Asian metropolises Hong Kong and Shanghai sashayed into prominence into this year's Top Global Fashion Capitals list. The list, compiled by American non-profit group Global Language Monitor, showed the top fashion cities seeing competition from China, Hong Kong and Shanghai. It indicates that the global fashion industry remains in flux, with the relative decline of some of the previously leading players and formerly regional players emerging as significant new influences.

Companies and organizations from China and South Africa signed over a dozen cooperative documents at a business forum, according to the South African Embassy in Beijing. Projects involved were in solar power, mining, telecommuni-cations, insurance and finance. China would encourage companies to import more high value-added products from South Africa, and exert more effort on Sino-South African joint business in mineral processing areas.

Close on the heels of a report that says solar and wind will dominate the energy sector world over, comes the news of two driverless electric vehicles beginning an epic 13,000-km journey from Italy to Expo 2010 Shanghai along the Silk Road. The European Research Council, which has funded the project, hopes to demonstrate the possibility of transferring goods between continents using new-energy vehicles and without a human in the driver's seat.

EU health regulators cleared the UAE to become the first major exporter of camel milk products to the 27-nation bloc. If onsite inspections and other EU tests pass muster, the first batches of powdered camel milk could be heading to European shelves next year. Three times more vitamin C than cow's milk, considered an alternative for the lactose-intolerant, camel milk could find use in fighting bacteria, tumors and diabetes and in treatment for liver disease across the range from central Asia to North Africa.

The yen struck a 15-year high against the dollar and a nine-year peak against the euro as investors and speculators tested the resolve of Japanese authorities to stem the yen's steady rise. While countries around the world are letting their home currencies weaken to protect their economies, Japan isn't doing anything about its currency. Hoever, it is speculated that Japan has to do the same as its peers in the world.

To develop Mongolia’s abundant natural resources, political leaders in Ulaanbaatar are opting for more expensive infrastructure options in order to bolster the country’s sovereignty. A railroad spur leading from the country's largest coal mine would link into the country’s domestic railroad network, rather than go directly to China. Mongolian officials have emphasized that the domestic route would better protect Ulaanbaatar from possible Chinese economic and political pressure.

China may overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy this year, but it remains a developing economy despite its fast pace of growth, economists said. China's economy will almost certainly be bigger than Japan's at the end of 2010 because of the huge difference in each country's growth rates. China is growing at about 10 percent a year, while Japan's economy is forecast to grow between 2 to 3 percent this year.

China has proposed setting up a maritime emergency hotline with Japan to prevent civilian and military clashes in the East China Sea and other waters, sources with both governments have said. The measures raised by Beijing also include an annual meeting, a conference to discuss emergency situations, and sharing frequencies and signals used by ships and airplanes during emergencies. Beijing has already established hotlines with Seoul and Washington.