CHINA

With emerging economic powerhouse China snapping at its heels, Japan on Thursday said it still remained the second-largest economy in the world, and raised its third quarter gross domestic product growth to 4.5 percent on an annual basis.

World oil demand is likely to exceed the previous all-time high reached in 2007, mainly driven by huge demand from the Asian countries, a report said on Wednesday.

The government of South Korea is trying to drum up foreign direct investments through free economic zones (FEZ), or areas that offer financial incentives for foreign investments.

In a conference on Wednesday in mid-town Manhattan, The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) presented reasons why South Korea makes for an attractive investment candidate for foreigners.

Domestic monetary policy, monetary policy abroad, wages, and the cost of essential commodities all point to higher inflation in China, according to virtually every single school of economic thought.

China was the subject of most number of anti-dumping investigations in the first half of the year, and products exported from China attracted the highest number of anti-dumping measures by other countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has said in a report.

Japan’s trade with other nations rose only slightly in October, raising fears of a slowdown in the recovery of the export-dependent country.

Chinese students in Shanghai emerge at the top in international student assessment tests against Western peers, according to a PISA study.

China emerges the only destination among the top 5 to witness increase in students from the USA for year 2008-09

Longer-term, the potential impact of the tax cuts upon the stock market and economy remain rather fuzzy, given the multitude of other issues facing investors, including perpetually high unemployment in the U.S., a seemingly never-ending sovereign debt crisis in Europe and constant friction with China over trade and currency.

One of the U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks says that Chinese government had gained access to Microsoft source code which was used to hack into USG organizations.

The Gold Price held near last night's new record highs for US, Euro and Sterling investors in London trade on Tuesday, recording an AM Gold Fix at $1426 per ounce as world stock markets gained more than 1.5%.

The council of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is delaying on deciding whether to accredit foreign law schools because the matter needs more study.

Emerging East Asian economies will grow more than forecast this year but growth will slow in the region next year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

Global trade protectionism will accelerate in the years ahead and the tussle between the U.S. and China over trade and other issues will escalate to crisis levels as early as in 2012, according to an analyst.

In a rare show of collective security, the United States, South Korea and Japan held a trilateral meeting on Monday to send a strong message aimed at China, which is seen as shielding North Korea.

The United States is expected to see weak employment prospects though employers expect the modest hiring pace to continue in the first three months of the year, a survey reported.

President Barack Obama on Monday urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to join the United States in denouncing North Korea's latest deadly military skirmish with South Korea and the North's pursuit of nuclear development. it marked the first time the leaders have spoken since a November 22 incident left four South Korean soldiers dead.

Wikileaks revealed that Li Keqiang, a senior Chinese politician with many economic-related duties, doubts the country's economic data.

In a CBS interview, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took shots at foreign critics who openly bashed QE2 in the days leading up to the November 11 G20 Summit.

International talks on Iran's nuclear activity got under way in Geneva on Monday amid Tehran's claims of achieving self-sufficiency in the fuel cycle. Analysts say that little is expected from the talks. But the latest developments in Iran are likely to give it the confidence to put forward demands of sanctions against the Islamic Republic to be lifted. The talks between Iran and the five UN powers - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - plus Germany were stalled 14 months ago.