Beijing focuses on using design for positive change

The first Beijing International Design Triennial takes place at the National Museum of China as part of Beijing Design Week 2011. Five exhibitions have been organised for the triennial. The overarching theme is 'Ren', or 'Good Design', and each exhibition, selected by a team of at least one international and one Chinese curator, has a sub-theme. While 'Good Design' encompasses a broad range of topics, the underlying concept - using design to create positive change - is relatively new in China, obsessed as it is with rapid economic growth and where markets are dominated by luxury brands.

Harry Potter makes belated debut on mainland

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premieres on the mainland. China postponed its opening for a fortnight in favour of an epic celebrating the birth 90 years ago of the Communist party - Beginning of the Great Revival: The Founding of a Party. Hawkers of pirated DVDs were selling poor-quality copies of Deathly Hallows 2 in the capital days after its first release overseas.

Bank of East Asia's performance in spotlight

Bank of East Asia reports its interim profit. In February, the third-largest Hong Kong-based lender by market value said rising fee income and lower costs from bad loans lifted 2010's profit 60.8 per cent to a record HK$4.3 billion - and that it was confident of a strong performance this year.

Barack Obama at 50: greyer but feeling good

Barack Obama turns 50. In every election campaign he has fought, he has been the youngest on the ballot - and that record appears to be safe. In the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama is likely to be the youngest candidate as all the Republican challengers who have announced a bid are older than him. As he did in 2008, when national exit polls showed him winning 66 per cent of voters aged under 30, Obama will probably try to make his age an asset in 2012. 'I feel real good about 5-0,' he said recently. 'I've gotten a little greyer since I took this job, but otherwise I feel pretty good.' And his wife, Michelle, had told him she still thought 'I'm cute'.

Judges to rule on Christine Lagarde investigation

French judges will give their ruling on whether IMF chief Christine Lagarde should be formally investigated for approving a compensation payout to a friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy when finance minister. If the Court of Justice backs the prosecutor's request, it would cast a pall over Lagarde's stewardship of the International Monetary Fund a month after she took office. Lagarde abused her authority, prosecutors say, by approving a Euro285 million (HK$3.16 billion) payment to businessman Bernard Tapie to settle his claim that former state bank Credit Lyonnais defrauded him.