CHINA

Beijing objects to an attempt by the United States to use the World Trade Organization to impose new obligations on China to crack down on pirated goods, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Oil dropped $2 on Thursday as credit and economic fears pounded global financial markets and as a storm threat to U.S. Gulf refineries and rigs receded.

BHP Billiton Ltd./Plc., the world's biggest mining house, should post record second-half profits on strong sales of industrial minerals such as copper, iron ore, coal and petroleum products.

China Mobile Ltd., the world's largest wireless operator, posted a better-than-expected 28 percent jump in quarterly earnings as more users switched to mobile phones, despite sacrificing margins to woo poorer rural customers. The firm and rival China Unicom Ltd. are slugging it out to sign up poorer customers in smaller cities and the countryside, with subscriber growth slowing in the world's largest telecoms arena -- chipping away at margins.

The recall of millions of Chinese-made toys by U.S. toy company Mattel Inc. will make Americans more cautious about buying toys made in China but will not deter them, parents said.

The region is still a safer bet than struggling U.S. and European markets despite an expected dip in investment due to higher borrowing costs from the U.S. subprime crises.

A bridge that collapsed in China killing at least 36 people broke apart like a pat of beancurd because there were apparently no steel reinforcement bars, state media said on Wednesday, quoting a rescuer.

Japan's Nikkei plumbed a 2007 low and other Asian stock markets fell as much as 6 percent on Wednesday as investors shunned risky trades amid growing credit jitters, pushing the yen to a 4 and a half month high. The nervous sentiment is set to hit Europe, where financial bookmakers are calling for falls of half a percent or more for major indexes.

The U.S. toy industry is under growing pressure from U.S. lawmakers and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to launch a testing program to ensure the safety of products from China, officials said on Tuesday.

The recall was due to hazards from small, powerful magnets and lead paint, sending its shares down as much as 6 percent.

A new survey says 92.6 percent of affluent families in China which annual income exceeding $25,000 spend about $10,000 in leisure and entertainment every year, according to the research released on Monday by MasterCard International.

The Bush administration asked a world trade panel on Monday to force China to crack down on pirated goods, like U.S. movies and software.

As China's export prices rise, a pressing global debate is emerging: is the 'China price' pumping up world inflation?

A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced a television reporter to one year in jail for fabricating a report that Beijing dumpling makers used cardboard as a filling.

Years of economic policy mistakes after the fall of Saddam Hussein left unemployed young Iraqis easy targets for recruitment by al Qaeda and other insurgents, a U.S. Defense Department official said on Sunday.

China's economic indicators may have entered the danger zone, forcing the central bank to continue tightening steps to prevent the economy from overheating, a senior central bank official said in remarks published on Monday.

The boss of a Chinese toy manufacturing company involved in a Mattel recall after its products were found to contain excessive lead levels has hanged himself, Chinese media reported on Monday.

Asian stock markets made a tentative recovery on Monday following last week's hammering as fears of a global credit crisis eased after central banks around the world pumped money into banking systems.

The quality of Chinese home loans is worse than in the United States, where a subprime mortgage crisis is causing turmoil in global financial markets, according to a prominent academic quoted in a Hong Kong newspaper on Sunday.

U.S.-financed China Public Security Technology will provide software that links to at least 20,000 police surveillance cameras being installed along streets in southern China, according to the New York Times on Sunday.

Homes and farmland drowned in increasingly severe floods are affecting some 500 million people a year and straining relief efforts, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.