Beijing  - China's stocks closed 2.44 per cent lower on Friday led by trading in shares of banks, property developers and coal producers.

BEIJING, Nov. 28  -- China confirmed holding Huang Guangyu, an electrical appliance entrepreneur estimated to be worth $6 billion, for investigation of "economic crimes."

The rags-to-riches businessman went missing last week and trading of shares of his company, Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings, had been suspended, the BBC reported Thursday.

Chinese officials gave no details about the 39-year-old's detention but the British network said local media had reported about alleged irregularities in the share price of a company controlled by his brother.

Beijing, Nov. 27 : China has decided to cancel its annual summit with the European Union because of French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s plans to meet Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The decision is a dramatic example of the lengths to which Beijing is willing to go to isolate the Dalai Lama internationally.

French President Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, will go ahead with plans to meet the Dalai Lama in Poland next month despite Beijing''s explicit anger.

Beijing  - A consumer electronics tycoon reputed to be China's wealthiest person is under investigation for white collar crimes, the official Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.

Billionaire Huang Guangyu, head of the country's largest electronics retail chain, has been in detention since last week, newspaper reports said. Police would only confirm that he is under investigation.

According to unconfirmed reports, Huang is accused of manipulating shares of a Shanghai pharmaceutical company controlled by his older brother.

Huang, 39, whose personal wealth is estimated at 6.3 billion dollars, owns the Gome Electrical Appliances chain, which has 1,300 outlets in more than 300 cities with

Beijing - China's central bank lowered its interest rate Wednesday - the fourth time since mid-September - to help ease the impact of the global financial crisis and aid economic growth.

The People's Bank of China said the benchmark rates for one-year loans and deposits will both fall by 1.08 percentage points, bringing the cost of one-year borrowing to
5.58 per cent and one-year deposit rates to 2.52 per cent.

The central bank also slashed the reserve requirements by 1 percentage point for six big banks, down from 17 per cent, and by 2 percentage points for smaller banks, down from 16 per cent.

Beijing- The World Bank lowered its 2009 economic growth forecast for China from 9.2 per cent to 7.5 per cent Tuesday while welcoming the government's stimulus package but urging more rebalancing of the economy.

China's efforts to expand its domestic demand and stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending would be crucial to how it fares against the growing impact of the global financial crisis, the World Bank said in a quarterly report.