CHINA

Apple Inc's share of China's booming smartphone market slipped for a second straight quarter in October-December, as it lost ground to cheaper local brands and as some shoppers held off until after the iPhone 4S launch last month.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said on Friday the Chinese economy would experience stable growth and avoid a hard landing this year, dispelling a scenario economists fear may upset the global economy.

Richline International, part of U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, plans to buy debt-laden jeweler UnoAErre, in a further expansion into Italian jewelery after a string of acquisitions last year.

Welcome to the world of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and their dystopian implications.

China will launch its next manned space mission sometime between June and August, which will attempt to dock with an experimental module launched last year, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.

The Fall 2012 runways at New York Fashion Week boasted some stunning new dress styles for the upcoming season including fur accents, lower hemlines, bright crimson hues and bold patterns.

Nearly 4,000 overseas Air Australia passengers got bad news Friday when they learned that the airline had collapsed and they didn't have a way home.

Shares of Baidu, China’s equivalent of Google, fell as much as 5 percent early Friday after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings.

J.R. Smith announced on Twitter that he had decided on the New York Knicks.

Wall Street stocks were set to open slightly higher Friday on optimism about Greece's bailout, but gains could be small as investors appeared ready to take a breather after the S&P 500 posted its best daily gain in two weeks.

Syrian government forces continue to shell opposition protestors in the city of Homs on Friday. Activists in the city are calling the assault the heaviest in weeks.

Stock index futures rose Friday on signs of progress in Greece's bailout, but gains were small as investors appeared ready to take a breather after the S&P 500 posted its best daily gain in two weeks.

China's top search engine, Baidu Inc, beat Wall Street's earnings estimates as its revenue grew more than 80 percent year-on-year in the fourth-quarter.

Stock index futures were little changed Friday as investors were set to take a breather from a rally that pushed the S&P 500 to a nine-month high in the previous session.

Foxconn Technology Group, the top maker of Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads whose factories are under scrutiny over labor practices, has raised wages of its Chinese workers by 16-25 percent from this month, the third rise since 2010.

In an interesting turn of events, will the entry of al-Qaeda comically twist the balance as it will be naturally pitted against the Hezbollah, the feared Shia militia actively supported and patronized by Iran? Assad's promise of a regional conflict could come true then!

The Airport Council International has announced the list of the top airports in the world.

Kosovo celebrates its fourth anniversary of Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on Feb. 17. Even after four years of its UDI, the Albanian majority country is still to make any head way towards development or in ensuring stability in the region. The biggest challenge it faces includes its conflict with Serbia, which don't recognize Kosovo's independence and the resistance from several of the European Union countries that oppose its inclusion in the Union.The territorial confl...

The latest fourth quarter 2011 global consumer confidence report by Nielsen has found that India is the most optimistic market in the world.

General Motors Co. has posted its best annual profit, which jumped 62 percent to $7.6 billion, beating expectations and breaking records two years after it nearly collapsed into bankruptcy.

The foreign exchange reserves of China shrank by $20 billion in Q4 2011, the first quarterly decline since 1993.