The supplier's subsidiary units in China was convicted for selling substandard and expired meats to restaurants including McDonald's and KFC. However, the company argued that the verdict was unjust and inconsistent with the evidence presented in court.

21 people were arrested by the Chinese police on account of a huge online financial scam. The P2P online lender Ezubao had almost pulled off the biggest scam in wealth management product industry, with almost 900,000 investors losing around $7.6 billion (50 billion yuan).

Google has set a milestone in the field of artificial technology, with its latest innovation AlphaGo. The program has been designed to tackle the 10 to the power of 700 variations that the ancient Chinese game of Go offers. Additionally, they beat FaceBook in this race, as Zuckerberg had announced the launch of a similar program called Darkforest around the same time.

India is now the world's largest exporter of rice, with 10.23 million tons of rice exported in 2015. The country outranked the former leader, Thailand whose export numbers have fallen to 9.8 million tons this year, which also recorded the lowest rice prices in the last ten years. It seems the falling prices are also tied to the global oil crisis that has hit the rice importers, thereby affecting their purchasing power.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) concluded the study based on 27 factors that bring both positive and negative impact towards global innovation. The study involved 56 countries, whereas China stood at the 44th rank, Thailand the 53rd, followed by India. ITIF also noted that supporting global innovation is crucial for countries' economic growth.

Many Chinese factories are being abandoned due to the downturn in the country. This has caused millions of workers unemployed, and many of the remaining workers should have their salaries cut.

China’s central bank, the People's Bank of China is putting the largest amount of cash into the financial system in nearly three years which is around 340 billion yuan. The move was done as the bank is preparing for lots of cash out as it is nearing the Lunar New Year.

Toyota Motor is seriously contemplating a buyout of Daihatsu Motor Co., which would give the company direct access to Daihatsu’s 660 cc mini vehicles. This investment would fetch Toyota great returns in the emerging markets and also enable leveraging of the low-cost production model that has long been Daihatsu’s competitive advantage.

China's President Xi Jinping and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani enter a new era of cooperation between two countries. In their meeting on Saturday, both countries agreed to expand trade to $600 billion in the next 10 years and bilateral cooperation.

China has emerged a winner against crashing commodity prices and recorded a benefit of $460 billion this year. Out of this windfall, $320 came from cheaper oil prices alone and the remaining $140 billion from other commodities like energy, metal, and agricultural items.