CHINA

China has reached another important benchmark as a consumer electronic device hotbed: For the first time ever, the country has more iOS and Android activations than the U.S., taking the number one spot globally.

Markets bobbed up and down Wednesday on conflicting data as to what the U.S. economic picture will look like in the near term. Investors spent the day dealing with conflicting sentiments: a less-than-enthusiastic housing report on the one hand, a view that the U.S. economy is generally getting better on the other.

Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is expanding a Chinese manufacturing facility by 80 percent, the U.S. company said Wednesday.

There are a lot of weird world records recorded by Guinness World Records, and some of the most terrifying involve cars. Three of the best, most terrifying automotive stunts have been recorded on video.

President Barack Obama must nominate a new President of the World Bank soon, ahead of its June annual meeting in Washington. Two Third World candidates have been mentioned but another American is the likely winner.

It is hoped the joint venture will boost flagging sales for JLR and parent company TATA, as the luxury car maker suffers dwindling sales in its traditional European and U.S. markets.

China's skein of trade surpluses and Treasury-buying has run its course and the country will need to begin selling some of its vast holdings of U.S. debt, says Frederick Sheehan, ex-head of asset allocation at John Hancock Financial Services.

U.S. trade officials imposed surprisingly low tariffs on Chinese solar panels Tuesday, choosing to tread lightly and avoiding an all-out trade war when addressing local solar companies' complaints of unfair trade practices.

Stocks struggled on Wednesday to rise above recent highs, hampered by losses in risk-associated sectors like energy and financials.

Wednesday's statement didn't explicitly demand that President Bashar al-Assad step down, but it warned that his regime should immediately cease troop movements towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centers, and begin pullback of military concentrations.

A Chinese college student committed suicide on Saturday night, just after leaving a farewell note that would auto-post online hours after her death.

Despite what the stage monologist would have audiences believe, there are serious journalists who have devoted their careers to reporting on conditions in China. One of them, Rob Schmitz, told IBT that Daisey has undermined his and other reporters' work.

The move means that banks in Japan and 10 EU nations have been given a six-month break from being cut off from the US financial system while they work to reduce their dependence on Iranian oil.

Pyongyang officials said such rhetoric may be akin to a declaration of war.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has had so many rumored release dates there is no real way of knowing when the phone will actually come out, but a new report indicates that Samsung's Greater China president, Kim Young-Ha, is planning on moving the launch forward to April.

Gold traded broadly steady on Wednesday, as a boost from a modestly stronger euro against the dollar partly offset slow consumer demand and an erosion in holdings of the metal in exchange-traded products.

Stocks opened little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited data on the housing market a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak.

Tobacco-related deaths have nearly tripled in the past decade and big tobacco firms are undermining public efforts that could save millions, a report led by the health campaign group the World Lung Foundation (WLF) said on Wednesday.

U.S. stocks were poised for a slightly higher open on Wednesday ahead of data on the housing market a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak.

Mobile phone users in China have got in their basket of offerings two much-awaited smartphones. Japanese phone manufacturer Sony has just announced the upcoming availability of its first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone, Sony Xperia neo L MT25i. And Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC Corporation has made available its HTC Eternity from today, the first Windows Phone device to officially reach the country.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE:RDS) signed Wednesday the first-ever production sharing contract with China's state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, as the world's second largest economy seeks to develop its untapped reserves, similar to those that gave rise to the U.S. natural gas boom, with the help of foreign technology.