CHINA

China raised interest rates on Tuesday for the second time in just over six weeks, intensifying a battle in the fast-expanding economy against stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.

Thai and Cambodian troops stood on high alert on Tuesday after clashing in disputed jungle around a 11th-century Hindu temple as foreign governments urged them to lay down arms.

China raised interest rates on Tuesday for the second time in just over six weeks, intensifying a battle against stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.

Australia's Sundance Resources wants Chinese companies to build a railway line and port in Cameroon vital to its Mbalam iron ore export venture, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

An 11 billion rand South African manganese building project, which includes a mine and smelter, was on track with first processed ore expected in July next year, investors said on Tuesday.

ArcelorMittal , the world's largest steelmaker, forecast a faster than expected rebound in demand and prices at the start of 2011 after suffering a margin squeeze at the end of last year.

McDonald's Corp reported a stronger-than-expected sales rebound in January in Europe, its biggest market for revenue, sending its shares up 3 percent in midday trading.

Wall Street rose modestly on Tuesday, led by gains in the consumer discretionary sector after McDonald's posted earnings above Wall Street's estimates.

World stocks and oil prices ebbed from recent highs on Tuesday after China raised interest rates for the second time in just over a month, spurring worries of the hike's impact on global economic demand.

Nationalising South Africa's mines is not the option, mines minister Susan Shabangu said on Tuesday in her strongest comments in a year against an idea that has unnerved investors in Africa's biggest economy.

Governments in the Asia-Pacific region face the risk of unprecedented numbers of people displaced by floods, storms and other impacts of climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report on Monday.

Wheat output in China, the world's largest producer and consumer of the grain, may be at risk after severe winter drought in its main northern producing regions, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

Wall Street was little changed on Tuesday as an interest hike by China weighed on energy shares and major indexes faced resistance near 2 1/2-year highs.

A battle is brewing over control of South Africa’s key mining sector.

U.S. stocks opened modestly lower on Tuesday after China raised interest rates for the third time since last October in response to accelerating consumer and asset inflation.

This is a world obsessed with demand...[and] many central banks' policy settings are very, very loose...making for serious inflationary pressures, UBS said. The outlook for food prices is that they could rise exponentially from here if we were to see another shock. There's no buffer right now.

U.S. stocks were little changed on Tuesday after an interest rate hike by China raised worries about global demand and weighed on energy shares.

Accused of some of the highly stigmatized felonies, will Assange or WikiLeaks still be considered for Nobel Prize? However, Al Gore, who won the 2007 Peace award, did have a similar sexual assualt taint.

China raised interest rates for the third time since the height of the financial crisis in response to accelerating consumer and asset inflation. The inflation rate and the interest rate hikes in the country are stages of a normal economic cycle, although it's happening with an international twist.

U.S. stocks were set to open little changed at 2-1/2 year highs on Tuesday, with investors focused on corporate earnings and the impact of an interest rate hike by China on economic demand.

Gold inched higher on Tuesday as equities fell, the euro picked up and flows of metal out of exchange-traded funds stabilized, although a rise in Chinese benchmark rates limited gains.