CHINA

BMW expects the global premium car market to grow more than twice as fast as the overall auto market this year, the German carmaker's finance chief told a German newspaper.

China has agreed to look into a complaint by India's foreign ministry that a diplomat was prevented from treating his severe diabetes and collapsed while offering consular assistance to two Indian citizens on trial in China's Yiwu city.

Apple iPhone 5 rumors have been continuously circulating on the Internet, with the most recent one, from Barclays Capital, stating the iPhone is Apple's largest and most profitable product line.

The first of Vale's giant dry bulk vessels to arrive in China has completed delivery of its iron ore cargo, shipping data showed on Tuesday, a key step forward in the Brazilian miner's plan to cut shipping costs to its biggest market.

What will the year 2012 bring? Well, it looks like: the Summer Olympics in London. After that, venturing a prediction is a tough task, but here are a few.

Germany's Lufthansa told passengers on Monday to brace for higher ticket prices as it refuses to shoulder the costs of a carbon trading scheme at the centre of a brewing trade spat.

Saying the Korean peninsula was at a turning point, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday urged North Korea to embrace a new era by using its new change of government head to transform Korean ties.

New Years Eve 2012 and already religious conflict has reared its head. Now the controversy du jour is about the Singer Cee Lo Green changing the words to John Lennon's song 'Imagine? From no religions true to all religions true? I like the sentiment, and the uproar points out the problem with religion we all face, together, in 2012.

Global manufacturing activity was subdued going into 2012, with the euro zone's industrial sector suffering its fifth straight month of declines in December and Asian factories mostly stuck in a rut.

Asian factory output remained weak in December, with Chinese manufacturers narrowly avoiding contraction and South Korea's industrial production shrinking the most in almost three years, while Europe data this week is expected to point to a recession.

Crude prices started their jolly ride to the top in February last year when simmering discontent in the Middle East erupted into several violent anti-government protests.

South Korea's manufacturing sector shrank the most in nearly three years in December as global demand cooled, a survey showed on Monday, but President Lee Myung-bak cited inflation as a bigger risk in a year of big elections.

Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets.

The United States will remain the top choice of most global commercial real estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

Iran has successfully produced and tested fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants, state television reported on Sunday, in a snub to international demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work.

Dysfunctional politics threatens to deliver a protracted period of slow global growth, possibly lasting well beyond 2012, which will only deepen the political and economic problems for the West.

The United States will remain the top choice of most global commercial real estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

The United States will continue to be the top choice of most global commercial real-estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil, which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong Un and protect him as human shields while working to solve the burning issue of food shortages by adhering to the policies of his late father, Kim Jong Il.

China's big manufacturers narrowly avoided a contraction in December a survey showed on Sunday, but downward risks persist and suggest the world's second's second-largest economy will need fresh policy support to counter a slowdown in growth.

The H5N1 strain of the flu is extremely dangerous, killing up to 60 percent of people who contract it.