CHINA

A rise in the number of reported cases of avian flu, coupled with the appearance of a mutation that could be resistant to vaccines, has led the United Nations to warn of a potential bird flu resurgence.

Gold prices dropped sharply in holiday-thinned trade on Monday, falling as much as 2.7 percent after Wall Street stocks opened higher, deflecting interest from the safe-haven metal.

Figuring out what the People's Bank of China is doing can be as perplexing as parsing a statement from Alan Greenspan, the notoriously opaque former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman.

While American cities started limping back to normalcy from around a week-long disaster created by Hurricane Irene, on the other side of the globe one more natural disaster -- Super-typhoon Nanmadol -- left at least 16 confirmed and many others feared dead after hitting the Philippines last weekend.

Recent strikes in Indonesia by gold miners, pilots and supermarket staff over pay signal that workers have started to push for a greater share of profits in a booming economy that has drawn foreign investors partly for its low labor costs.

Record gold prices, rather than denting China's enthusiasm for bullion, have emboldened investors to plough more money into gold bars and riskier bullion-based derivatives.

Gold prices eased a touch in holiday-thinned trade on Monday as investors took bets on higher prices off the table, disappointed by a lack of clear guidance from the Federal Reserve on Friday on the options for U.S. economic stimulus.

Here is a brief rundown of important events around the world Monday morning, August 29, 2011.

Tropical storm Nanmadol headed for China on Monday, losing strength after drenching southern and eastern Taiwan, forcing evacuations, shutting businesses and disrupting transport, but causing no major damage or casualties.

Record gold prices, rather than denting China's enthusiasm for bullion, have emboldened investors to plough more money into gold bars and riskier bullion-based derivatives.

China's fast-growing consumerism and lax policing of ivory laws are the latest threats to wild elephant populations, said an author of a recent report on endangered species.

The hardline Chinese official removed last week as Communist Party chief of restive Tibet has been made head of the province in the center of contention over China's Catholics, giving him an influential role in another sensitive religious issue.

A U.S. and European push to impose U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria for its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators is meeting fierce resistance from Russia and China, U.N. diplomats said.

A court in southwest China has charged three Tibetan monks with intentional homicide for hiding a fellow monk and preventing him from getting treatment after he set himself on fire, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.

Record gold prices, rather than denting China's enthusiasm for bullion, have emboldened investors to plough more money into gold bars and riskier bullion-based derivatives.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Friday are: Banco Santander, Brookfield Office Properties, Jaguar Mining, Sandridge Energy, Radioshack, Toll Brothers, General Growth Properties, Endeavour Silver Corp, Bank of America and CVR Energy.

Concern over climate change has taken a back seat to economic concerns in developed nations, a recent poll indicates.

A drive to benefit from record bullion prices lifted Australian gold production by 10 percent, or 24 metric tons, to 270 metric tons in the 2010/11 financial year, maintaining Australia's No. 2 ranking behind China, a sector survey released on Sunday showed.

Chinese authorities seem to waging a war on pop music. The Ministry of Culture has handed music download Web sites a blacklist of 100 so-called offending songs that the sites must remove as they pose a threat to China's national cultural security, say reports.

Scientists have discovered the oldest mammalian ancestor in northeast China, according to a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The Bank of America (BAC.N) is completing plans to sell over half of its shares in the China Construction Bank (0939.HK), with a group of Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds negotiating to buy, the New York Times reported on Saturday.