CHINA

A delegation of U.S. lawmakers led by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit China in coming days to discuss international efforts aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

China will ban smoking in all hospitals and medical facilities from 2011, the Health Ministry said on Friday, as the world's most populous nation struggles to get its people to kick one of their favorite habits.

Stocks rose on Friday as investors snapped up shares of multinational companies, including McDonald's Corp, on hopes that a weaker dollar would underpin profitability.

European foreign ministers will press Myanmar at an Asia-Europe meeting next week to end the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but analysts expect only lukewarm backing from their Asian counterparts.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was sworn in on Friday for a second five-year term with expectations his strengthened left-of-center coalition could both reform a slowing economy and help millions of poor.

Canada's Sino-Forest Corp said on Friday it increased its bought-deal offering size by C$38.5 million to $330 million by selling more shares to the underwriters.

Solar power company Yingli Green Energy reported an unexpected quarterly loss as sales volumes and prices fell, and it cut its forecast for full-year sales.

Oil firmed above $61 on Friday as fundamental support came from consumer nations such as China, the United States and Africa's top producer Nigeria after weeks of equity-led rallies.

China's Huawei Technologies took the No. 3 position in the ailing mobile network gear market in the first quarter, doubling its market share from a year ago and bypassing Alcatel-Lucent .

General Motors Corp cleared a key obstacle in its restructuring on Thursday as the United Auto Workers agreed to cut labor costs and accept new terms for a $20 billion union retiree healthcare obligation.

U.S. manufacturers and retailers that get products or components from China are increasingly concerned about quality, intellectual property and rising costs in China, and more are looking at alternate sites, according to a study published on Thursday.

The spread of the new H1N1 virus in Asia showed no signs of slowing Thursday as the Philippines recorded its first case and new infections were confirmed in Japan, China and Taiwan.

Beijing appeared to be a bloated metropolis all gussied up for the August Olympics, scrubbed clean with colorful potted plants lining the streets, with not a speck of litter marring the immaculate avenues.

U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas -- carbon dioxide -- from energy sources, such as gasoline, diesel and coal, fell a record 2.8 percent last year as the recession hit consumer demand for fuel, the government said on Wednesday.

London-listed solar wafer manufacturer ReneSola lowered its full-year expectations and reported a 13 percent fall in first-quarter net revenues, sending its shares down over 16 percent.

The 11th EU-China Summit took place on Wednesday in Prague with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao joining the summit.

A former senior Chinese censor has claimed a major role in recording purged leader Zhao Ziyang's memoirs that decry the quelling of pro-democracy protests in 1989, adding to calls for the government to repent the crackdown.

Chinese solar energy company Suntech Power Holdings Inc on Thursday reported a surprise quarterly profit and said it expects its revenues to grow in the second quarter.

Rich nations should cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels as part of a new global climate change pact, China said on Thursday, spelling out its stance ahead of negotiations.

Chinese solar energy company Suntech Power Holdings Inc on Thursday reported a surprise quarterly profit and said it expects its revenues to grow in the second quarter.

The dollar hit its lowest in almost five months and Asian stocks slipped on Thursday after news that the Federal Reserve lowered its forecasts for U.S. economic growth for the next three years.