Groupe Danone (Euronext: BN, NYSE: DA) (known as Dannon in the United States) is a food-product company with its central headquarters in Paris, France. It claims world leadership in dairy products, which are marketed under the corporate name umbrella, and also in bottled water. It swapped its world number 2 position as producer of cereals and biscuits for the same position in baby foods, having sold the biscuits division to Kraft Foods and acquired Numico.Besides the Danone/Dannon brand of yoghurts, the company owns several internationally known brands, namely Volvic, Evian, and Badoit. About 55% of its 2005 net sales derived from dairy, 27% from beverages, and 18% from biscuits and cerealsDanone owns many water brands worldwide. In Asia, it has acquired Yili, Aqua (Indonesia), and Robust (92%), and has a 51% holding in China's Wahaha Joint Venture Company, giving it a total market share of 20%, making it the leading vendor of packaged water in Asia.

Beijing-based Air China, which raised $1.1 billion in a dual listing in Hong Kong and London in December, 2004, now has a market capitalization of $37.4 billion, higher than that of British Airways, Southwest Airlines and Singapore Airlines combined...

The world's top military spenders and the approximate amounts each country currently budgets for its military establishment are: United States (FY08 budget), $623 billion, China (2004), $65 billion, Russia, $50 billion, France (2005), $45 billion, Japan (2007), $41.75 billion, Germany (2003), $35.1 billion, Italy (2003), $28.2 billion

A gas explosion in an illegal mine in northern China has killed at least 20 people, according to state media. Xinhua news agency said miners were attempting to reopen a shaft in Shanxi province that the government had used explosives to close in 2004.

Yu Zhifei, former boss of the Shanghai Formula One racing circuit and the man who introduced the sport to China in 2004, is appealing his four-year jail sentence for graft, his lawyer said Monday.

It made headlines around the world when the Chinese government and Chinese internet service providers blocked access to Wikipedia in 2004, on the 15 year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. It seems that YouTube is next on the chopping block...