Floozie or role model, attention monger or free spirit? For months, China has been debating what to make of its latest Internet-born star, a young woman known nationwide as Furong Jiejie, aka Sister Furong.

The slowing global economy is due for a pick-up in the second half of 2005, a quarterly survey released by the International Chamber of Commerce and the German Ifo institute showed.
After five straight quarters of decline, the survey's confidence index stabilized in July.
The results were based on responses by 1,051 economi

Some 300 seats were set aside so victims of the deadly bombing at the 1996 Olympics and two other blasts could join others in court to see Eric Rudolph sentenced to life behind bars.
But only about half the victims were likely to show up Monday, part

The Rolling Stones launched into "Start Me Up" to kick off their latest North American tour Sunday night at Boston's histor

Small fragments of genetic material that can silence specific genes are showing promise in battling the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome.
SARS, first recognized in 2002, killed 774 people worldwide before it was brought under control by quarantine, isolating patients and restricting travel.
Since then, researchers have s

Amazon.com Inc. started selling new works of short literature and nonfiction Friday from authors who write them exclusively for the Internet retailer.
It won't be offering printed editions, just digital copies of short stories that can be e-mailed, downloaded or printed from a Web site for 49 cents a pop.
"Publishers have a

Free-flowing beer, live music, karaoke and arcade games kept the party raging at the Googleplex the other night, but the real action was unfolding inside a sterile conference room at Google Inc.'s headquarters.
That's where the cunning Internet entrepreneurs who constantly try to manipulate Google's search engine results for a comp

Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB), the first foreign-invested company limited by shares in China's telecoms industry, is aiming for a 20 per cent business growth this year, a company executive said yesterday.
The bullishness despite spending cutbacks by Chinese telecoms operators is coming mainly from ASB's increasing research and development

In the face of surging divorce rates, domestic violence, elderly neglect and extra-marital affairs, China's social workers are stressing the need for family harmony.
The family is the basic building block of society and harmonious families contribute to building a harmonious society, Professor Wang Zhenyu with the Chinese Academy of Soc

Alonzo Mourning, who underwent a kidney transplant in 2003, will return to play for the Miami Heat next season in a bid to capture an elusive National Basketball Association championship.
The Heat picked up the option on the 35-year-old center's contract in June but left the decision of whether or not to return to Mourning, whose kidney

Dalian, which is competing with Beijing to be the information technology (IT) outsourcing centre in China, yesterday started a worldwide talent hunt for software professionals.
Xia Deren, mayor of the city, said yesterday that the four-month recruitment will start in September in six Chinese cities, Canada, the United States, Singapore,

Thousands of people filled a church Sunday night for "Justice Sunday II," an event organizers said wasn't necessarily about pushing for the confirmation of John Roberts for the    U.S. Supreme Court, but more about supporting justices who don't have radical agendas.
"We've seen a conservative president get re-electe

A San Francisco man who says he was devastated after he was identified as gay on a national Spanish-language radio show will be paid $270,000 by Univision Radio, an arbitrator has ruled.
Roberto Hernandez, 45, was driving to work in 2002 when he received a phone call from a man who said that he met Hernandez at a San Francisco gay bar.

China plans to build its first offshore wind power plant next year in its northern coastal province of Hebei, a local official has said.
The plant, with a designed capacity of 1 million kilowatts, will be established at the Huanghua Port in the city of Cangzhou by the Bohai Sea, said Gao Xihai, vice director of the management committee

Wayne Rooney scored against his former club and Manchester United launched its latest English Premier League challenge with a 2-0 road victory over Everton on Saturday.