POLITICS

Japanese officials gathered on Friday to commemorate the latest step in the nation’s agriculture export push, as Japan resumed rice shipments to China this week following a four year ban.

The U.S. economy grew slightly faster than previously estimated in the first quarter, but still at the weakest pace in more than four years and inflation was higher as well, data on Thursday showed.

Financial markets expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to announce on Thursday it has kept benchmark borrowing costs unchanged for the eighth straight meeting, marking a full year since the last increase.

Travelers in East Asia may soon find it much easier to use public transportation across all three countries.

U.S. new home sales fell in May while consumer confidence hit a 10-month low in June on worries about jobs and the business climate, adding to signs of sluggish economic growth.

Three former Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) executives agreed to plead guilty to charges they conducted insider trading in the mortgage lender's shares in the week leading up to a disappointing earnings report, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors trying to seal their case on Tuesday against former media baron Conrad Black and his associates told jurors about to decide their fate that defense lawyers failed to refute the core fraud charges against the four men.

U.S. new home sales in May fell more than expected while consumer confidence in June fell to a 10-month low amid anxiousness about jobs and the business climate, adding to signs of sluggish economic growth this year.

The world economy is powering ahead at a faster pace than expected two months ago, building up global inflationary pressures, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Trade and travel problems along the U.S-Canadian border remain a serious aggravation for the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada's ambassador to Washington said on Monday.

Zoellick will take over after a controversial two-year term by Paul Wolfowitz.

North Korea said on Monday it would start implementing a nuclear disarmament deal struck in February and awaits a visit by U.N. inspectors now that a dispute over its funds frozen at a Macau bank had been resolved.

The pace of existing home sales in the United States was off slightly in May to a 5.99 million-unit annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Monday that showed continued weakness in the housing sector.

Japanese and U.S. experts will meet on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss technical issues relating to American beef trade, Japan's Farm Ministry said in a news release on Monday.

Sweating, panting and some groaning, 400 Japanese worked out on Sunday with U.S. fitness guru Billy Blanks, whose military-style exercises have become a huge hit in a country where waistlines are bulging.

Moscow next week introduces a city-wide label to identify GM-free foods, a move ecologists hail as ground-breaking but which foreign producers say is complex and costly.

In its heyday, Hong Kong's famous Bird Garden market bustled with shoppers bargaining in Cantonese for exotic birds for sale as pets or for Buddhist rituals.

Central banks around the world should raise interest rates further to curb inflation pressures, the Bank for International Settlements said on Sunday.

The European Union breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend after the bloc's leaders agreed on a way to reform its institutions, but critics from Britain to the Netherlands called for referendums that could derail a deal.

As rising health-care costs hurt workers and retirees alike, America's trade unions are seen inching toward a broad-sweeping agreement with U.S. corporations on health-care reform.

Economists and analysts say the implosion of faltering global trade talks would carry big costs.

The United States expects North Korea to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear arms development program within about three weeks, top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said on Saturday.

The European Union will work to overhaul its 27-nation treaty to replace an EU constitution it rejected in 2005.

A Russian bank has received $25 million of North Korean funds which had been frozen in a Macau bank account, removing an obstacle to a deal over North Korea's nuclear program, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Drought affecting large swathes of China has left more than 8 million people short of water, and many livestock have died of hunger, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves! go the stirring words that open China's national anthem.

A dispute over the place of competition policy in a European Union reform treaty was resolved at a summit on Friday after free-marketeers reached an agreement with France.

Congo is ready to cancel more than half its timber contracts to protect the world's second biggest tropical forest but it wants more aid from foreign governments to help do so, the environment minister said.

Key trade representatives from the U.S. , EU Brazil, and India could resume talks.