Beijing

China on Feb. 3 joined the global chorus of anger and concern over a planned rocket launch by North Korea, while Japan vowed to shoot down any missile that threatened its territory.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on Jan. 27 on the need for a significant new U.N. Security resolution targeting North Korea after its Jan. 6 nuclear test, though there were few signs of concrete progress.

China's Internet users - already by far the world's most numerous - rose to nearly 700 million in 2015, authorities said on Jan. 22, more than twice the population of the United States.

Beijing imposes strict controls on online content, while e-commerce is a vital part of its efforts to transform the economy into one driven more by consumer demand.

Chinese overseas direct investment (ODI) rose to nearly $120 billion last year, official data showed on Jan. 20, as the world's second-largest economy sought to acquire foreign technologies, expand markets and diversify energy supply.

ODI leapt 14.7 percent from a year earlier to $118.0 billion in 2015, just ahead of the previous year's expansion, according to the commerce ministry.

The prominent Bulgarian female freestyle wrestler Stanka Zlateva announced her retirement on Monday due to an injury in the back.

The treatment of the injury, which occurred in the summer of last year, was a lengthy one and it did not allow her to prepare for the forthcoming Olympic qualifications which are to take place in April.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a new international development bank seen as a rival to the U.S.-led World Bank at a lavish ceremony on Jan. 16, as Beijing seeks to change the unwritten rules of global development finance. 

China will launch a mission to land on the dark side of the moon in two years' time, state media reported, in what will be a first for humanity.

The moon's far hemisphere is never directly visible from Earth and while it has been photographed, with the first images appearing in 1959, it has never been explored.

Further interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve should be gradual or they risk hurting already fragile emerging economies, where many companies borrow in dollars, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Jan. 12.

Turkey has ratified the establishment agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which was signed in June 2015. 

According to a regulation, revealed in the Official Gazette on Jan. 12, Turkey will not pay more than $2.6 billion as the capital contribution to the bank. 

The Turkish cabinet has also been authorized to increase this amount by up to five times. 

The European Union will take the first step on Jan. 13 towards refashioning its trade ties with Beijing, torn over how to lower its defenses to avert Chinese retaliation while protecting key industries against a damaging flood of cheap imports.