CHINA

China will ratchet up efforts to quell inflation in 2011 while pushing forward economic restructuring to help sustain robust growth, state media said on Sunday after the close of an annual policy-setting conference.

China has stubbornly refused to cede to U.S demands to let the yuan rise against the dollar. The question is, among the US and China who will gain and who will lose if China ever agreed to appreciate its currency?

The electric vehicle battery powered cars will start being competitive with gas-powered ones in about five years, the U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu, said at the annual U.N. climate talks.

China's inflation for November surged to a 28-month high, rising 5.1 percent year-on-year. Moreover, the inflation was driven by China's problem areas.

Delegates at the UN climate change conference in Cancun have agreed on a deal to curb climate change and fund developing countries on Saturday. Bolivia however, raised objections to the proposals drawn up the host Mexico. The draft comes as respite as the last summit in Copenhagen failed to agree on the best way to cut emissions.

Jim Chanos, arguably the most well-known short-seller in the world, is setting his sights on China's troubled real estate construction-driven economy.

Precious metals fell across the board in the week to December 10 as a cooling China weighed on demand hopes but the yellow metal remained better alternative in the group amid lingering worries over the euro-zone debt and dollar's ability to play safe-haven.

France wants a wide international debate as it takes over the G20 presidency to drive its plans for an overhaul of the global monetary system and economic governance, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Saturday.

Dictatorships are faster and more efficient than democracies, which can be bogged down by long-drawn out debates among deeply polarized political parties who can't seem to agree on anything.

Stocks drifted higher, with the S&P 500 approaching a two-year high, as traders seemed pleased with a narrowing trade deficit and higher consumer confidence, ahead of an expected extension of Bush-era tax cuts by the federal government.

A rise in U.S. consumer confidence to its highest in six months and a much bigger-than-expected contraction in the country's trade deficit pointed to a firmer economic recovery on Friday.

Prices to Buy Gold held firm in London on Friday, ending of what one London trader called another roller-coaster week some 1.7% lower for Dollar and Sterling investors but unchanged vs. the single Euro currency.

Norway's Nobel committee held its Peace Prize awards ceremony on Friday without the award's recipient, human rights activist Liu Xiaobo.

A rise in U.S. consumer confidence to its highest in six months and a much bigger-than-expected contraction in the country's trade deficit pointed to a firmer economic recovery on Friday.

China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba.com Ltd <1688.HK> said on Friday it would pay a HK$1.1 billion ($140 million) special cash dividend to shareholders, sending its shares sharply higher.

US trade deficit declined sharply in October to reach a nine-month low as exports rose, the US commerce department said on Friday.

U.S. consumer sentiment rose more than expected in early December while an index of current conditions jumped to its highest level since January 2008, a survey released on Friday showed.

A rise in U.S. consumer confidence to its highest level in six months and a much bigger-than-expected contraction in the country's trade deficit pointed to a firmer economic recovery on Friday.

U.S. economic data painted a picture of a firming recovery on Friday as consumer confidence rose to its highest level in six months and the country's trade deficit narrowed much more than expected.

(Corrects 8th paragraph to say 9.8 percent unemployment rate was for November, not October)

Stock index futures rose on Friday following encouraging data out of China and as a two-year high in the S&P 500 had investors betting on a year-end rally.