CHINA

U.S. stocks plunged and oil prices surged on growing fears that Libya may descend into a civil war after Colonel Moammar Gaddafi warned that he would never give up his power and would rather die a “martyr.” The concerns about Libya vastly overshadowed some surprisingly good consumer confidence data in the U.S.

U.S. stocks plunged and oil prices surged on growing fears that Libya may descend into a civil war after Colonel Moammar Gaddafi warned that he would never give up his power and would rather die a “martyr.” The concerns about Libya vastly overshadowed some surprisingly good consumer confidence data in the U.S.

A Chinese man has died playing computer games for three-straight days without sleeping and hardly eating anything, according to China media reports.

South Africa will export 4 million tonnes of surplus maize to the world's biggest emerging markets but wants to ensure security of food supplies in southern Africa first, a minister said on Tuesday.

Medtronic Inc (MDT.N) cut its full-year earnings forecast, hampered by weakness in key medical device markets, and said it would eliminate up to 2,000 jobs, sending its shares down 2 percent. The world's largest medical device maker has struggled with slow sales as patients postponed treatments in the global

China's ANTA Sports Products Ltd said it recorded 20 percent growth in order book value for the third quarter of 2011, suggesting optimism among distributors over sportswear industry prospects in the mainland.

Shares of Alibaba.com tumbled as much as 10 percent after an internal probe prompted resignations of its top executives and forced the company to clean up a vendor mess that defrauded buyers.

China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator, and state-run Xinhua News Agency have jointly launched an Internet search engine, the companies said on Tuesday.

China has fined retail giants Carrefour SA and Wal-Mart Stores Inc a combined 9.5 million yuan ($1.5 million) for manipulating product prices in some of their stores, the country's top economic planner said on Tuesday.

China's central bank denied on Tuesday that the country has suspended plans to tailor reserve requirement ratios for Chinese banks as part of efforts to rein in rampant bank lending.

Temasek Holdings has hired former China International Capital Corp (CICC) investment banking head Ding Wei to lead its China operations, the Singapore state investor said late on Monday.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Zoran, SIGA Technologies, Mentor Graphics, First Financial Northwest, and Transition Therapeutics. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Clinical Data, Camtek, Silicon Motion Technology, China MediaExpress Holdings, and Banner.

Panda fever showed few signs of dying down in Japan on Tuesday after the arrival in Tokyo of the country's latest pair of giant pandas from China.

China's environmental protection agency has vowed to curb heavy metal pollution in a bid to cut widespread industrial contaminants like lead that have poisoned children and sparked protests.

China should account for 8-9 percent of global mergers and acquisition activity this year, continuing close to its strong levels in 2009 and 2010, JPMorgan's head of China M&A said Tuesday.

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday lowered Japan’s debt Aa2 rating outlook to negative from stable, saying political stalemate in the country will restrict efforts to tackle the nation’s debt.

At a time when the Middle East political tensions increasingly weigh on global oil markets, Russia has made significant advances at the expense of the traditional Gulf-Arab oil exporters.

Workers at a factory in east China's Suzhou industrial park, producing touch screens for Apple on contract have reportedly written a letter to Steve Jobs, conveying their grievances surrounding cases of chemical poisoning caused by a certain ingredient used in production.

Technology giant Apple has accepted that workers in China became seriously ill when their factory illegally swapped a cheaper toxic chemical, according to the Apple Supplier Responsibility 2011 Progress Report released on Tuesday.

Asian stock markets ended lower on Tuesday as continued political unrest in the Middle East weighed on the sentiment.

Officials from China and Taiwan gathered in the Taiwanese city of Chungli on Tuesday to sort out contentious issues in the comprehensive Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which was signed in June last year.