CHINA

China slammed Hollywood actor and Batman star Christian Bale Wednesday for creating news after he was roughed up by security guards as he attempted to visit a blind legal activist whose detention has sparked a domestic and international outcry.

Shares of troubled search engine and media developer Yahoo surged nearly 6 percent late Wednesday after a report the company may unload its stake in China’s Alibaba Group for about $17 billion.

China has a one-child policy, while surrogacy is illegal.

Gold lost early gains Friday, along with stocks and the euro, as an unexpectedly high number of Eurozone banks queued up for low-interest loans reminded investors of just how widespread Europe's sovereign debt crisis has become.

North Korea will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week's death of Kim Jong-il, although his untested young son will be at the head of the ruling coterie, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said.

Tourism is a plague that threatens to destroy culture and society.

Batman star Christian Bale should feel embarrassed for trying to visit a prominent Chinese human rights activist detained in his home in eastern Shandong Province while he promoted his latest film, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Due to Kenya’s soaring unemployment rate, the men are easily fooled into this trap.

The world learned of Kim Jong Il's death on Monday, two days after the North Korean leader died of a heart attack. His death immediately placed his son, Kim Jong Un, into the spotlight, as he went from being a Respected General in North Korea to a Great Successor.

The United States has removed Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine, from its list of notorious markets for piracy in a nod to the firm's efforts to clean up its music offerings.

RadarOnline reported via a Star magazine exclusive that the Kardashians' products are made in sweatshops with the use of child labor.

The winter solstice begins (for most) Dec. 22, 2011. Many in the Northern Hemisphere regard it as the start of winter and shorter days, but what time does it begin, what does it mean for the different hemispheres, and how did the tradition get started? Find out everything you need to know about Winter Solstice 2011 and how to prepare for it here.

Workers began culling 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong on Wednesday after a dead chicken there tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian virus, a government spokesman said.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) completed its swap of common stock and notes for preferred shares as part of its efforts strengthen its capital base ahead of Fed's 2012 stress test.

Hackers in China broke through the computer defenses of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year and were able to access information about its operations and its 3 million members, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

China became the world's top patent filer in 2011, surpassing the United States and Japan as it steps up innovation to improve its intellectual property rights track record, a Thomson Reuters research report showed on Wednesday.

Google appears poised to go after the Apple iPad. Schmidt described the iPad as amazing, according to The Telegraph, and said the late Steve Jobs should be credited with creating the tablet craze. Many tablets already use Google's Android operating system, but Google doesn't sell its own hardware as a signature product.

China urged the United States on Wednesday to halt anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese tires and other products since Washington does not recognize China as a market economy.

North Korea will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week's death of Kim Jong-il, although his untested young son Kim Jong-un will be at the head of the ruling coterie.

The outlook for Europe looks gloomy especially after the European Central Bank (ECB) warning that risks to euro area financial stability increased considerably in the second half of 2011, as the sovereign risk crisis and its interplay with the banking sector worsened in an environment of weakening macroeconomic growth prospects.

Global stocks and commodities fell Wednesday as investors shrugged off heavy European Central Bank lending and eyed a troublesome U.S. earnings report.