INDIA

Most Asian stock markets ended on a negative note last week as the weak fiscal reports from the major economies and the China-Japan tensions weighed on the sentiment.

Most of the Asian markets fell in the week as investor confidence was weighed down by the intensifying tensions between China and Japan, raising concerns of economic slowdown and undermining the stimulus measures announced by the Bank of Japan.

Wal-Mart says it's ready to open an Indian store as nation's leader defends allowing foreign direction investment in the nation's retail sector.

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered the following speech on Friday on the economic reforms that were unveiled last week.

YouTube's "Innocence of Muslims" stayed up after a California judge refused a ban, but 19 Pakistanis were killed in demonstrations.

Violent protesters in Peshawar, Pakistan, torched two movie theaters over anti-Muslim film "Innocence of Muslims."

The U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart is expected to launch its first store in India within 12 to 18 months following an economic reforms drive by the Indian government last week that allowed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the multi-brand retail sector.

Most of the Asian markets rose Friday amid investor hopes that the stimulus measures announced this month by policymakers around the world will be able to bolster the global economic growth.

Small business owners in India are striking over fears that the entry of global retail outlets would force them out of business.

A nationwide strike called by the opposition parties to protest against the foreign direct investment in retail and the fuel price hike partially affected the normal life in India Thursday.

Asian markets fell Thursday as investor confidence was weighed down by the report that Japan's trade deficit increased in August, raising more concerns about the faltering global economy.

For the first time ever, there are now more millionaires in Asia than in North America.

The high abortion rate of female fetuses has led to a dramatic gender imbalance in India -- over the 50-year period from 1961 to 2011, the number of girls born per 1,000 boys plunged from 976 to 914, according to the census.

The Congress leaders claimed that the party and government had made several attempts to contact Banerjee but she had not responded to the messages so far. “We have tried to speak to her. The Prime Minister tried to speak. We left a message, but we have not heard anything,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in Delhi.

The UAE is making it more difficult for immigrant laborers to enter the country on tourist and other short-term visas in a bid to prevent foreign criminals from entering the country under the guise of looking for work. The rapidly developing country has been built up with immigrant labor mostly from South Asia, who form a majority of the Gulf nation's 8 million plus population.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the state of West Bengal, declared that her party, the All India Trinamool Congress ? currently the second largest segment of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition ? could no longer cooperate with the UPA.

The high abortion rate of female fetuses has led to a dramatic gender imbalance in India ? over the fifty-year period from 1961 to 2011, the number of girls born per 1,000 boys plunged from 976 to 914, according to the census.

The worldwide cloud services market is estimated to grow 19.6 percent in 2012 to surpass the $109-billion mark, according to a new report by Gartner.

India's retail inflation rate increased to 10.03 percent in August from 9.86 percent recorded in July, mainly driven by higher food prices, according to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.