Study: China, India's biofuel plans could cause water shortages

The China Post - China's and India's plans to produce more biofuels could cause shortages of water, which is needed for crops to feed their growing populations, according to study results released Thursday. Full Story

United States seeks World Trade Organization probe of Chinese curbs

The China Post - The United States will ask for a formal investigation of Chinese restrictions on the sale of American movies, music and books, which would be the fourth World Trade Organization case Washington has launched against Beijing in little over a year. Full Story

China censor's grip tightening on Internet

The China Post - Internet censors in China are becoming more systematic and sophisticated in how they monitor the Web and eradicate content deemed sensitive, according to a Chinese technician working for an Internet firm. Full Story

Google rules Net search world: study

The China Post - Google is king of Internet search worldwide but rivals in China and South Korea have become powerhouses in their respective countries, a comScore study revealed Tuesday. Full Story

China has 106 billionaires compared to 15 last year: report

The China Post - China now has 106 billionaires, seven times as many as last year, according to a list published Wednesday that underlined the rapidly growing economic muscle of the Asian giant. Full Story

China No. 2 in billionaires as assets boom: researcher

The China Post - China has more billionaires than any country except the United States, as soaring stock and property prices helped to boost wealth among the country's super-rich, researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said Wednesday. Full Story

Starbucks won't halt products made in China after recall

The China Post - Starbucks Corp., the world's largest coffee-shop chain, won't stop sourcing products from China after recalling children's cups with animal faces, some of which broke and caused choking. Full Story

Bureaucratic red tape thrives in India's boom

The China Post - When Ashok Kheny decided in 1995, after 15 years in the United States, to return to India and take up a US$700 million project to build a road and new townships, he dreamed of creating something unique. Full Story

China majors come home to tap markets

The China Post - A massive two-year boom in China's stock market has the country's blue-chip companies swooping home to cash in on a nation gripped by investment fever. Full Story

Child shareholders of China bank draw concern

The China Post - A Chinese bank has confirmed it had dozens of shareholders below the age of 18, including a 10-year-old, drawing questions and criticism from financial experts and Internet users, Chinese media reported Wednesday. Full Story

Hong Kong aims to become hub for Islamic finance

The China Post - Hong Kong's chief executive said Wednesday the city would look to emulate Malaysia and Singapore as a center for Islamic finance, in an effort to grab a slice of the thriving market. Full Story

European Union backs China plan in bid to avoid new 'Bra Wars'

The China Post - Looking to avoid a repeat of the "Bra Wars" debacle of 2005, the European Union on Tuesday backed a deal with China for tight checks on textiles imports when the bloc's quotas expire on Jan. 1. Full Story

European urges flexibility from China over exchange rates

The China Post - China came under European pressure on Tuesday to allow its currency to trade more freely on foreign exchange markets amid growing concerns that the Asian giant is destablizing the global economy. Full Story

Rare blue diamond smashes auction record

The China Post - A rare, flawless blue diamond has been snapped up at a Sotheby's sale here for US$7.98 million, making it the most expensive gemstone in the world per carat ever bought at auction. Full Story

Buffett cuts PetroChina stake for 6th time

The China Post - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold HK$2.8 billion (US$364 million) of PetroChina Co. shares, the biggest reduction in his stake since the U.S. billionaire first invested in China's largest oil producer. Full Story

Asia-Pacific on track to meet MDGs

The China Post - The Asia-Pacific region is on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include reducing poverty into half by 2015, according to a progress report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations on Monday. Full Story

Forbes says 26-year-old woman China's new richest person

The China Post - A 26-year-old woman worth US$16.2 billion (euro11.5 billion) is mainland China's richest person, the business magazine Forbes said Monday, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices. Full Story

China closes coal plants to cut pollution, meets targets

The China Post - China closed 9,030 megawatts of small coal-fired power plants in the first nine months, meeting 90 percent of an annual target to eliminate inefficient, polluting energy facilities. Full Story

China may send team to Manila over food scandal

The China Post - China may send a team of food-safety experts abroad for the first time after Filipino children fell ill from eating Chinese-made milk candies, state media said Monday. Full Story

China offers surprise hope in climate change fight

The China Post - Teenager Zhu Xiaotong's home a few hours' drive outside Beijing is a world away from the acrid air and snarling traffic jams that have come to dominate China's energy hungry capital. Full Story

Chadians dream of better life — in China

The China Post - It was mid-morning in one of the poorest countries on earth, and the daily traffic of battered trucks, motorcycles and donkeys bounced along the lumpy sand streets of this hot desert town. Full Story

China's CNPC invests in oil refinery in Chad

The China Post - China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), has agreed to invest in a joint venture oil refinery near the capital of Chad, state media reported Saturday. Full Story

China Shenhua to start trading in Shanghai

The China Post - China Shenhua Energy Co., the country's largest coal producer, will begin trading in Shanghai on Oct. 9, following the largest share sale worldwide this year. The Shanghai shares will have the ticker 601088. Full Story

China's oil imports up 18% in first 8 months

The China Post - China's net oil imports to fuel its booming economy rose 18.1 percent in the first eight months of this year, a state news agency reported Sunday. Full Story

Investors snap up China Digital shares on de

The China Post - China Digital TV Holding Co.'s shares spiked 75 percent in their first day of trading on Friday, as investors embraced the company's initial public offering on the promise of China's growing digital television market. Full Story

Tide turning in product safety: official

The China Post - China's crackdown on unsafe goods and food was showing results and international opinion over the problem was shifting in the nation's favor, a senior official said, while noting that enforcement remained "uneven." Full Story

Chinese cotton farmers clash with police

The China Post - Cotton farmers in China's far west clashed with police and paramilitary guards over alleged price-fixing by local authorities, injuring 40 people, witnesses and a Hong Kong media report said Friday. Full Story

Non-English Internet addresses expected to undergo live testing

The China Post - Sample addresses in nearly a dozen languages will be added to the Internet's central directories as early as next week, paving the way for Web surfers around the world to get online without knowing any English. Full Story

China's Alibaba.com wins HK IPO approval

The China Post - Alibaba.com, China's largest e-commerce company, has won approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a long-anticipated IPO expected to be worth roughly US$1 billion, sources familiar with the deal said. Full Story

ECB, Bank of England hold firm on interest rates

The China Post- The European Central Bank held its benchmark interest rate steady at 4 percent on Thursday, despite calls by some politicians for a cut in the face of a rising euro that they fear will hurt Europe's economies. Full Story

Google says it's closing the gap with rival Baidu in China

The China Post- Web search leader Google Inc. said Thursday it is closing the gap with rival Baidu in China, after years of trying to increase market share in the world's second-largest Internet arena. Full Story

China, United States launch first joint financial services firm

The China Post - The first U.S. financial services company to be co-owned by a Chinese firm was hailed Tuesday as an example of how the two nations can cooperate in a global economy. Full Story

Synnex bets on China to drive sales growth

The China Post - Taiwan's Synnex Technology, the world's No.3 electronics distributor, forecasts its annual sales will grow by a fifth in 2007 and 2008, a touch below market estimates, as it aims to sell more products in China's fast-growth market. Full Story

Hong Kong not keen to fund Disneyland expansion

The China Post - Hong Kong Disneyland is unlikely to receive more money from the local government to fund new attractions because of disappointing attendance at the theme park since it opened two years ago, a local newspaper reported Wednesday. Full Story

Greenspan defends subprimes, sees early signs of easing

The China Post - Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan defended the U.S. subprime mortgage market Monday, arguing that the securitization of home loans for people with poor credit -- not the loans themselves -- were to blame for the current global credit crisis. Full Story

Shanghai equities market has all the characteristics of a bubble, ex-Fed says

The China Post - The Shanghai stock market has all the hallmarks of a bubble, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Monday. Full Story

United States firm recalls Chinese-made toy rockets

The China Post - Estes-Cox Corp, a Colorado-based importer of flying model rockets made in China, has recalled about 80,000 of its X-15 rocket because of a potential safety hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. Full Story

Shipment of frozen United States sardines fails China checks

The China Post - China has found poisonous bacteria in a shipment of frozen sardines prepared in the U.S. and shipped by a Japanese trading company, state media said on Tuesday. Full Story

Morgan Stanley raises US$1.5 billion for Asia fund

The China Post - Morgan Stanley, the second-largest securities firm, said it raised about US$1.5 billion for a dedicated Asia private equity fund. Full Story

China CLSA purchasing managers' index up to 55

The China Post - China's manufacturing activity expanded at a faster pace in September, according to a survey by CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. Full Story

PRC uses leading exporters as models

The China Post - First comes the "wind shower." Wearing overalls and rubber boots, employees at Fusheng Food Co. stand in a narrow room as air jets in the walls blow away any dust on them. They wade through ankle-deep disinfectant and don caps, gloves and surgical masks. Full Story

China's top panel urges quality efforts

The China Post - Officials must try harder to resolve China's product safety problems, especially at lower levels that oversee manufacturing, the chief of a special panel says. Full Story

Asia could win next 'Space Race,' United States scientists fear

The China Post - Fifty years after the launch of Sputnik left the United States scrambling to play catch-up in the first Space Race, U.S. scientists fear history may be repeating itself as Asia emerges as the rising force in space exploration. Full Story

Poor profits, globalization, insurgents play havoc with India's tea industry

The China Post - He's a genteel man, with a sprawling plantation house, courtly manners and an estate of carefully trimmed tea bushes that stretches across the gentle hills of Assam, blanketing the land as far as you can see. Full Story

China unleashes cautious giant onto world's financial markets

The China Post - There was no champagne, no music, and just a few young women in traditional dresses. The low-key ceremony that marked the launch of China Investment Corp. this weekend could reflect the cautious manner in which Beijing intends to unleash the largest fund in history onto the world's financial markets. Full Story

Central bank to push more corporate bonds

The China Post - China will encourage publicly traded companies to issue bonds as a way of diversifying their corporate borrowings, the central bank said. Full Story

Push-up bra, certain underwear ads banned

The China Post - China has banned TV and radio ads for push up bras and figure-enhancing underwear in the communist government's latest move to purge the nation's airwaves of what it calls social pollution. Full Story

French firm to pay US$44 million in patent case

The China Post - An eastern China court has ordered a French electrical company to pay 330 million yuan (US$44 million) for infringing the copyright of a Chinese enterprise, a company official and state press said Sunday. Full Story

Shenzhen couple may get millions for demolished home

The China Post - A Chinese couple may get up to 20 million yuan (US$2.7 million) in compensation from developers after agreeing to the demolition of their home in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, Xinhua news agency said Sunday. Full Story

Ningbo Huaxiang eyes German acquisition

The China Post - Ningbo Huaxiang Electronic Co., a small but fast-growing Chinese automobile parts maker, said Saturday it was in preliminary talks to buy a German auto parts maker for between 1 billion and 1.5 billion yuan. Full Story