MANUFACTURING

Swedish retailer Ikea rejected claims in a new documentary that claims it used East German political prisoners in its factories in the 1970s and 1980s.

As U.S. and Chinese leaders are set to meet in Beijing on May 3-4, a year of troubles and differences will be prominent in their minds.

Manufacturing activity indexes for April released Monday showed a further slowdown across the nation in a confirmation of a statistical trend seen in other data releases last week that points to weaker growth in the second quarter.

The Obama re-election campaign's new general election slogan, Forward was trending worldwide on Twitter Monday morning, largely due to a GOP social media push to mock it.

Singapore?s unemployment rate rose slightly in the first quarter compared to the last quarter as layoffs from companies increased.

South Korea's industrial output declined 3.1 percent in March from the previous month with exports decreasing and domestic demand continuing to be weak.

Apple Inc. has developed a knack for sidestepping federal income-tax obligations through an intricate paper shuffle and a smattering of subsidiaries around the world. But its tactics fall far short of the nuanced approach taken by 26 companies that paid zero dollars in federal taxes over the last four years.

Recently-granted patents suggest Apple will implement a near-field communication (NFC) chip into its sixth-generation iPhone -- presumably called the iPhone 5 -- but in addition to sending and receiving payments from customers to merchants, Apple will also reportedly use this chip to send and receive gifts from one iPhone to another.

India on Friday allayed US allegations that the proposed retrospective amendments to the Indian tax laws are discriminatory and will adversely impact the US investments.Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Lok Sabha that the proposed amendments will not have any negative impact on the foreign investments. His clarification came after the new US ambassador to India Nancy Powell raised the issue in a business meeting on Friday at New Delhi.

The country's tax police said they caught more than 2,100 people who had failed to pay their taxes for at least a year, including a car dealer who ran his business out of his home and an accountant who concealed 13 million euros in taxes.

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG), the world's largest consumer-goods company, said its fiscal third-quarter profit fell 16 percent, weighed down by higher commodity prices and restructuring-related costs.

Nintendo revolutionized the gaming industry with its Wii console, which was the first commercial gaming device to incorporate motion-censored controls heavily into gaming. However, strong price cuts made to the Wii and the 3DS hand held video game device have lead the company to post its first annual loss in more than three decades, according to the Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, researchers at MIT announced a breakthrough in glass-making technology: The glass is self-cleaning, anti-reflective, and superhydrophobic. If it ever gets to be as strong as Corning's Gorilla Glass, MIT will have effectively created the perfect glass.

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG), the world's largest consumer-goods company, is expected to report lower profit when it unveils its fiscal third-quarter earnings before the market opens on Friday, hurt by higher commodities costs and a stronger dollar.

Forget rumors, this has come straight from the horse's mouth. Samsung's upcoming Galaxy smartphone, aka Galaxy S3, is all set to get Exynos 4 Quad boost up, the South Korean tech giant revealed Wednesday.

As Google is expected to collaborate with Samsung Electronics for its next Galaxy smartphone, HTC may be teaming up with Facebook for a new device that could see a third-quarter release.

After initial delay of Intel's processor for 2012, the company has finally launched its first breed of quad-core processor on Monday. The latest chip, codenamed as Ivy Bridge, is the world's first processors to use a 22-nanometer manufacturing process and feature Intel's Tri-Gate 3D transistor technology and will replace the company's Sandy Bridge CPUs in Apple's next-generation of Mac lineups.

The United Kingdom, Europe's third-largest economy, fell into recession in the first quarter when its gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent, a contraction that followed the fourth-quarter's 0.3 percent decline.

Orders for long-lasting goods sank in March by the largest margin in three years, hurt by falling demand for commercial aircraft, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

For the 19th time in the last 20 quarters, Apple reported sales that exceeded Wall Street's estimates. Not bad for a company started out of a garage. On Tuesday, Apple followed-up its most successful quarter in company history with its Q2 2012 financial results.

Over the past three decades, South Korea has catapulted itself from Third World-caliber poverty to becoming a technologically superior economic powerhouse.