China may have understated the debt burden of local governments by as much as $541.6 billion, and the proportion of bad loans could be higher than previously forecast, ratings agency Moody’s said Tuesday.In a stern warning, Moody’s warned the lack of a plan to tackle bad loans to local governments meant it could downgrade its outlook for Chinese banks to negative.The agency’s findings came after i

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. online retailer Amazon.com announced Monday it will acquire British online bookstore The Book Depository. The cost of the transaction remains undisclosed.The British company based in Gloucester was expected to chalk up sales of 120 million pounds ($180 million) for the fiscal year ending in June, according to industry specialist TheBookseller.com.The Book Depository last ye

China’s non-manufacturing industries expanded at the slowest pace in four months in June, adding to concerns that efforts to tame inflation are curbing growth in the world’s second-biggest economy.A purchasing managers’ index dropped to 57 from 61.9 in May, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said on its website yesterday. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion. China’s economic gr

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Google is in preliminary talks to acquire the online video site Hulu, the Los Angeles Times reported on its website Friday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.Hulu’s owners have met with Google and other prospective buyers including Yahoo! and Microsoft, the newspaper reported.The site, which broadcasts television shows through on-demand streaming, is owned by

NEW YORK (AFP) ― The U.S. Federal Reserve wound up its $600-billion “QE2” program to boost the ailing economy with easy liquidity on Thursday, having generated more controversy than jobs and growth.Without fanfare the U.S. central bank’s New York branch paid banks $4.9 billion for U.S. Treasury bonds in the program’s last step Thursday morning, as economists and bankers continued to argue its effe

ATHENS (AP) ― Greece has faced down street violence and strikes for the sake of financial aid it was promised and needs to avoid bankruptcy. Now its fellow European countries will be expected to come up with a second rescue package to convince investors that the 17-nation euro will survive the debt crisis.A new austerity package that lawmakers cleared in Athens is required to get more rescue loans

NEW YORK (AP) ― Online search leader Google Inc. is taking yet another stab at social networking, as it tries to go up against Facebook in this wildly popular and lucrative segment of the Internet. This time the project is called Google+ and it aims to make online sharing more like real life.“We think people communicate in very rich ways,” said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at

PARIS (AP) -- Christine Lagarde has traveled tirelessly to save the euro and blazed a trail for women from Chicago to Paris in halls of power long dominated by men.The French finance minister with a broad grin and long stride now faces her toughest job yet: heading the International Monetary Fund. She takes over a post vacated by a man accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid just as th

 

VATICAN CITY (AP) ― The Vatican is taking a leap into the world of new media next week with the launch of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a papal click.Vatican officials said Saturday that Benedict has been following the development of the portal ―www.news.va ― which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, radio a