CHINA

Improved transparency is Europe's quickest route to debt resolution and China's best defense against external economic shocks, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson says.

UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to be in trouble after failing to implement its retail reform.

MIPS Technologies Inc. has announced NOVO7, the world's first tablet with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android.

Asian shares, commodities and the euro fell Friday on growing doubts that European leaders could forge a credible plan to solve the euro zone's debt crisis at a summit later in the day.

Support grew on Thursday for an EU plan to agree a global climate change pact with binding targets by 2015, after poor nations vulnerable to climate change forged alliances with developed countries.

McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) reported a bigger-than-expected rise in November sales at established restaurants across the board, led by big gains in Japan, China and a strong showing in its top revenue market of Europe.

Iran state television showed the first video footage of the RQ-170 Sentinel that supposedly belongs to the United States and was brought down ealier this week.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, suggesting the labor market's recovery was gaining momentum.

In an IDC report on 'Top 10 system software prediction for 2012', the potential success of Windows 8 was given a poor evaluation by the global market research company.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged private industry to protect Internet freedoms Thursday, saying it was vital to promote online rights amid restrictions in Russia, Syria and China.

The North American leg kicks off in April.

Australian scientists on Thursday said they discovered a pair of insect-like eyes belonging to a freakish prehistoric super-predator called Anomalocaris, which had 16,000 individual lenses.

Hewlett-Packard, who may have inadvertently jump-started widespread interest in tablet computers with a deep price discount in September, will again be selling their now discontinued TouchPad tablets for $99 on Sunday, Dec.11. When the TouchPad first came out, the price was $400, nearly as much as an iPad.

Two surveys released Wednesday concludes that poultry workers in China still need H5N1 avian flu education and that people in China have changed their eating habits in response to bird flu.

McDonald's Corp reported a bigger-than-expected rise in November sales at established restaurants across the board, led by big gains in Japan, China and a strong showing in its top revenue market of Europe.

British luxury fashion brand Mulberry said it had substantial room for growth in Europe, the United States and Asia, as it reported first-half profit more than treble last year's due to robust international demand.

With an expected price of $99, American consumers will soon get the chance to try out the Novo7, the first tablet computer to sun Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Get the full spec list here, learn where to look for Novo7s (now available only in China), and compare it another Apple iPad challenger, the ill-fated HP TouchPad.

Sharp Corp said on Thursday it will likely sell more than 1 million large-screen TVs of 60-inches and above in North America in the year to March 31, and expects the burgeoning market to push sales higher next business year.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Affymax, G-III Apparel Group, Central European Distribution, BioSante Pharmaceuticals, and Amgen. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Tesla Motors, Clearwire, Aixtron, ASM International, and Crosstex Energy.

A ruptured hull in the world's largest dry bulk ship could sink Vale's multi-billion dollar plan for a flotilla of giant vessels to link its iron ore mines to the mills of top steelmaker China.

Gold prices, like global stocks and major currencies, hardly moved Thursday as investors waited to see if Europe would manage to stanch its debt crisis and avoid a recession, or worse.