CHINA

Charles Dickens will be feted around the world next year in literature, film, theater, music and art, underlining his international cultural impact 200 years after his birth.

Prudent interventions by major central banks averted a global financial calamity during the financial crisis’ acute stage three years ago. Another intervention to address Europe may be needed, and should be implemented, if central bank officials deem it necessary.

Marvell Technology Group gave a cautious revenue forecast as widespread flooding in Thailand hurts demand for its hard-drive controllers, but upbeat news about expansion in China gave the chipmaker's stock a bump.

Anglo-Dutch publishing and events group Reed Elsevier Plc/NV posted a 1 percent rise in underlying sales for the first nine months of the year and said macroeconomic uncertainty had had only a marginal effect on its results.

Google, Facebook, Mozilla, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, AOL, LinkedIn and Zynga wrote a joint letter to Congress, urging the House of Representatives to prevent the Stop Online Piracy Act from becoming law.

In what appears to be a rapidly developing trend, Chinese visitors to the United States are being noticed more for the flash of their newly-bought designer bags than that of their Nikons. Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) and Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) are just a few of the companies in the luxury retail sector that have recently noted how higher revenue at their North American operations has largely been boosted by Chinese shoppers on vacation.

The White House issued a statement on Thursday after Benetton's 'Unhate' ad campaign featured a digitally altered picture of Obama kissing two of his perceived enemies.

An advertising campaign that depicts President Barack Obama kissing two male world leaders on the mouth drew a critical response from the White House on Thursday.

Into a traditional northern New England town under pressure from chain stores and cell phone towers, its old family farms struggling, comes Hattie Kong, half-Chinese and newly widowed.

Forget changing interest rates. China’s main weapon of choice to influence liquidity is changing its reserve requirement ratios. This tool dictates the percentage of commercial bank deposits that must be kept in the central bank.

China’s millionaires want out. And if Congress is smart, it will lure them to the United States, along with others who aren’t quite so rich.

Delphi Automotive Plc raised $530 million in its initial public offering -- in a deal that values the company much less than it had hoped for when IPO plans were first being formed.

Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping praised Mugabe as an old friend of China.

General Electric, the biggest U.S. conglomerate, announced plans to hire as many as 400 more software engineers for a new global center in San Ramon, Calif. The company said it plans to spend as much as $1 billion on software development through 2015.

The U.S. military now has a legal framework to cover offensive operations in cyberspace, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Wednesday, less than a month after terming this a work in progress.

China and India, the world's biggest mobile phone markets, are building fourth-generation (4G) networks based on the long-term evolution (LTE) technology.

Mobile technologies will be increasingly deployed to enable people in Asia to monitor and manage their health, with the market expected to hit $7 billion by 2017, an industry official said.

Mobile technologies will be increasingly deployed to enable people in Asia to monitor and manage their health, with the market expected to hit $7 billion by 2017, an industry official said.

President Barack Obama said Thursday the U.S. military will expand its role in the Asia-Pacific region despite budget cuts, declaring America was here to stay as a Pacific power which would help shape the region's future.

BHP Billiton , the world's biggest miner, has turned more wary on the outlook for commodity markets as some players face tighter access to credit, but said conditions are not as bad as during the global financial crisis.

Italian clothing firm, Benetton, has withdrawn its latest ad campaign featuring an image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing an eminent Egyptian Imam on the lips, due to the Vatican's hot protests.