AP Business

February marks the start of the year of the rabbit in the Chinese lunar calendar.It may be an auspicious sign for Playboy Enterprises Inc., which opened a nightclub in Macau last month as it seeks to expand its licensing of the trademark bunny head logo on lifestyle products in Asia, its fastest growing region.The company, founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953, also plans to open a Playboy Mansion in 2012 in Macau, a former Portuguese colony on the southern coast of China, and has been busy cutting...Read Full Story

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Monday:___BEIJING — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is trying to reassure the public about the government's ability to control inflation with new fears that rising prices will create instability.Wen said Sunday on China National Radio that the government has already taken 16 measures to fight inflation and is fully able to control the general level of prices.The remarks came a day after China raised interest rates...Read Full Story

Total money market mutual fund assets fell $9.28 billion to $2.788 trillion for the week, the Investment Company Institute said.Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds rose $5.63 billion to $945.30 billion. Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category rose $3.55 billion to $739.88 billion for the week ended Tuesday, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Retail tax-exempt fund assets climbed $2.08 billion to $205.42 billion.Assets of institutional...Read Full Story

Total money market mutual fund assets rose $22.39 billion to $2.810 trillion for the week, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds rose $290 million to $945.50 billion. Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category rose $370 million to $740.16 billion for the week ended Wednesday, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Retail tax-exempt fund assets decreased $80 million to $205.34 billion.Assets of...Read Full Story

West Virginia environmental activist Julia "Judy" Bonds, who garnered national attention for her homespun opposition to mountaintop removal coal mining, has died, the environmental group Coal River Mountain Watch said Tuesday.Bonds died Monday evening at a hospital, Coal River Mountain Watch co-director Vernon Haltom told The Associated Press. Bond, the group's 58-year-old executive director, had cancer.A descendant of generations of West Virginia coal miners, Bonds became known as a...Read Full Story