CHINA

Russia isn't the first place that comes to mind when thinking of free speech, but that's exactly where the second World Media Summit was held. Attendees including BBC and CNN heard about a free press from Vladimir Putin, and about world harmony from the North Koreans.

China's double-digit growth rate during the financial crisis has been the envy of the world and most people agree that we may have seen the last of the country's miraculous growth. So yes, China's growth is slowing. However, it's too early to get all pessimistic.

Seeking to resolve the territorial tensions in the South China Sea, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Monday hammered out the key elements of a code of conduct in the region which has been at the heart of recent maritime confrontations between China and the other nations in the Pacific.

Worldwide spending on information technology is on track to surpass $3.6 trillion in 2012, a 3 percent increase from 2011 spending of $3.5 trillion, instead of a previously forecast 2.5 percent gain, according to research firm Gartner's revised 2012 IT spending outlook.

Asian stock markets ended lower Tuesday as a weak Chinese trade data stoked fears of a growth slowdown in the world?s second largest economy.

U.S. stock index futures point to a lower opening Tuesday, as weak global economic conditions and debt burden in the euro zone continued to drag down the investor sentiment.

Amid the mixed global cues, Indian markets opened on a positive note Tuesday morning.

Crude oil futures declined Tuesday as the offshore oil and gas workers strike in Norway ended overnight after the government's intervention.

China's trade surplus widened to $31.73 billion in June, up 42.9 percent compared to the same month in last year amid slower-than-expected growth in imports, raising concern that the world's second largest economy isn't doing enough to stimulate domestic demand and avert a slowdown.

Most Asian markets fell Tuesday amid investor concerns about the intensifying debt crisis looming over the euro zone and the worsening global economic downturn.

Asian shares crawled higher on Tuesday after sharp losses the day before but gains were limited as investors, worried about a global economic deceleration, waited for Chinese trade data due later in the day that could set the tone for risk appetite.

Even the president of South Sudan recognizes that true independence has not been achieved, but China and Japan may help change that.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the No. 1 chipmaker, said it would commit as much as $1 billion to acquire a preliminary stake of 10 percent in Dutch semiconductor maker ASML Holding (Nasdaq: ASML).

Airbus and Boeing are ramping up their global supply chain efficiency to meet a huge number of orders.

It seems Amazon is gearing up to strike back at Google's newly-released Nexus 7, with an improved Kindle Fire 2 tablet expected to launch on August 7, according to the China Times.

China is finishing a major housing project outside Luanda, paid for with oil, but nobody's buying. To do so, the average Angolan would need to work 160 years.

Japan, which is still floundering from last year's earthquake-tsunami, is once again nearing a recession, economists say.

The world's major economies extended their slowdown in May, with conditions deteriorating significantly in India and Italy, according to a statistical indicator released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Monday. Even in Brazil, one of the few economies surveyed that is expanding, the pace of growth slowed.

Chinese authorities hope that a new $4.7 billion theme park will promote ethnic harmony and attract an additional 5 million tourists each year to the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Chinese name for Central Tibet.

This week?s focus will be the June Federal Open Market Committee minutes, U.S. trade deficit and China's Q2 GDP.

Desai may have had the last laugh on all the naysayers; he lived to be 99 years old (in a country where the average life expectancy is only 64).