Japan

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) - California-based private company SpaceX announced Thursday that its Dragon spacecraft completed key on-orbit tests as part of a historic attempt to be the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Early Thursday morning, Dragon's thrusters fired, bringing the vehicle 2.4 kilometers below the station.

Photo: Can Djokovic add the French Open title to his trophy cabinet? (Alex Livesey: Getty Images) Novak Djokovic's bid to become the first man in 43 years to hold all four grand slam titles at the same time hit its first hurdle on Friday when Roger Federer became a potential French Open semi-final opponent. World number one Djokovic, three times a semi-finalist in Paris, is the top seed at the French Open with Federer, the 2009 champion, seeded three and

AFP - Toyota said Friday it will roll out a number of new compact cars priced around $12,500 in developing nations, targeting sales of more than one million of the models annually in emerging markets by 2015. Japan's biggest automaker said it would make eight new cars at plants in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Brazil, priced at "about 1.0 million yen ($12,500) or more." "We don't sell cars priced at 500,000 yen," Toyota executive vice-president

AP Asian stock markets struggled for firm footing on Friday as investor nerves were tested by fizzling economic growth in China and the lack of a concrete plan to pull Greece back from the brink of bankruptcy. Media reports that some of China's biggest banks will miss their annual lending targets for the first time in seven years rattled markets, analysts said.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will allow mining companies to use foreign workers to help address chronic labour shortages, with mining magnate Gina Rinehart's A$9.5 billion Roy Hill iron ore project winning approval on Friday to bring in 1,715 workers. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the government had approved Rinehart's plan to bring in the workers to help develop the iron ore mine in the booming and remote Pilbara region of northwestern Australia.