Asia is world's top weapon importer: SIPRI

For the first time, China has become the world’s fifth biggest arms exporter – its highest ranking since the cold war – pushing the United Kingdom from the top five exporters list, a Sweden-based research institute said Monday.

India over the last five years was the world's biggest importer of weapons, said a report published Monday, which also showed big arms suppliers had scrambled during the period to sell to Libya."India is the world's largest arms importer," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement upon releasing the report."India receives nine percent of the volume of international arms transfers during 2006-10, with Russian deliveries accounting for 82 percent of Indian arms imports," it said.

India has been the world's biggest weapons importer over the last five years, Swedish think-tank SIPRI reported Monday, naming four Asian countries among the top five arms importers.The report also highlighted how the world's major arms supplying countries had in recent years competed for trade in Libya, and in other Arab countries gripped by the recent wave of pro-democracy uprisings."India is the world's largest arms importer," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said as it released its latest report on trends in the international arms trade.

War on the Korean Peninsula: Why no one wants to go there again, despite the rhetoric TOKYO (AP) — As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people.

Asia has more billionaires than any other continent, a survey by a China-based wealth magazine showed on Thursday, apparently overtaking North America for the first time. There were 1,453 people around the world with a personal wealth of $1 billion or more as of January, said the Hurun Report, a luxury magazine publisher that compiled the list.

Excerpts from a new Special Report from

Corruption in the global arms industry is systemic and widespread, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

NEW YORK — McDonald’s says a key sales figure dropped again in January as the world’s biggest hamburger chain faced ongoing weakness in Japan and sales in China were hurt by a food scare and the timing of a holiday. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company said global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months dropped 1.9 percent for the month. The figure is a key metric because it strips out the volatility of newly opened and closed locations.