CHINA

MasterCard Worldwide's (MA.N) partnership with China UnionPay, the country's lone bank card transaction processor, will help it become a player in China's 3 trillion yuan ($455 billion) personal consumption market in five to 10 years, the head of MasterCard in China said on Monday.

South Korea's Hana Financial Group Inc (086790.KS) has formed a strategic tie-up with China Merchants Bank Co Ltd (600036.SS), Hana said on Tuesday.

European planemaker Airbus celebrated a surprise win in the annual orders race against Boeing with the 10,000th plane sale in its 40-year history, part of a $5 billion order from Virgin America.

The music service was supposed to rival iTunes. It didn't.

PIMCO's Anthony Crescenzi , author of one of the few books on macroeconomic investing, speaks to IBTimes about his views on the broad economy and the tools he uses to monitor it.

Top negotiators from the world's largest trading powers will meet next week to push for a global trade accord, a signal that political momentum may be building for completion of the stalled talks.

Rough diamond prices are expected to rise further this year, but will not match last year's sharp double-digit percentage rebound, which was boosted by restocking from jewellers, the head of De Beers sales division said on Monday.

South African stocks fell on Monday, snapping a four-day advance, with paint company Freeworld Coatings sliding 4 percent after saying a proposed takeover bid by Japan's Kansai Paint was unfair to shareholders.

Developing countries and economies in transition together attracted more foreign investment than developed countries in 2010 for the first time, a United Nations study showed on Monday.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, is greeting Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the U.S. this week with a promise of legislation to impose tariffs on Chinese goods to combat China’s alleged currency manipulation.

European planemaker Airbus celebrated a surprise win in the annual orders race against Boeing with the 10,000th plane sale in its 40-year history, part of a $5 billion order from Virgin America.

China's securities regulator will begin a trial programme that allows local fund houses to raise money offshore for investment in the domestic financial market, two sources said on Monday.

Investors remain preoccupied by the threat of further monetary tightening in China, writes Marc Ground at Standard Bank in London today. This is weighing on precious metal prices, encouraged further by a stronger Dollar off the back of lingering Eurozone debt concerns.

The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia, is ending its bundling of free music downloads with cellphones in 27 countries, where it has gained little traction since its 2008 launch.

The United States productivity growth will slow substantially in 2011 and could even fall below the rate in the euro area, The Conference Board reported on Monday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who will arrive in the U.S. on Tuesday for a state visit, rejected Washington’s demand for an appreciation of the Chinese currency, and debunked what he called was a “zero-sum Cold War mentality” while calling for broader cooperation with the U.S. on a range of issues. The focus during the three-day state visit, and beyond that, for that matter, will be on if Washington is prepared to act more sternly to make the Chinese let their currency appreciate.

Airbus sprinted past Boeing to win the annual orders race in 2010 after a last-minute airline buying spree highlighted a recovery in emerging markets and the low-fare sector, the planemaker said on Monday.

Attacks on computer systems now have the potential to cause global catastrophe, but only in combination with another disaster, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report on Monday.

Hot smartphone models, the iPhone 4 and Samsung's Galaxy S, are forecast to have helped their makers race further ahead of rivals in the holiday sales season at the end of 2010.

Chinese President Hu Jintao urged an end to a zero sum Cold War relationship with the United States and proposed new cooperation, but resisted U.S. arguments about why China should let its currency strengthen.

Investors in Asia generally took China's latest move to fight inflation in their stride on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei posting modest gains, while the euro slipped as the market waited to see if governments will beef up a euro zone rescue fund.