CHINA

Stock index futures edged lower on Wednesday after the S&P 500 tallied its biggest gain in a month and ahead of another round of corporate earnings.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 down between 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent at 6:47 a.m. EDT (1047 GMT).

HSBC Holdings PLC is planning to sell yuan-denominated bonds listed on the London Stock Exchange, a move that will make the City the first place outside mainland China or Hong Kong to do business in the currency.

Home prices in China fell in March, indicating that the government's efforts to curb the property market boom are gaining further momentum.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its global growth forecast despite a persisting Eurozone debt crisis.

Exuberant global markets have taken a reality check this month on chronic U.S., Chinese and European growth concerns, and investors should hold companies' relatively rosy profit outlooks up for scrutiny too.

In the UK, some Galaxy S2 owners are finally getting their hands on the new Ice Cream Sandwich update, according to CNET UK. SIM-free devices users are now able to download the Android 4.0 software as of April 17th.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), the No. 2 computer maker, reported first-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates although revenue came in slightly lower than expected.

Nestlé SA is expected to pay at least $9 billion to U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. for the U.S. drugmaker's infant-nutrition business, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Enraged hackers broke into the websites of drugmakers that produced pills tainted with poisons, in an attack against what they called the failure of Chinese societyi to protect citizens.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the No. 1 chipmaker, reported first-quarter earnings beat estimates as sales rose much more strongly than expected.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday appeared to be inching toward a deal on boosting its financial firepower with Japan, Sweden and Denmark committing a total of $77 billion to help contain the euro zone debt crisis.

Reserves of the hard to extract, unconventional gas deposits could exceed 1,000 trillion cubic feet, experts now believe, ranking the UK alongside China, the U.S. and Argentina

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2010, ending a two-year decline. The EPA attributed the increase to an upturn in the economy.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader called the self-immolations “very sad” and blamed Beijing for them.

Global growth is slowly improving as the U.S. recovery gains traction and dangers from Europe recede, but risks remain high and the situation is very fragile, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

UK Prime minister David Cameron is pushing China for a proper investigation of the death of British expatriate, Neil Heywood, which is at the center of a political scandal in China involving disgraced party boss Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai.

Shintaro Ishihara may not be a household name in the United States. But in East Asia, he is often at the center of international controversy because of nationalistic-themed statements that regularly infuriate China and South Korea -- and on Monday, he did it again.

Emergency architect Shigeru Ban has designed a cardboard cathedral to replace the iconic ChristChurch Cathedral in New Zealand's quake-ravaged city.

Asia is experiencing an increase in newspaper circulation, giving hope to newspaper publications that fear their eclipse in western countries, such as the United States.

''The tests are about trying to create equality with China rather than trying to outdo it,'' an analyst at the New Delhi-based National Maritime Foundation, said, in a published report.