CHINA

The United States will put improved relations with Beijing at risk if it does not stop selling arms to Taiwan, China's Foreign Minister said on Monday.

Starbucks Corp may go for acquisitions over the next 12-18 months to expand its consumer products business, Chief Executive Howard Schultz told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

People.com.cn, the online news portal run by the mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, will list in Shanghai as early as June, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Central Huijin Investment Co, the domestic arm of China's $300 billion sovereign fund, will give its full backing to its banking units if they need to cut dividends or raise money to meet tougher capital rules, a senior Central Huijin executive said on Sunday.

China is cutting the size of outstanding bank loans to local government financing vehicles, Liu Mingkang, the head of China's bank regulatory body, was quoted as saying on Monday.

China's largest animal feed producer, New Hope Group, called on the government to stop its anti-dumping investigation against exports of U.S. DDGS, a by-product of corn-based ethanol used to substitute corn by feed mills.

Gold should push higher from its near-record levels due to its appeal as a safe haven, while iron ore should regain its upward momentum on the back of red-hot industrial demand from Asia, forecasters told the world's larger mining conference on Sunday.

North Korea is facing many of the same issues that led to revolutions from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya, but what are the chances of a similar uprising in the authoritarian Asian state?

Calls for Jasmine Revolution protests in Beijing are doomed to fail as people want peace and stability and government policies are popular, a spokeswoman for the city's government said on Sunday.

A whole new class of conservative investor is piling into the mining sector -- once the exclusive domain of daring risk-takers -- bringing a bonanza of funding options to junior miners racing toward production.

The U.S. Air Force's second mysterious robotic mini space vehicle, X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, carrying classified payload. Soon after the launch a media blackout shrouded the mission, fuelling speculation about its possible military purposes.

Siberian craftsman Anatoly Konenko is responsible for the smallest aquarium in the world.

The head of China Minmetals Corp, the country's biggest metals trading firm, called on Saturday for the government to consolidate the rare earths industry to foster competitive domestic firms, state media said.

A decade after the release of Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft is making another attempt to rid the world of the browser.

Shanghai International Port's (SIPG) joint venture with Belgium container terminal Zeebrugge has begun operations, a senior Chinese executive said on Saturday, following a delay during an industry downturn.

Bank of China Ltd, the country's No. 4 lender, expects growth in mortgage lending to slow this year as the government moves to cool property prices, the bank's president said on Saturday.

China has formally invited North Korea's leader-in-waiting to visit, but it was not clear when Kim Jong-un would make the trip, a South Korean lawmaker said on Saturday, quoting a senior spy agency official.

China is planning trial efforts for an energy cap-and-trade scheme, applying market forces to its goals to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas pollution, the government said on Saturday.

China's spending on police and domestic surveillance will hit new heights this year, with public security outlays unveiled on Saturday outstripping the defence budget for the first time as Beijing cracks down on protest calls.

Scientists are reportedly struggling to find an explanation to the appearance of two suns in the sky viewed in China a couple of days ago.

China is on course for another five years of robust growth, but inflation threatens social stability and must be tamed, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Saturday.