Society

The recovery from the international financial crisis continues to disappoint optimistic forecasts. The US economy's first quarter growth of 1.8 percent was slow by historical standards during an economic recovery, and was a deceleration from the previous quarter. In the European Union (EU), GDP in the first quarter of 2011 was still 2 percent below its peak of three years ago.

Due to this slow recovery, major economic policy disputes are taking place in the US and Europe. Greece's sovereign debt crisis makes front page headlines. But also looming is a fight on the US budget deficit. The US government's legal debt limit will be reached in August. The US will not default, and the limit will be raised. But the autumn will see the Obama administration and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives clash on how, and by how much, to reduce a US budget deficit running at $1.3 trillion this year, following $1.3 trillion in 2010, and $1.4 trillion in 2009.

Gome Former Chairman, Chen Xiao

Chinese retailer Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd. said on Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit in a Beijing court against its former chairman, Chen Xiao, alleging that he gave "false and misleading" company information in an earlier interview to a Chinese publication.

Hong Kong-listed Gome said comments made by Mr. Chen in an article published on May 10 by the 21st Century Business Herald imposed "financial damages to the company's reputation and operations." It didn't say what comments were made by Mr. Chen.

In the article, Mr. Chen discussed, among other things, events leading up to his departure from the company's helm in March.

A city tourism alliance created by seven cities located along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway was established on Monday in east China, aiming to promote regional tourism along the railway.

The seven cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Cangzhou of Hebei Province, Jinan of Shandong Province, Bengbu of Anhui Province, Nanjing of Jiangsu Province and Shanghai, signed a declaration of cooperation on Monday in Jinan, the capital city of east China's Shandong Province.

The declaration requires the signatories to cooperate in areas such as passenger source research, tourism promotion and cross-city customer service.

China urged the United States on Wednesday to restrain other countries from provoking Beijing in disputes over contested territories in the South China Sea, warning that Washington risks becoming embroiled in an unwanted conflict.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said it would be best if the United States stayed out of the long-standing disputes, but acknowledged that Washington has an interest in freedom of navigation in sea lanes that are vital to trade.

"If the United States does want to play a role, it may counsel restraint to those countries that have frequently been taking provocative action and ask them to be more responsible in their behavior," Cui said at a briefing. "I believe that individual countries are actually playing with fire, and I hope that fire will not be drawn to the United States."