CHINA

Oil fell more than 2 percent to around $71 a barrel on Monday as a drop in China's key stock dented optimism about the pace of economic recovery and the U.S. dollar strengthened.

NEW YORK - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Monday as Chinese equities dropped sharply and commodities fell on concerns that asset prices have run ahead of the economic realities.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Monday as Chinese equities dropped sharply and commodities fell on concerns that asset prices have run ahead of the economic realities.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Monday as Chinese equities dropped sharply and commodities fell on concerns that asset prices have run ahead of the economic realities.

Oil fell more than 2 percent to around $71 a barrel on Monday as a drop in China's key stock index stoked worries about the pace of economic recovery and a revival in energy demand.

U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett intends to raise his stake in Chinese electric car and battery maker BYD Co Ltd , BYD's chairman said on Monday, sending shares in his company up 8 percent.

Chinese stocks sank 6 percent to a three-month low on Monday, weighing on Asian shares, sapping investor willingness to take risks and giving the yen an added boost after Japanese voters swept the opposition into power.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday for the last session of the month, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.78 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.77 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.87 percent at 0825 GMT (4:25 a.m. EDT).

Refugees who fled to China from armed clashes in northeast Myanmar are weighing a return to farms, homes and shops against fear of the Myanmar army, while both governments asserted that normality was returning.

The Dalai Lama, on a controversial humanitarian visit to flood-ravaged Taiwan denounced by China, steered clear of talking about Tibet on Monday but said he was dedicated to the promotion of democracy.

Oil fell toward $72 a barrel on Monday, as a drop in China's key stock index stoked worries about the country's economy, but hopes that energy demand would soon rebound are on track to push prices up about 4 percent in August.

The future of wind farms and hybrid cars may well hinge on what happens to a 55-acre (22.3-hectare) hole in the ground at the edge of California's high desert.

India terminated its first mission to the moon Sunday, a spokesman for the national space agency said, a day after scientists lost all contact with an unmanned spacecraft orbiting the moon.

India's national space agency said that communications with its first unstaffed spacecraft to orbit the moon were lost on Saturday and that its scientists were no longer controlling the orbiter.

Men who said they had been fighting Myanmar government troops in fierce battles over recent days streamed into China on Sunday, saying their long-autonomous enclave had fallen and its future was in doubt.

General Motors said on Sunday it has agreed to set up a light commercial vehicle production venture with major Chinese automaker FAW Group, with total investment of 2 billion yuan ($293 million).

China's Geely Automotive (0175.HK) has submitted the only concrete bid so far for Ford Motor-owned (F.N) carmaker Volvo Car Corporation, a business daily reported on Saturday, citing an undisclosed source.

Fighting erupted in northeast Myanmar on Saturday after days of clashes in which the leader of ethnic forces said more than 30 government troops had been killed.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will not be meeting the Dalai Lama when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visits next week, the president's office said on Saturday, a move aimed at avoiding renewed tensions with China.

A patriotic Chinese film aimed at boosting national pride ahead of a key political anniversary has tempers rising instead, because many of the movie's stars are foreign citizens.

Apple's iPhone will go on sale later this year in China, the world's largest mobile market, but its partner China Unicom may find selling the phone carries its own burdens.