Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc won a decisive election victory on Sunday, cementing his grip on power but raising the possibility he could lose interest in difficult economic reform and shift focus to his nationalist agenda instead.

• July 21, 2013

As China pushes an aggressive expansion of nuclear power it is running into a major stumbling block - a breakdown of trust, post-Fukushima, in official assurances of public safety.

• July 19, 2013

Detroit has become the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy, with debts of at least $18bn (£12bn).

• July 19, 2013

Three prominent Iranian economists have called for the creation of a "civil movement" against U.S.-led sanctions that have been imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.

• July 18, 2013

Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn expects Russia's car market to overcome recent weakness and is aiming, with the help of Lada-maker AvtoVAZ (AVAZ.MM), to capture 40 percent of the market, he said in a newspaper interview.

• July 16, 2013

China's central bank pledged on Sunday to use a mix of policy tools to adjust banking liquidity to ensure steady credit growth, in an apparent bid to soothe market concerns about tighter monetary conditions.

• July 14, 2013

China warned on Wednesday of a "grim" outlook for trade after a surprise fall in June exports, raising fresh concerns about the extent of the slowdown in the world's second-largest economy and increasing the pressure on the government to act.

• July 10, 2013

Japan faces increasingly serious threats to its security from an assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea, the defense ministry said in its first annual report since hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office.

• July 9, 2013