The 2006 China International Industry Fair opened on Wednesday in Shanghai, China's largest economic hub.

The 2006 China International Industry Fair opened on Wednesday in Shanghai, China's largest economic hub.

The 2006 China International Industry Fair opened on Wednesday in Shanghai, China's largest economic hub.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has become the biggest listed bank in Asia and the fifth largest in the world after its share value closed at US$139.1 billion on October 27. Citibank, Bank of America, HSBC Group, and JP Morgan are the world's four largest banks.

Border trade has boosted Tibet's economic growth, accounting for more than half of the autonomous region's foreign trade from January to September, the Tibetan Bureau of Commerce announced on Wednesday.

China is gearing up preparations for the second national agriculture census scheduled to take off on January 1 next year. The census, biggest of its kind ever conducted in the world, is expected to employ as many as seven million workers.

The cotton output in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the country's largest cotton manufacturing base, is expected to grow 11 percent year-on-year to reach a record of 2.18 million tons this year, a local official has said.

A senior Tanzanian government official has ruled out withdrawal by the country from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), according to local press reports on Wednesday.

The price of crude oil dropped to 58 U.S. dollars per barrel this week -- down from a record high of 77.03 U.S. dollars in the middle of July -- making a mockery of the so-called "China factor", a claim by some commentators in the west that China's ravenous oil needs were a key factor in driving up oil prices.

A pollution blacklist has been issued by the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs , a Chinese NGO. The list includes 33 multinational corporations in China, five of which are Fortune 500 companies, including a subsidiary of Panasonic, Changchun Pepsico, and Nestle Sources Shanghai.