CHINA

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the world's biggest software company, has won major support from smartphone makers led by Samsung Electronics (Seoul: 005930) to battle Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company.

Where else to go when markets in North America and Europe are stagnating?

The pro-democracy opposition leader and former political activist is undertaking a major tour of Europe.

Chinese market regulators announced Thursday they could be easing the rules that currently allow only a small group of foreign banks to invest in the national equity and bond markets, a move that is seen as part of a wider campaign to open the country's financial system to global competition. Whether by design or by coincidence, however, the move also takes a tremendous amount of pressure off the country's central bankers, who are between a rock and a hard place in deciding whether or n......

Advanced readings for German flash PMI came in at 44.7 versus a consensus of 45.2 while the euro zone services came in slightly better than expected at 46.8 versus 46.4

Manufacturing has been one of the few bright spots of the otherwise frail U.S. economic recovery, but Markit said weaker overseas demand could be starting to slow hiring in the sector. U.S. manufacturing grew in June at the slowest pace in almost a year and hiring in the sector also slowed.

Expectations for U.S. company earnings are on a slippery slope down Wall Street. While the downward slide in estimates highlights the caution analysts and companies are expressing, investors should also be aware that companies are setting lower goals so that they can look better or be able to ?beat estimates? when the results come out.

Rumors about Apple ditching the current 30-pin dock connector in favor of something smaller are nothing new. Reports surfaced last month suggesting that Apple would bring the change to its upcoming iPhone iteration, presumably called the iPhone 5.

African migrants in China have a life that is light years away from the glamour, adulation and affluence enjoyed by Drogba.

The United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, a two-day meeting of more than 115 political leaders from around the world, is turning out to be a major bust.

Asia's top buyers of Iranian crude oil have found ways to continue the imports, bypassing the U.S. and European Union sanctions on trade with Tehran, to avoid depending entirely on the Saudi Arabian oil amid unsteady supplies from Libya and Iraq.

The Indian rupee continued its downward slide for the fourth consecutive day Thursday to touch an all-time low of 56.57 against the US dollar.

Asian stock markets mostly declined Thursday as the Federal Reserve's limited help to bolster the domestic economy disappointed some market participants.

Crude oil futures declined Thursday, weighed down by an unexpected jump in the U.S. crude supplies and the Federal Reserve's limited help to revive the domestic economy.

U.S. stock index futures point to a lower opening Thursday after the Department of Labor's initial jobless claims report, which showed that more people than expected filed for unemployment benefits, and the National Association of Realtors' report on existing home sales.

China's manufacturing activity fell in June compared to that in May and continued to contract for the eighth straight month, according to the preliminary HSBC Flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released Thursday.

Most Asian markets fell Thursday as investors felt let down by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which did not announce a further round of quantitative easing.

The inexplicable death of a Nigerian resident in China has brought to light a longstanding unease between the Chinese and the ever more numerous African immigrants

You don't have to go far from China these days to get the taste of living in Europe. There's just one problem: it's all a big fake, as these photos show

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday extended its monetary stimulus to a U.S. economic recovery that looks at risk of stalling, renewing its effort to depress borrowing costs by selling short-term bonds to buy longer-dated ones.

The world's rising power is the subject of many stereotypes. Like all stereotypes, they aren't true, but here's what they look like from inside China.