CHINA

President Barack Obama would meet the Tibet's exiled spiritual leader Dalai Lama, the White House said on Tuesday.

Recent cyber attacks on Google are a wake-up call and neither the U.S. government nor the private sector can fully protect the American cyber infrastructure, the director of U.S. national intelligence said on Tuesday.

A top Democratic senator said on Tuesday he has asked 30 U.S. companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google's decision to no longer cooperate with Chinese Internet censorship efforts.

Dow Chemical Co posted a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, but said demand in the United States and Europe remained slack, sending its shares down more than 2 percent.

Oil rose above $75, gaining for the second day on Tuesday, on prospects that demand will increase due to strong economic data from China and the United States, the world's top two energy consumers.

Dow Chemical Co posted a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday as volumes doubled in emerging markets and earnings from joint ventures mushroomed.

The property investment arm of Morgan Stanley (MS.N) is in final talks to sell a Chinese apartment complex to a unit of Singapore's Keppel Land (KLAN.SI), sources close to the deal said on Tuesday.

U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Co said on Tuesday it expects new orders for commercial aircraft this year to fall short of deliveries and no increase in demand until 2012.

China said it would go ahead with threatened sanctions against U.S. companies selling arms to Taiwan unless they halted sales.

China said a possible meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama would further hurt Sino-U.S. relations, and vowed to go ahead with sanctions against U.S. companies selling arms to Taiwan.

Resource stocks lifted Asian shares off three-month lows on Tuesday after strong U.S. manufacturing data raised hopes the global economic recovery was on a firmer footing.

Chinese state media blasted the United States on Monday for a planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan but U.S. officials said they hoped the flap would be temporary and not derail cooperation.

China has launched nationwide checks for melamine-tainted milk products after the industrial compound, which killed at least six children in 2008, reappeared on shop shelves, an official newspaper said on Tuesday.

Small, poor nations without significant mineral deposits are unlikely candidates for investment by the world's third-largest economy.

This morning the AUD opens higher at 0.8906 against the greenback regaining more than 1% from an intraday low of 0.8787 on Monday.

The stock market started February with a strong rally as commodities stocks surged on signs of global demand for raw materials and semiconductor stocks received a boost from an industry report.

President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to halve a record 2010 budget deficit by the end of his first term in office, but made tackling double-digit unemployment his immediate priority with a spending plan that risked public ire and a rough battle in Congress.

Stocks rose on Monday as better-than-expected data on the manufacturing sector and earnings from Exxon Mobil revived bullish sentiment after stocks closed out their worst month in almost a year.

Fifty-five nations accounting for almost 80 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions have set national goals for fighting climate change by a deadline in the Copenhagen Accord, the United Nations said on Monday.

Stocks rose on Monday as better-than-expected data on the manufacturing sector and earnings from Exxon Mobil reassured investors that economic growth is on track, after stocks suffered their worst month in almost a year.

Wall St rose on Monday after closing its worst month in almost a year as U.S. manufacturing expanded the most in six years and Exxon Mobil Corp beat earnings estimates.