CHINA

Factories and retailers in the world’s second-largest economy performed worse than expected in the first two months of the year, official data show.

The rating agency’s move comes soon after it lowered China’s credit rating outlook citing factors such as rising debt burden and falling foreign-exchange reserves.

The call comes as policymakers the world over are struggling to revive their economies, which have been buffeted by slowing productivity and high debt.

The phrase “third-generation pig,” once blocked by Chinese internet censors, is now searchable, amid reported rising tensions between China and North Korea.

For the first time this year, investors are putting money into mutual funds and exchange-traded funds rather than taking it out, data show.

Record high employment, strong local consumption and a weaker euro should continue to boost the economy, Germany’s economy ministry said.

While both countries agreed on the need for measures to prevent North Korea's nuclear development, they condemned the deployment of a missile defense system by the U.S.

China's big cities, some of the most polluted on the planet, have continued to experience severe air pollution.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi unveiled a slew of growth-boosting measures like rate cuts and an extended asset-buying program.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said the sale was part of a deal reached last year.

Apple has hit back at claims made by the Department of Justice in a legal brief, saying “they have thrown decorum to the winds.”

The railcars, to be assembled in the city, are set to be delivered by 2024 and a prototype is slated for a 2019 release.

The world’s second-largest economy will release a slew of data points Saturday while top central bank officials will hold a press conference.

The Justice Department is expected to bring charges even though Iran does not have an extradition agreement with the U.S.

After signing a defense deal with the Philippines, Beijing has criticized Tokyo’s growing role in the contested South China Sea.

Bangladesh says the U.S. Fed wrongly released $100 million of the country's money to a bank account in the Philippines, money which was reportedly used to buy chips or pay for losses in Manila casinos.

China will restrict loans for down payments on houses in a bid to cap a dangerous and dramatic increase in urban home prices.

The deployment of bombers in the Diego Garcia atoll, south of the equator, comes at a time of growing regional tensions in the Asia-Pacific.

Pyongyang has clamped down on the use of telecommunication technologies to keep its citizens shut off from the outside world, an Amnesty International report said.

North Korea said it will nullify cross-border agreements on economic cooperation with the South and would not hesitate for a preemptive nuclear strike against the U.S.

Despite February's encouraging data, consumer inflation is expected to remain mild in coming months.