Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Russia plans to build 16 nuclear reactors in India as part of a bid to increase bilateral trade up to three-folds.

Russia and India hope to generate a 20-billion-dollar trade turnover over the next five years. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who arrived in New Delhi along with a high-ranking delegation on March 12, is to sign more than a dozen multi-billion-dollar arms and energy deals.

Three months after announcing a major data theft from its Swiss branch, the UK-based HSBC Bank has acknowledged that as many as 24,000 customers' information had been stolen.

The chief executive of the Swiss subsidiary offered an apology to clients on Thursday, with an initial statement putting the figure of exposed client data at 15,000, excluding 9,000 people who no longer hold accounts with the bank.

China's National Bureau of Statistics says consumer prices in China have increased in February for the fourth straight month.

The consumer price index rose 2.7 percent last month, compared with the same period last year.

New figures released on Wednesday show a strong year-on-year increase in China's exports, even better than forecasted before.

According to Chinese customs data, China's exports increased 45.7 percent to reach 94.5 billion dollars in February from a year earlier — fastest pace in three years.

The head of China's Central Bank has declared that the country is ready to end pegging its currency in dollars, but said that any changes would be gradual.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, described the decision as a "temporary" response to the global financial crisis, but gave no timescale for any change in policy.

China's real estate boom has further deepened the divide between the haves and the have-nots as the country's middle class struggles with soaring property prices. Wen Jiabao, China's premier, on Friday pledged measures to curb speculation in the country's housing market and rein in soaring prices, but with real estate accounting for 10 per cent of GDP, making any changes would not be welcomed by investors. The dilemma for Chinese leaders is finding a balance between their need for prices to stabilise, while avoiding a property price crash. Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan reports from Beijing. (6 March 2010)

China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second largest industrial manufacturer, a new report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) says.

According to UNIDO estimates, China's share of the global total of manufacturing value, known as MVA, has reached 15.6 percent in 2009, slightly larger than Japan's share of 15.4 percent, while the USA maintains its first rank with 19 percent.

A Counting the Cost Experiment: "Spot the Toyota in Doha"

Indonesia's parliament has called for a criminal investigation senior government officials' handling of a $700m bank bailout. It was approved in 2008 by the vice president and finance minister to save the privately-owned Bank Century. Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports from Jakarta.

Despite the safety problems and public relations nightmare, Toyota has been trying to win back some of its customers at the Geneva car show, one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. The world's top carmaker led the launch of its new global hybrid Auris compact with another apology over global recalls in recent months, this time to European customers. Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull has more. (Mar 3, 2010)