Detained Chinese fishermen, vessels released: DPRK authorities

The foreign ministry of North Korea says that all detained Chinese fishermen and their vessels have been released.
An official with the Chinese embassy to Pyongyang said that the crews were in sound health.
It's reported that the vessels and the crews are on their way back home.
Media reports say no ransom has been paid for their release.
The three fishing boats and 29 crew were seized by a group of North Koreans earlier this month. The abductors were originally asking for a ransom of 1.2 million yuan for their release and later raised it to 2.7 million.
China eyes closer cooperation with Croatia in infrastructure, tourism

China hopes to play a bigger role in Croatia's infrastructure construction, according to China's top legislator Wu Bangguo.
Wu made the remarks during a meeting with Croatian President Ivo Josipovic in Zagreb over the Weekend.
He said that China supports companies investing in Croatia and actively cooperates in Croatian infrastructure projects such as ports, railroads, and power stations.
Wu also says China will encourage more Chinese tourists to visit the South European country.
For his part, Josipovic said that Croatia is willing to increase cooperation in fields such as trade, investment, infrastructure and tourism.
Premier Wen urges efforts to maintain growth

Premier Wen Jiabao is calling for increased efforts to maintain relatively fast economic growth as the world's second-largest economy further signs of slowing.
He made the call during an inspection tour to central China's Hubei province over the weekend.
Wen Jiabao also encouraged local enterprises to explore new markets and raise their adaptability and competitiveness.
He said the government would continue to implement structural tax reductions to ease financial burdens on companies.
Strong aftershock hit Italy

At least seven people have died after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck northern Italy early Sunday.
50 others have been injured.
The aftershock destroyed a clock tower in Finale Emilia, near the epicentre of the earlier quake, and caused a fire fighter to fall from a building.
The original magnitude 6.0 quake was followed by a series of aftershocks.
Italian Premier Mario Monti has cut short his trip to the NATO summit in Chicago, saying he would return home to oversee disaster relief.
Rescuer are searching remote villages for victims and survivors.
NATO chief says missile defense reaches interim capability, 20 programs agreed

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says that the alliance's missile defense system has reached interim capability, linking assets of different member countries.
At the NATO summit in Chicago, Rasmussen also says that the alliance has agreed on over 20 multinaitional defense programs in order to pool resources together in the age of austerity.
He said the interim capability means assets such as radars, interceptors and Aegis ships are now under the unified command of NATO, providing protection against missile threats.
Urgent: Incumbent Tadic concedes defeat in Serbia presidential runoff

Nationalist Tomislav Nikolic has been elected president of Serbia, beating the liberal incumbent Boris Tadic in a run-off.
Tadic conceded defeat after polls showed he won only 47.4 percent of the vote, two percent fewer than Kikolic. The outgoing president, who has been in power in Belgrade since 2004, said he hoped that Serbia would continue on its path to membership of the European Union.
Nikolic's Serbian Progressive Party made pledges during the campaign to invest in industry and agriculture and to tax higher earners.
Russia accepts change of Syrian administration without bloodshed, foreign interference: official

A senior Russian diplomat says that Moscow does not mind a change of Syrian administration should it involve no bloodshed or foreign interference.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stressed that Russia rejected any use of force by the international community in Syria to settle the crisis in the country, warning that such action could lead to a civil war.
Ryabkov said that Russia was fully satisfied with the G8 summit declaration on Syria, as leaders of the G8 countries declared their support for special envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
China approves Google-Motorola deal

The anti-trust authorities in China have approved the Google acquisition of Motorola with conditions.
The move is expected to clear the regulatory barrier for the search engine giant to grow its mobile business in a market with the world's largest number of Internet users.
However, China's ministry of commerce also says the merger may have the effect of excluding or limiting competition in the smart mobile market in China.
In response, Google has promised to keep its open-source Android model on a free and open basis.
Google announced last year that it would buy Motorola for about 12.5 billion U.S. dollars.
China remains world's top instant noodle consumer and producer

China remained the world's top consumer of instant noodles last year with more than 100 million packs of instant noodles being consumed every day, officials and industry experts said Sunday.
Experts say China produces more than half of the world's instant noodles.
China produced more than 48 billion packs of instant noodles last year, chalking up revenue of some 56 billion yuan, according to an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.