By Donny Kwok and Lavinia Mo HONG KONG (Reuters) - Armed with empty suitcases and same-day return tickets, an army of mainland Chinese is descending on suburban outlet shopping malls and international fashion chains in Hong Kong, turning cheap into the new chic as luxury falls out of favor. Wealthy Chinese used to stop …

By Ernest Scheyder WATFORD CITY, North Dakota (Reuters) - In towns across North Dakota, the wellhead of the North American energy boom, the locals have taken to quoting the adage: "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting." It's not that they lack water, like Texas and California. They are swimming in it, and …

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said the European Commission made a "grave mistake" by agreeing to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China and urged the Commission to work to prevent the eruption of a trade conflict. "It's a grave mistake," Roesler told Welt am Sonntag newspaper …

By Kristen Hays and Jonathan Leff HOUSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - For the past three years, the boom in the U.S. shale oil industry has outstripped all expectations. Production surged far faster than any forecasts; drillers raced to secure space in new pipelines to get their crude to market. Now, at the periphery, that may …

By Jason Lange and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chances of a deal between Democratic and Republican lawmakers that would overhaul the tax system, trim government spending and reform safety net spending programs appear to be fading. A sudden improvement in the outlook for the government deficit over the next decade …

By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has urged successor Mark Carney not to bring to Britain his trademark policy of spelling out how long interest rates will remain low. King also said the bank could not be run as "a one-man show," a sign of concern at high expectations that the …

By Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer (Reuters) - The beginning of the end of the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying program might come sooner than many investors think if recent gains in the U.S. labor market do not prove fleeting. Much will depend on how economic data, which has given mixed signals for growth prospects, …

By James Pomfret and Matthew Miller ZHUHAI, China/HONG KONG (Reuters) - In an underground mall just a stone's throw from China's teeming border with Macau, a row of 30 small shops with identical golden plaques does a brisk, though shadowy trade with mainland Chinese visitors, many of them bound for the gambling hub. "Good …

KUWAIT (Reuters) - State-run Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) appointed a new chief executive and suspended other top officials after the country paid $2.2 billion in damages to Dow Chemical Co over a scrapped plastics joint venture. Nizar Mohammad al-Asani replaced Farouk Zanki as CEO at the oil firm and the cabinet approved …

(Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp has hired Robert Douglas Lawler of rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp as chief executive, filling the post vacated by co-founder Aubrey McClendon, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Chesapeake and Anadarko could not immediately be reached for comment by …

LONDON (Reuters) - The single biggest risk to Britain's nascent economic recovery is continued eurozone weakness, the Bank of England's outgoing governor Mervyn King said in a television interview on Sunday. He called for a "credible medium term plan" to get the economy back on track and said automatic economic stabilizers …

By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) - Elan announced its second major drug deal inside a week on Monday and said it would buy back more shares as it continues to bat against a $5.7 billion takeover bid from U.S. investor Royalty Pharma. Having rejected the Royalty bid, the Irish drug firm has been trying to convince shareholders …

By Stanley White TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan risks missing, yet again, an opportunity to use foreign investment to help fuel sustained economic growth that has eluded it for the last two decades. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to make Japan "the world's easiest country for companies to do business in" as part of his economic …