Crocodiles are on sale at Walmart's first Sam's Club after the opening ceremony in China's southern city, Guangzhou Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 | Photo
'Crocodiles are on sale at Walmart's first Sam's Club after the opening ceremony in China's southern city, Guangzhou Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009' - photo on Yahoo! News UK.

China Blocks Access to 'World of Warcraft'... Again: PHOTO
'World of Warcraft' ( WoW ) is painfully popular in China . So much so that, out of WoW's roughly 13 million subscribers, 4 million are in China -- almost a third of the company's customer base. Considering the large portion of revenue coming from the psuedo-communist country, WoW publisher Activision Blizzard , is probably having a mini freak-out right now as WoW has again been blocked by the Chinese government. This isn't a first. In fact, the multiplayer online game was only relaunched in...

NYT > World: China Sentences Gang -Godmother' to 18 Years
This is a syndicated post. Original article from NYT > World , available at NYT > World . A woman called the '-godmother'' of a mafia-style gang in China's southern city of Chongqing was sentenced to 18 years in Prison Tuesday for running underground casinos and bribing government officials.

China's Space Program Father, Qian Xuesen, Dies at 98
There was a time when space meant the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Times have changed, and Qian Xuesen was a large part of China's entry into space. Typically, China's space program encompasses Military uses (missiles) as well as rocketry. Qian Xuesen was known alternatively in China as the "Father of Chinese Aerospace" or sometimes simply the "Rocket King." He came to the U.S. in 1935 as a student and became one of the leading scientists working on America's nascent missile program. Born on December...

Honeywell's Subsidiary UOP Signed Agreement With China National Petroleum To Develop Biofuel Technologies (HON)
Nov 04, 2009 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) ----11/4/2009 - Honeywell's (NYSE:HON) subsidiary UOP signed an agreement with China National Petroleum Corp. to work on developing a range of biofuel technologies and projects in China. The companies will work together to produce green transportation fuels using feedstocks that are available in China and will also collaborate to produce both green diesel and renewable jet fuel from Chinese biofeedstocks. General manager of UOP's Renewable...

Tiger takes game to China: PHOTO
T iger Woods is playing for the third time in China with a strategy he's used in winning 81 times around the world. “Finish lower than anybody else,” Woods said Wednesday at the HSBC Champions. That has proved elusive at Sheshan International Golf Club, and it doesn't figure to be any easier this time around. Woods headlines the strongest field ever in Asia, which includes world No. 2 Phil Mickelson, three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, defending champion Sergio Garcia and...

China: Made-in-China Snow: VIDEO
This past Sunday on Nov. 1, Beijing saw its earliest snowfall in 22 years. The sudden change in weather, which blanketed the entire city in snow, surprised many residents. But the news media later reported that the snowfall had actually been enhanced by the city's weather modification office.

Two-Headed Baby In China Abandoned In Ditch: VIDEO
Police are looking for the mother of a two headed baby in China tonight, the woman abandoned the newborn in a ditch. The baby has one fully formed head and another smaller head that has eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The baby is doing fine authorities say.

Honda plans to add 100 new dealers a year in China, Hojo says
Honda Motor Co. plans to add an average of about 100 car dealerships a year in China over the next five years to meet demand, Chief Financial Officer Yoichi Hojo said Wednesday.

Nissan net profit plunges by 92.9%
Japan's third-largest motor company, Nissan, has posted a 92.9 percent fall in profits due to week sales in the six months ending in September. Nissan Motors, owned 44 percent by Renault, says it gained a net profit of 9.0 billion yen ($100 million) in the first half of the year compared with 126.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. The company, however, said that it had scaled down its full-year loss forecast following rising sales in China and government incentives for...

Shanghai: Disneyland Shanghai Coming in 2015; Get Your 'Made In China' Mickey Ears Out!: PHOTO
Here's to unholy matrimony: Disney announced yesterday that China has allowed them to move forward with construction of a new park in Shanghai , its first new resort since 2005's Hong Kong Disneyland and its third in Asia. You thought the fight over EuroDisney was good? Wait till you see the Chinese version of "It's A Small World." According to the New York Times , the park has been in the works since the 1990s when a mayor of Shanghai visited Disneyland in Anaheim and could take up to 6 years...

AFP: Acid ship 'sinks in China's Yangtze'
Beijing — A ship carrying 100 tonnes of hydrochloric acid sank in China's Yangtze river on Sunday after colliding with another vessel, state media reported, citing local officials. The collision happened during strong winds in central Hubei province, Xinhua news agency said, adding that efforts were under way to retrieve the highly corrosive cargo. The report did not say if the acid was contained on the sunken ship or had leeched into the water. However, it cited officials from the Hubei...

Yue Minjun: SMILE-ISMS Exhibition | Arario New York: PHOTO
> Hidden under the facade of a grin is an emotion only known to the subject on view, and maybe its painter, Chinese contemporary artist Yue Minjun ( 岳敏君 ).

Shanghai to get a Disney theme park: Does it need one?: PHOTO
In five to six years, Shanghai will have joined Tokyo , Hong Kong and Paris as a city out of the U.S. with a Disney theme park. China may or may not need a Disney theme park, but Disney's aim is that the Shanghai location will help create a mighty want for Disney products among the country's population. With 1.5 billion people in China, Disney is hoping that the big bucks it will cost to dazzle the multitudes will pay off in other avenues. As anyone who has ever been to a Disney property knows,...

Disney - Initial Plans Approved For Shanghai Disneyland: PHOTO
After nearly a decade of on-again, off-again negotiations, the Walt Disney Co. and the municipal government of Shanghai have settled on a plan to create a $3.59-billion Disneyland-type theme park in the model city, the Chinese government confirmed early today (Wednesday). "China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Co. in mainland China," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a...

'Astro Boy' breaks records in China: PHOTO
Hong Kong, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- "Astro Boy" set a new opening weekend Box-office record in China for a CG-animated movie, its producers Imagi International Holdings announced. Industry estimates indicate since opening last Friday on approximately 1,100 screens across China, "Astro Boy" has recorded $5.9 million in Box-office receipts, topping the weekend Box Office chart and setting a new mark for the opening weekend Box Office of a CG-animated feature film on the Mainland. That record was...

VIDEO: Obama Half Brother 'Abusive Father' Exposed In New Book
U.S. President Barack Obama half brother Mark Ndesandjo has emerged in China with a novel, "Nairobi to Shenzhen," and in it he describes their 'abusive father' and his own difficult childhood in the form of a novel, reports Reuters. Barack Obama's half-brother made a rare appearance on Wednesday in southern China, his home for seven years, to launch a novel he says draws on his painful childhood under an abusive father. Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo -- who had the same, late, father as the U.S....

'Astro Boy' bombs in Japan, takes off in China
"Astro Boy" Tokyo -- Imagi Entertainment's "Astro Boy" bombed in Japan, but Chinese viewers seem to have taken a liking to the Japanese cartoon character. After opening on more than 200 screens on the weekend of Oct. 10-12, "Astro Boy" pulled in a disappointing $328,457 in its first week, an average of just over $1,500 per screen, to put it at the bottom of the week's rankings. For comparison, the same week's top film, NTV's "Kaiji," took over $4 million from just over 300 screens at an average...

Obama's Brother Surfaces In China!: PHOTO
And he's got a book to sell! President Obama 's half brother, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo , made a rare appearance in China on Wednesday to promote Nairobi to Shenzhen , a novel about an surviving an abusive father and building a new life in China. Although he claims that it's a fictional account of his life (and father - of which he shares with the President), Ndesandjo said that it "reflects many experiences in my own life as a child brought up in Kenya." And the First Half Brother timed it...

Obama's half brother releases book: PHOTO
President Obama’s half brother, Mark Ndesandjo, has a book out Wednesday that takes on the same subject that POTUS took on in his book — Barack Obama, Sr. In the semi-autobiographical novel, Ndesandjo, who lives in China and has stayed out of the spotlight, says that his Kenyan father was abusive. “My father beat my mother and my father beat me, and you don't do that,” Ndesandjo, whose mother, Ruth Nidesand, was Barack Obama Sr.'s third wife, said in an interview with AP...

After iPhone's China Launch, Is BlackBerry Next?
The China iPhone wait has ended, so now it's time to obsess about another smartphone that's pretty much missing in action in China, the BlackBerry. China Unicom launched its version of Apple's iPhone over the weekend, with quite disappointing results. (See my colleague Olga Kharif's blog here for more.) Now Research in Motion , which has a limited presence in the country through China Mobile, is hoping it has better luck. According to this Xinhua story, RIM has “entered into final...

Disney Theme Park Approved for Construction in Shanghai (DIS)
Nov 04, 2009 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) ----11/4/2009 - The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) disclosed that it has received approval from the Chinese government to build a $4 billion theme park in the Pudong district of Shanghai, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Talks about the theme park have been ongoing for almost a decade, and the newly-approved park will be bigger and provide more direct access to the local market than its Hong Kong location, which residents of mainland...

This Is It heads into weekend as international box office favourite: PHOTO
Michael Jackson's This Is It will dominate the international landscape this weekend if the $12.7m opening day gross through Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) is anything to go by. The tribute film launched in 99 countries on Wednesday [28], taking $1.9m in the UK, $1.4m in France, $1.2m in Japan, $1.1m in Germany, $730,000 in China, $490,000 in Sweden, $390,000 in Holland, $370,000 in Mexico, $350,000 in Brazil, and $330,000 in Australia. The film opened in a further ten territories...

10 suspected robbers die in shuttered Chinese coal mine; loot was cables, metal
Beijing — Ten people suffocated during a botched Robbery at a coal mine in northern China, the country's work safety watchdog said Friday. Fourteen people allegedly broke into the shuttered mine in China's Shanxi province on Monday, with two managing to escape the underground tunnels Tuesday, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its Web site. On Wednesday, two others were rescued and 10 bodies were recovered, it said. It was not immediately clear if the victims had been trapped...

Bus plunges into valley in northern China, killing 13, injuring at least 40
Beijing (AP) - A bus plunged into a valley along a mountainous road in China's northern Shanxi province, killing 13 people and injuring at least 40 others, local police and the country's official news agency said Saturday. The bus with 54 passengers on board fell 164 feet (50 meters) into a valley in Yangquan city Friday afternoon and 10 passengers were killed immediately, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Three others died on the way to a Hospital, and doctors were treating 41 injured...