CHINA

A group representing authors in China has accused Google of violating copyrights with its digital library, a claim that Google denies by saying the service complies with international law.

Dow Chemical Co posted a 66 percent jump in third-quarter earnings on Thursday to beat Wall Street's expectations, but it warned it does not expect market improvements next year.

China has not ruled out military action to rescue the crew of a coal ship hijacked by Somali pirates, but is also open to negotiations over what a Chinese military officer said on Thursday could be a long standoff.

AIDS researchers want to expand their study of a rare group of HIV-infected people, whose immune systems naturally and mysteriously prevent the virus thriving in their bodies, to span the globe.

The two Koreas met last week in secret in Singapore to discuss a summit, a broadcaster in the South said on Thursday, an encounter that follows Pyongyang's bid to reach out to its rivals after being hit by U.N. sanctions.

A deal freeing up trade in environmental goods and services is urgently needed to help global efforts to tackle climate change, General Electric Co said on Thursday.

A group representing authors in China has accused Google of violating copyrights with its digital library, a claim that Google denies by saying the service complies with international law.

Stock futures were mixed on Thursday ahead of leading indicator and jobless data and a slew of big corporate earnings reports, including UPS, Amazon.com, 3M, Dow Chemical and Merck.

China's economic growth picked up last quarter as expected as a combination of breakneck investment and buoyant bank lending more than made up for a slump in exports.

U.S. stock index futures dipped on Thursday ahead of leading indicator and jobless data and a slew of big corporate earnings reports, including American Express, Amazon.com, Dow Chemical and Merck.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.1 to 0.5 percent, pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Thursday.

Job prospects for executives at multinationals in Greater China and Singapore have improved sharply in the past three months amid growing optimism that Asia's recovery from the global recession will be sustainable, a quarterly survey showed on Thursday.

Chinese state-owned metals trader China Minmetals Corp is looking to buy gold mines in Australia and Canada, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Global miner BHP Billiton acknowledged on Thursday that it and other iron ore producers had at times upset their major customer China and said that Beijing realised it had to play with the big boys.

Asian shares fell on Thursday amid disappointment that robust Chinese growth data offered few surprises, but the dollar gained some respite as an expected shift to higher-yielding currencies failed to materialize.

China's economic growth picked up as expected last quarter as a potent cocktail of breakneck investment and buoyant bank lending more than made up for a slump in exports, the government said on Thursday.

Geely Holding's attempt to buy Ford Motor Co's (F.N) Volvo car unit is in danger of stalling over disagreements about intellectual property rights, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has told his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama that closer cooperation on fighting climate change could help improve overall ties between the world's top two greenhouse gas polluters.

Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd (STP.N) said on Wednesday it will begin shipping a new solar system for large-sized projects next year, betting that the U.S. solar utility market will heat up.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on Saturday, hoping to douse an escalating verbal duel between the Asian giants centered around their decades-old border dispute.

China's army will recruit 130,000 graduates from Chinese universities and colleges this winter to raise the quality of the armed forces and help solve the job crisis facing graduates.