SHANGHAI: Standing quietly in a large residential area west of Pudong, Wal-Mart Stores Inc's first store in the city is expected to stir up the local retail market.
The 18,000-square-metre hypermarket, which the company calls a "supercentre," is set to open on Thursday, the first of three stores Wal-Mart plans to open in Shanghai.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s male and female national football teams arrived in South Korea on Tuesday to attend an international soccer competition hosted by the East Asian Football Federation to be held in South Korea.
The some 60 footballers were greeted by a group of South Korean football officials at Incheon Inter

SHANGHAI: Budget airline Spring has been forced to raise its widely-publicized 199 yuan (US$25) fares less than a week after launching,
Shanghai-based budget carrier Spring Airlines upped the price of its cheapest fares from Shanghai to Yantai, Nanchang and Mianyang by 100 yuan (US$12), bowing to pressure from other competing airlines.

GUANGZHOU: Closer economic co-operation in the Pan Pearl River Delta region (PPRD) has helped the region's inland provinces boost their foreign trade.
Yunnan and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had an export and import volume of US$2.3 billion and US$2.42 billion in the first six months this year, a year-on-year increase of 37.3 pe

By A village in North China that gained fame in the 1960s when it turned its barren hillsides into high-yield terraced farmland is to host a discussion on development and co-operation between villages this September.
Dazhai in Xiyang County in North China's Shanxi Province will be the site for the fifth Forum of Chinese Village Heads on Sep

Chinese State-owned conglomerates China Electronics Corp (CEC) and the China Great Wall Computer Group Co could soon be merged with each other as part of the government's bold plan to restructure State-owned enterprises (SOEs).
The merger would create a company with assets totalling more than 50 billion yuan (US$6.17 billion), within China'

    China is now home to the second largest population of Internet users of any country on the planet, according to a survey released yesterday.
　　The number of Internet users in China has reached 103 million, second only to the United States.
　　About 9 million Chinese became netizens in the first half of this year

Western visitors to Shanghai might, at a first glance, think this must be the city of eternal rain.
Many are befuddled by the steady stream of umbrellas that fill the streets on fine summer days.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, will take moderate monetary policies to maintain a steady growth of bank loans, promote the development of the interbank market and enhance the reform of domestic financial institutions in the second half of this year, according to a statement publicized yesterday by the bank.
The

Sichuan Changhong Electric Appliances Co Ltd, China's second-largest television maker, yesterday said that it would receive a 70 per cent stake in a Hong Kong-listed company as collateral for part of a debt owed by US consumer electronics distributor Apex Digital Inc.
Changhong claims Apex owes it nearly half a billion dollars for TV se

China's mainland is scheduled to implement zero tariffs on all products originating from Hong Kong from January 1, 2006.
　　The move will mark the start of the third phase of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between the two sides.
　　The dropping of tariffs was revealed last week by Wang Liaoping, director of the Taiwan,

　Private low-cost carrier Spring Airlines launched its maiden flight on Monday, becoming the newest player in China's increasingly modern and sophisticated travel industry.
　　Spring is one of several private airlines entering the Chinese market following the launch of China's first private airline of the modern era, Okay Airways Co., in

NEW YORK - Google is at once a powerful search engine and a growing e-mail provider. It runs a blogging service, makes software to speed Web traffic and has ambitions to become a digital library. And it is developing a payments service.
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Although many Internet users eagerly await each new technology from Google

OKLAHOMA CITY - Jessica Mendoza and Stacy Nuveman homered and Vicky Galindo drove in three runs as the United States beat China 11-3 Saturday at the World Cup of Softball.
Mendoza's was a three run shot and Nuveman's a two-run homer as the U.S. broke out of an offensive slump with 11 hits in a game called after 4 1/2 innings by the mercy ru

China plans to take semen from pedigree pigs on its second manned space mission to study whether exposure to outer space alters the genetic make-up of the sperm.