JAPAN

Game between Chelsea and Barcelona sets a brand new Twitter record for hits per second.

The discovery this week of the fourth U.S. case of mad cow disease was one of two things for food safety experts: a validation of a decade-long focused surveillance regime or a lucky break that highlights the need to revisit previously scrapped efforts for more comprehensive surveillance.

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor reported Thursday a profit of 2.45 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in the first quarter, which is up 31 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Asian shares gained on Thursday, retaining positive momentum as the Federal Reserve reassured markets that it will keep its highly accommodating stance to support growth, and optimism grew over strong corporate earnings after Apple Inc's robust results.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke rattled financial markets Wednesday afternoon, as the top U.S. central banker hemmed and hawed his way through a tough round of questioning from a cadre of economic reporters.

East Asia is rife with new military activity as maritime disputes highlight persistent tensions between neighbors.

CISPA sponsors are realizing the bill is a major threat to Internet privacy akin to SOPA, apparently in response to a groundswell of opposition from across the world.

Mad cow disease has emerged once again in the United States, for the first time in six years. The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy infection was confirmed on Tuesday. Health concerns were allayed by the USDA, but economic concerns are taking their place.

U.S. authorities reported the country's first case of mad cow disease in six years on Tuesday, swiftly assuring consumers and global importers that there was no danger of meat from the California dairy cow entering the food chain.

Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining company backed by filmmaker James Cameron and other well-know investors, was officially announced on Tuesday, with plans to launch exploratory spacecraft over the next two years to hunt for raw materials, ranging from water to precious metals from Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) a few years after that.

Asian stock markets advanced Wednesday as signs of an improvement in the US housing market and better-than-expected quarterly earnings from corporate majors buoyed sentiment.

A Japan earthquake struck a southeastern section of Honshu island Tuesday afternoon, rocking the region with a reported 5.5-magnitude shock.

Over the past three decades, South Korea has catapulted itself from Third World-caliber poverty to becoming a technologically superior economic powerhouse.

China is still friendly with North Korea, despite the latter being roundly condemned by the international community. History plays a role, but Beijing is getting something out of it too - just how much, though, remains to be seen.

The unnamed source said the North had almost completed preparations for the nuclear test, which if it went ahead would draw strong international condemnation and further isolate the impoverished state from its sole major ally, China.

Ever since Japan began challenging the United States as the leading automobiles and consumer electronics manufacturer in the 1980s, a debate has been raging over whether America's days as the preeminent manufacturing nation in the world are coming to an end. It would only intensify in the next two decades, when another Asian giant, China, emerged as a manufacturing power.

Stock index futures crept higher on Tuesday after sharp market losses in the previous session but continued concerns about Europe's debt crisis could mean gains will be slight.

It is highly expected that the Bank of Japan will resort to additional monetary easing at its next meeting on April 27 so that the economy could recover from deflation and grow more strongly.

Most of the Asian stock markets declined Tuesday, following losses on Wall Street overnight as increased political uncertainty in France and the Netherlands as well as disappointing Euro zone manufacturing and services PMIs weighed on the sentiment.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.37 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.35 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.48 percent at 4:35 a.m. EDT.

Asian shares inched up on Tuesday but gains were limited as political uncertainty and disappointing data in Europe raised fears the euro zone could struggle to push through austerity measures and may stay in recession until late in the year.