CHINA

China reported Thursday a rise in trade surplus to $18.4 billion in April from $5.35 billion in March amid continued weakness in exports caused by economic crises in overseas markets.

A month ago, shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, closed at their record high of $628.64. On April 10, they hit their all-time high of $644. Now they are at $570.

The Industrial and Commerce Bank of China (Hong Kong: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), the world's largest bank, is set to buy an 80 percent stake in Bank of East Asia (BEA) USA, based in New York.

While British lawmakers call Rupert Murdoch unfit to run a giant media conglomerate, shareholders might disagree. Despite recent declines, the company's stock price is up 20 percent to $19.17 in Wednesday trading from a six-month low in November and far above the $6 depths of March 2009.

As Chinese students across the country prepare for major national examinations that will determine their academic future, and likely their careers as well, some are taking extreme measures to gain an advantage.

Keith Judd, a.k.a. Inmate No. 11593-051, is currently serving a 17-year sentence at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas. He also won 41 percent of the votes in West Virginia's presidential primary on Tuesday, compared to 59 percent of the vote won by President Barack Obama.

China's first deep-water oil drilling rig has begun operations in the South China Sea amid maritime tensions between Manila and Beijing over a disputed shoal in another region of the disputed waters, Chinese state media reported Wednesday.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp said Wednesday that its net profit for the three months ending March 31 surged five times compared to a year earlier as the car market picked up in the US.

Liang Guanglie is the first Chinese Minister of Defense to visit the U.S. in nine years. He and his American counterpart, Leon Panetta, are choosing to talk about what's going well rather than about the potential conflicts.

Last week, the top military official in the U.S. declared that India will be a military superpower in the near future.

The top echelons of the Communist Party of China may be discussing a delay of a key congress later this year that would determine who will replace the nation's top nine leaders.

A month-old naval standoff between China and the Philippines gets more serious as Beijing warns Manila it has made a serious mistake.

The U.S. Secretary of State weighed in on the affair of the Chinese dissident that sparked a diplomatic row between the U.S. and China.

Al Jazeera's English-language correspondent in Beijing, Melissa Chan, has been denied press credentials and visa renewal by Chinese authorities. The move has prompted Al Jazeera to close its Beijing bureau.

Marubeni Corp., Japan's biggest grain trading company, is in exclusive talks to buy U.S. grain and energy trader Gavilon LLC for about $5.2 billion including debt, media reports said Tuesday, citing sources close to the deal.

India Tuesday conveyed to the US that it has to look at the Western sanctions on Iran beyond the issue of energy, as it has critical stakes in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned Pakistan that it must do a better job of fighting terrorists operating within its borders, according to the Press Trust of India.

Gold fell for a second day on Tuesday, under pressure from the slide in the euro on the back of political uncertainty in Greece and a change of president in France, while Chinese import figures did little to offset the impact of the weaker currency.

Among the flurry of decrees Vladimir Putin issued after returning to the presidency for a historic third term were calls for faster privatization and government-sponsored boost in capital investment and closer ties with the US, based on equality, non-interference in internal affairs and respect for one another's interests.

Myanmar can post six percent economic growth next year if the right reform steps are taken by the government, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

South Korean customs officials are cracking down on capsules reportedly filled with powdered human flesh from dead infants, aborted fetuses and placental remains that are being smuggled in from China.