CHINA

POSCO <005490.KS>, the world's No.3 steelmaker, met market expectations with a 17 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Friday, hurt by firm raw material costs and cheaper products from Japanese rivals after the March 11 earthquake.

Good demand for Volvo's trucks in the face of macroeconomic uncertainty led to record second-quarter operating profit and boosted its shares on Friday.

Volvo stuck to its forecast for 2011 truck market sales and cut its outlook for the market for construction equipment due to a softer China, when reporting second-quarter earnings that met expectations.

Asian stocks rose and the euro climbed to a two-week high on Friday after European leaders agreed on a package to rescue debt-stricken Greece and gains will be sustained if U.S. policymakers also manage to cobble together a last minute deal.

India is nearing the end of its credit tightening cycle, as 10 interest rate increases since March 2010 exact a toll on growth in a once-roaring economy, making Tuesday's expected rate rise potentially the last for the near future.

Japan's major consumer electronics makers are expected to show April-June earnings collapsed due to the March earthquake, but focus is turning to whether they can meet their forecasts for a swift recovery, given a fragile global economy.

Who is Wendi Deng? Wendi Deng Murdoch is Rupert Murdoch's wife.

Chinese counterfeiters have had a field day pumping out knockoffs of Apple Inc's best-selling iPhones and iPads, but one appears to have gone a step further -- a near flawless fake Apple Store that even employees believe is the real deal.

The United States owes $14.3 trillion, but to whom?

Wendi Deng Murdoch became an international sensation on Tuesday when she acted as a human shield between her husband, Rupert Murdoch, and a shaving cream pie thrown by a protestor at Murdoch's parliamentary hearing.With lighting-fast reflexes, Wendi leapt out of her chair and slapped away Rupert's would-be attacker.The hearing - which the media mogul called the most humbling day of his career - probed the hacking scandal at News Corp, Rupert's publishing empire...

Nepal is set to re-measure the height of the world's tallest peak, Mount Everest, to settle a longstanding dispute with neighboring China.

Upon first glance, it looks like every other Apple store should. But to the trained eye of an American blogger living in Kunming City, China, it was clearly an impostor.

Private-sector growth in the euro zone ground to a halt this month and China's factory sector contracted for the first time in a year, surveys showed on Thursday, deepening evidence of a global slowdown.

Taiwan's Acer Inc will buy U.S.-based cloud computing firm iGware Inc for $320 million, the fifth-largest ever Taiwanese buyout of a U.S. company, as it seeks to move beyond its core hardware manufacturing business.

Rupert Murdoch's wife has received acclaim for standing by her man.

Stock index futures were flat on Thursday as investors awaited details on a second rescue package for Greece, though weakness in technology shares kept Nasdaq futures slightly negative.

Taiwan's Acer Inc will buy U.S.-based cloud computing firm iGware Inc for $320 million, the fifth-largest ever Taiwanese buyout of a U.S. company, as it seeks to move beyond its core hardware manufacturing business .

Growth ground to a halt in the euro zone's private sector this month while China's factory sector contracted for the first time in a year, surveys showed on Thursday, deepening evidence of a sharp slowdown in the global economy.

World stocks held below a 1-1/2 week high on Thursday after a disappointing services sector survey in the euro zone while the euro ticked up as investors awaited details of a Franco-German deal on a Greek bailout at a European summit later.

Nokia fell to a loss in the second quarter as it faces tough competition from Apple and Google's Android-powered smartphones, and recorded a restructuring charge. However, excluding one-time items, it managed to beat analysts' expectations.

Futures on major U.S. indices point to a lower opening on Thursday ahead of key weekly jobless claims data and corporate earnings.