China

About 160 million litres of wine are expected to be made from this year's grape harvest, announced Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva.

Nearly 60 million litres of wine will be exported, mostly to traditional markets like Russia, the UK and China.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday said it was time for a new direction in relations with Cuba, during a landmark visit to the Americas' lone communist-ruled state.

GUANGZHOU - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic is through to the quarter-finals of the Guangzhou tennis tournament after Sweden's Rebecca Peterson retired from their Round 2 match on Wednesday.

Second-seeded Jankovic, who was leading 6-1, 1-0, will next play Sabine Lisicki of Germany, who beat Shuai Peng of China 6-4, 6-1.

The prize money in Guangzhou is 250,000 dollars.

The day after the G-20 Hangzhou Summit in China, I read an article in the Jakarta Post. "The G-20 needs a kick in the butt" was its title. The author, the veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, was asking G-20 countries to leave their 19th century-esque national trenches, finally arrive in the 21st century and start thinking globally.

China's biggest shipping company, Cosco Shipping, plans to ramp up container volume at Greece's biggest port in Piraeus by 35 percent by 2018, the port's new managing director, Fu Cheng Qiu, told Reuters on Thursday.

GUANGZHOU - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic has got off to a successful start of her Asian tour by beating Xiaodi You of China 6-2, 6-1 in the opening round of the Guangzhou WTA tennis tournament on Tuesday.

Second-seeded Jankovic will next face Rebecca Peterson of Sweden.

The prize money in Guangzhou is 250,000 dollars.

Tanjug file photo

A Chinese court has sentenced defense lawyer Xia Lin to 12 years in prison, his attorney said Sept. 22, the latest blow in a broad crackdown on human rights defenders and activists.

Xia is best known for his work defending artist Ai Weiwei and fellow rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who was detained after a private seminar discussing the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Listed Greek telecommunications company Forthnet on Tuesday delivered a presentation for the Greek Association of Institutional Investors on its outlook, figures and growth prospects ahead of the issue of its convertible bond, amounting to 99.1 million euros and tradable on the stock market from Thursday until October 3.

Existing shareholders have preferential rights.

Lufthansa has signed a route sharing deal with China's flagship carrier Air China , capping off two years of talks that will boost Germany's biggest airline's access to the world's fastest growing aviation market.

China's banking sector could be facing an imminent debt crisis, a global central bank watchdog has warned, fuelling fresh fears about a blowout in the world's number two economy that could hit the global economy.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), dubbed the central bank of central banks, said a gauge of Chinese debt had hit a record high in the first quarter of the year.