IBT Staff Reporter

China said on Wednesday it will launch within weeks its first spacecraft capable of docking with a module it put into orbit last month, in what will mark a crucial test of its growing space programme.

Royal Dutch Shell , the biggest shareholder in Woodside Energy , has given no indication that it is in any hurry to sell its 24 percent stake in Woodside, the Australian company's chief said on Wednesday.

Olympus Corp Chairman and President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa stepped down on Wednesday in response to a widening scandal over dubious acquisition deals, as sources said Japan's securities watchdog was looking into the 92-year-old firm's past dealings.

China will intensify controls of online social media and instant messaging tools, the ruling Communist Party said in an agenda-setting document that marks the government's highest-level reaction so far to the explosive growth of microblogs.

Olympus Corp announced on Wednesday that its chairman and president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa had stepped down over media reports of a widening scandal, as sources said Japan's main securities watchdog was looking into the 92-year-old firm's dubious acquisition deals.

Japanese media interest has been muted, regulators are mostly mum and many politicians seem unaware anything is amiss.

The Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner took its first paying passengers aloft on Wednesday, showing off a carbon-composite design its maker says is lighter, more economical to fly and more comfortable than its metal rivals currently plying the airways.

The Bank of Japan is likely to debate easing monetary policy further at a meeting on Thursday after the yen rose to a record high and doubts mounted over whether Europe can forge a clear plan to tackle the euro zone debt crisis, sources said.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones and for the Nasdaq 100 up 0.6 to 0.8 percent.

German drugs and chemicals group Merck KGaA has cut the top end of its sales forecast for 2011 by 2 percent after sluggish demand for consumer electronics dimmed the prospects for its liquid crystals unit.

Olympus Corp announced Wednesday that its chairman and president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa had stepped down over media reports of a widening scandal, as sources said Japan's main securities watchdog was looking into the 92-year-old firm's dubious acquisition deals.

Investors stayed cautious ahead of a summit expected to deliver pledges to tackle the euro zone's debt crisis rather than firm commitments, keeping the euro above $1.39 as stocks markets traded little changed.

Chotubhai Raghani's fields in a dry, salty strip of Indian coastline on the Arabian Sea never yielded much wheat but he feels like a lucky man now he's started selling them at a juicy markup.

Manchester United got back to winning ways with a 3-0 victory over Aldershot in the Carling Cup, although it would only serve limited reprieve from the weekend's mauling in the Manchester derby.

Japan's scandal-hit Olympus Corp said its chairman and president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa has stepped down due to a series of media reports on the company's problems and a plunge in its share price.

Fears of flooding across the Thai capital grew on Wednesday after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra warned parts of Bangkok could face inundation for up to a month, with authorities calling a special five-day holiday to allow people to leave.

Shares of scandal-plagued Olympus Corp. fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday after gaining 8.2 percent in the previous session.

European stock index futures fell on Wednesday, after Asian shares traded lower for most part on growing concerns that the outcome from a key meeting of European policymakers to contain the debt crisis may fall short of expectations.

Shares of scandal-plagued Olympus Corp <7733.T> fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday after gaining 8.2 percent in the previous session.

A proposal to appoint a Commonwealth human rights commissioner to steer a more proactive rights agenda looks set to test a leaders' summit this week, with host Australia backing the plan but India and South Africa reported to oppose it.

The Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner takes its first paying passengers aloft on Wednesday, showing off a carbon-composite design its maker says is lighter, more economical to fly and more comfortable than its metal rivals currently plying the airways.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set himself ablaze in far western China on Tuesday, the tenth ethnic Tibetan this year to resort to the extreme form of protest, an overseas advocacy group said.

Steven Tyler, the lead singer of rock band Aerosmith, had a small accident on Tuesday that forced him to postpone a planned show in Paraguay by one day, a spokesman for the local concert organizers said.

Police arrested at least 85 people and cleared a camp used by anti-Wall Street protesters near the Oakland, California, city hall early on Tuesday, a city spokeswoman said.

Police and protesters scuffled in the streets of Oakland on Tuesday as more than 1,000 people marched on city hall to voice anger over scores of arrests at an Occupy Wall Street camp.

President Obama told Jay Leno during his visit to the Tonight Show Tuesday that you never like to see anybody come to the kind of end that Muammar Gaddafi did, but that his death sends a message to other dictators.

Unlike moviegoers in other parts of Asia, Chinese viewers don't mind seeing films that are set in the United States, a new study shows.

The Steve Jobs biography has debuted at the top of the charts, and you can expect it to stay there for a long time.

President Barack Obama took issue on Tuesday with the broadcasting of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's bloody demise, saying even those who had done terrible things deserved decorum in death.