CHINA

Gold fell on Wednesday as investors booked profits on the metal's rally earlier in the day ahead of the outcome of a Federal Reserve policy meeting that many hope will confirm the central bank's strategy to kick-start U.S. growth.

Kyrgyzstan launched its second foreign-run gold mine on Wednesday after the Chinese owners settled a dispute with local residents, raising hopes that bigger projects could follow in the Central Asian state.

Analysts are widely expecting the device to deliver record-shattering sales numbers.

Struggling car maker Saab gained fresh breathing room in its fight for survival on Wednesday when it won a court appeal to be granted protection from creditors while it awaits Chinese investment.

Opel's labor chief called for U.S. carmaker General Motors Co to offer shares in Opel to its joint venture partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in a renewed push for more independence.

Opel's labor chief called for General Motors Co to offer shares in Opel to its joint venture partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in a renewed push for more independence.

The world's giant emerging economies have no magic wand to resolve the euro zone's debt problems, but a contribution to its stabilization could still prove powerful, help avert market panic and reap significant non-financial rewards.

Apple Inc has been granted 40 patents in China, which will help the maker of iPhones and iPads gain more intellectual property protection in the country, the China Daily reported on Wednesday.

Gold held steady above $1,800 an ounce on Wednesday ahead of the outcome of a Federal Reserve policy meeting at which the U.S. central bank is expected to unveil its next steps to revive the world's largest economy.

Gold jumped to its biggest gain in eight sessions on Tuesday, snapping back from steep day-ago losses as the anticipation of further U.S. stimulus mingled with new fears over global growth.

Pent-up car demand in the United States and slowing, but still growing sales in China, should soften concerns about the ability of General Motors Co to weather a recession, the company's chief executive said.

Republican lawmakers are stepping up their investigation into alternative energy loan programs in the wake of the collapse of the Solyndra solar company, the first company to receive such government funding.

About 2.8 million jobs, both in manufacturing and high-tech fields, have been lost as a result of the growing U.S. trade deficit with China since Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, said an EPI study, which was denounced immediately by the US-China Joint Business Council.

Quanta Computer Inc, the world's largest PC contract maker, said on Wednesday that employees at its Taiwan production line number less than 2,000, down from about 3,000 in the first half, following a decline in client orders.

Authorities in eastern India will start culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain a new outbreak of H5 bird flu, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, as a mutant strain of the virus is spreading elsewhere in Asia.

Gold's rally will extend beyond $2,000 an ounce in the next year, but won't match the torrid record-breaking climb of the last 12 months, according to gold investors and analysts attending the London Bullion Market Association's (LBMA) annual conference.

Drawn by a handwritten notice, a handful of customers sift through stacks of sports shoes and rows of clothes at a Li Ning discount outlet in China's boom town of Shenzhen on a Sunday afternoon.

Japan's exports rose in the year to August at less than half the pace expected as a global economic slowdown, a strong currency and Europe's sovereign debt crisis put Japan's own recovery increasingly in doubt.

Strong policies are urgently needed to increase economic growth and reduce the risk of a double-dip recession in the developed world, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its revised World Economic Outlook. The IMF also decreased its 2011 global GDP growth forecast to 4 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the June 2011 forecast.

Europe will come under heavy pressure this week to stem its deepening debt crisis but talks among the self-proclaimed guardians of global finance are unlikely to yield bold action.

Europe needs to get its act together and deal with its worsening sovereign debt crisis, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of severe repercussions for global growth.