CHINA

Stocks sank on Thursday, led by a drop of more than 1 percent in the Nasdaq, as a downbeat brokerage comment on Chinese Internet company Baidu.com Inc. unnerved investors after record highs earlier in the day.

A sickly dollar and firming oil prices swept gold to 28-year highs on Thursday, while platinum was set in London at a record high of $1,407 per ounce, aided by rising bullion prices and worries over supply.

Eugenio Beaufrand was newly appointed as the chief operating officer of Microsoft Greater China Region(MGCR),the software giant announced earlier this week.

It wants to examine restrictions on the sale of U.S. films, music, books, magazines and newspapers in China for an upcoming meeting

Finnish crane maker Konecranes will capture 50 to 55 percent of its global sales in Asia in three to four years, up from 30 percent now, helped by robust demand in China, a senior executive said on Wednesday.

Internet censors in China are becoming more systematic and sophisticated in how they monitor the Web and eradicate content deemed sensitive, according to a Chinese technician working for an Internet firm.

A senior U.S. official said China's policies could give domestic firms an unfair advantage and spell a retreat from open markets.

Yang Huiyan, a 26-year-old woman worth $16.2 billion, is the Chinese mainland's richest person, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices, the business magazine Forbes said yesterday. She is also Asia's richest woman.

Even before its official launch in China, Research In Motion's BlackBerry faces daunting challenges from low-cost rivals and a thicket of regulations that could trip up its advance into the world's largest mobile market.

Restaurant operator Yum Brands Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and boosted its full-year outlook on Monday, sending its shares up more than 4 percent in extended trading.

A delectable opening in Germany helped Ratatouille take the top spot at the international box office, with estimated weekend ticket sales of $19.7 million from 30 markets.

Morgan Stanley is unleashing a major drive to tap India's domestic wealth next year, hiring 100 private bankers in a bid to manage $1 billion in assets by the end of 2010.

BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, is building up its onshore private banking presence in China, India and Taiwan and expects total assets under management in Asia to grow by 20 percent a year in the next few years, the head of its Asia private banking operation said.

Minsheng Banking Corp will buy 9.9 percent of San Francisco-based UCBH Holdings for more than $200 million in the first strategic investment by a mainland Chinese bank in a U.S. bank.

The United States and Japan are locked in a dispute over Washington's demand that Tokyo shoulder more costs for water supplies and utilities at U.S. military bases in Japan, media reports said on Monday.

For years the preserve of globe-trotting merchants and secretive financiers, the trade in rare and valuable minerals known as minor metals is now on the radar of hedge funds searching for profits.

Asian stocks outside of Japan hit record highs on Monday, but the dollar headed lower after a solid U.S. jobs report failed to dampen expectations for a further cut in interest rates. European markets were also expected to rise. European stock markets were set to open slightly higher, extending five straight days of gains, but with Japanese markets closed and no major economic data expected out of the United States due to the Columbus Day holiday, trade was expected to be light.

Beyond the ongoing 'short-term' subprime crisis, the 'mega trends' that will shape banking and its growth in the long term will be globalization, the growth of capital markets and global asset growth and its impact on how it's managed, said Deutsche Bank's top corporate and investment banker.

The world moved into 'ecological overdraft' - the point where consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it.

Safety concerns following a spate of recalls of toys made in China are unlikely to have a big impact on holiday shopping, according to a new survey.

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party dismissed the Myanmar junta's offer of talks as surreal on Friday, as a U.N. envoy warned of "serious international consequences" from its brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters.