhua reported today.

China granted initial environmental approval to an $8.8 billion project by South African petrochemical firm Sasol and China's top coal producer Shenhua Group to turn coal into fuels.

China plans to set up an insurance exchange in Shanghai as part of efforts to build the city into an international financial centre, the state media said on Monday, citing top insurance regulator Wu Dingfu.

Hong Kong stocks edged lower on Monday as higher oil prices weighed but a buoyant day in Shanghai shielded the market from bigger declines and underscored the growing optimism for Chinese shares.

People.com.cn, the online news portal run by the mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, will list in Shanghai as early as June, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Food, not oil, may prove to be the bigger threat to global growth, with the pain falling disproportionately upon the developing economies that powered the latest economic recovery.

China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd (0688.HK), one of the country's biggest developers, will focus on business in affluent first- and second-tier cities in the future, Chairman Kong Qingping said over the weekend.

The United States will put improved relations with Beijing at risk if it does not stop selling arms to Taiwan, China's Foreign Minister said on Monday.

Starbucks Corp may go for acquisitions over the next 12-18 months to expand its consumer products business, Chief Executive Howard Schultz told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

People.com.cn, the online news portal run by the mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, will list in Shanghai as early as June, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Central Huijin Investment Co, the domestic arm of China's $300 billion sovereign fund, will give its full backing to its banking units if they need to cut dividends or raise money to meet tougher capital rules, a senior Central Huijin executive said on Sunday.

China is cutting the size of outstanding bank loans to local government financing vehicles, Liu Mingkang, the head of China's bank regulatory body, was quoted as saying on Monday.

China's largest animal feed producer, New Hope Group, called on the government to stop its anti-dumping investigation against exports of U.S. DDGS, a by-product of corn-based ethanol used to substitute corn by feed mills.

Gold should push higher from its near-record levels due to its appeal as a safe haven, while iron ore should regain its upward momentum on the back of red-hot industrial demand from Asia, forecasters told the world's larger mining conference on Sunday.

North Korea is facing many of the same issues that led to revolutions from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya, but what are the chances of a similar uprising in the authoritarian Asian state?

Calls for Jasmine Revolution protests in Beijing are doomed to fail as people want peace and stability and government policies are popular, a spokeswoman for the city's government said on Sunday.