CHINA

President Barack Obama has made a proposal to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent in an attempt to ensure that companies will be paying less in taxes for the U.S. to remain competitive globally. The proposal could intensify the tax-reform debate with the Presidential election approaching.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against the chairman and the former Chief Executive Officer of Puda Coal Inc alleging them of defrauding investors by selling stakes in the firm which they had turned into an empty shell company.

A target of less than 8 percent growth for China could be set by Premier Wen Jiabao amid the risk of financial instability, according to a report.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rained rockets and bombs down on opposition-held neighborhoods of the city of Homs, reducing buildings to rubble and killing more than 80 people, including two Western journalists.

Hewlett-Packard and Dell Inc are keeping a close eye on a big jump in wages for workers that assemble Apple Inc's iPhone in China, and could be forced to nudge up prices for their own products if labor costs keep rising.

Gold jumped to a three-month high on Wednesday, reversing early losses after bullish technical factors triggered fund buying, and platinum prices hit their highest in five months on supply worries.

China issued a formal complaint to Japan on Wednesday after Nanjing severs ties with Nagoya.

Tibet's prime-minister-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, urged Tibetans to not celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, amidst a rash of self-immolating monks and rising tensions with the Chinese government. However, traditional and spiritual rituals continued as planned.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned on Wednesday after a row with fellow party member Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Taiwan and China are engaged in a kind of “metaphysical battle” for Lin’s identity.

ASUS has delivered its promise to launch a tool that unlocks the bootloader of the Transformer Prime Eee Pad.

Russia has thwarted efforts by the West to officially condemn and sanction Syria and force Assad to step down

Counterfeit drugs pose a significant threat to public health, but sales of fake drugs grows steadily.

In recent weeks, Apple has received increasing scrutiny over the working conditions within the factories that produce its highly profitable products like the iPad and MacBook. In an ABC exclusive that aired Feb. 21, Nightline was permitted to tour Apple's largest manufacturer, Foxconn, at its facilities in Shenzhen, China.

A large pocket of offshore natural gas could shift Eastern Mediterranean geopolitics on its head. As the threat of war looms between Israel and Iran, the newly found gas could add extra friction between the two countries.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 stalled near a 10-month-old high after weak data on Europe's business activity raised concerns about a recession.

A $35 computer launched last year in India as the world's cheapest tablet has run into problems and companies will be invited to bid again to make the device after complaints of poor performance and hiccups rolling out a pilot model.

A fermented concoction made with tea, sugar, bacteria and yeasts might not sound like the most delicious or most beneficial drink, but some believe that is exactly what Kombucha tea is. Some have called it a magical elixir; some have dubbed it the new Red Bull only with healthful properties; some claim it can fight everything from baldness to AIDS. However, other sources cite adverse side effects of and deaths linked to the drink.

In a heated courtroom hearing in Shanghai Wednesday, Apple defended its right to use the iPad trademark in China.

A Chinese technology firm sought to halt the sale of Apple Inc's iPads across the affluent city of Shanghai, arguing at a local court hearing on Wednesday that the U.S. firm had infringed on its trademark.

A scanned advertisement of the Proview iPad made its way onto the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report Blog, Feb. 17, so now everyone can see what the Apple trademark dispute is really all about. As mentioned in the accompanying report, Proview's iPad looks nothing like Apple's, but it does look a little bit like the iMac desktop computer of a decade ago.