CHINA

Three Chinese astronauts, including the first woman, returned to Earth after their manned spaceship successfully docked to another craft in orbit. The Shenzhou 9 space capsule safely parachute landed about 10 a.m. Beijing time Friday in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, following a 13-day mission that marked a major stride in China's ambitious space program.

Ever since the International Olympic Committee awarded London the 2012 Olympic games, many questions have been raised about the games' costs and benefits to the city.

Asian stock markets rallied Friday as sentiment was buoyed after leaders at the European Union summit in Brussels agreed on important plans to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Most Asian markets rose Friday as investors remained hopeful that policymakers would reach an agreement on bold steps to save the euro zone at the EU summit.

Abound Solar of Loveland, Colo., has become the third federally sponsored solar panel company to collapse in the past year, another blow to Obama's green energy and jobs efforts.

A difference of tone on Twitter versus China's Sina Weibo suggests underlying cultural differences.

Following an extended game of chicken, the Obama administration granted China and Singapore an exception to the Iranian oil sanctions, senior White House officials said Thursday.

After a four-month investigation, a labor rights group has discovered deplorable working conditions throughout Apple's manufacturing network in China.

Mongolia gears up for a new parliament while in the nascent stages of an unprecedented economic boom.

The two countries are set to sign a historic General Security Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to allow classified military intelligence sharing on Friday.

In Nigeria, overpopulation is a definite problem. Cutting down on fertility rates would help, but the government must choose the right plan of attack.

For the first time since Bush v. Gore 12 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court was news around the world.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, may change the way iTunes works so that it?s more closely integrated with the iCloud file-storage service, news services said.

Two bombs exploded Thursday in the parking lot of Syria's Palace of Justice, according to the country's state television, which reported plumes of smoke billowing up from downtown Damascus. The official media organ blamed the attack on terrorists.

A grim tale of local abuse heats up tempers over China's population control policy.

Asian stock markets mostly advanced Thursday as better-than-expected economic data from the US buoyed sentiment, but gains were capped as investors are being cautious ahead of the EU summit later in the day.

Most Asian markets rose Thursday as encouraging data from the U.S. softened concerns about the debt crisis looming over the euro zone.

Vietnam has decried China's plan to open up disputed areas of the South China Sea to oil exploration as illegal, ratcheting up tensions between the two communist neighbors over maritime borders and natural resources.

State-controlled Bank of China (Hong Kong: 3988) opened its first branch in Taipei Wednesday in the first arrival of a mainland bank in Taiwan and plans to increase lending to local businesses, China Daily reported.

Christofias criticized the EU, the ECB and IMF for behaving like a ?colonial force? with respect to its fiscal demands on Greece.

Latin America and China are closer than ever, and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is touring the continent with a bucketful of money. Everybody wins? Some critics are skeptical