HONG KONG/TOKYO (Reuters) – Some trace of the passion that Zaharie Ahmad Shah had for flying can be found in the trail of e-mail exchanges and online message board posts that detail the Malaysia Airlines pilot’s construction of a state-of-the-art flight simulator at home.

Now the stack of computer monitors, graphics cards and software he painstakingly sourced and improved is being pored over by investigators trying to make sense of the disappearance more than two weeks ago of the passenger jet he was piloting.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A state-owned Chinese retail chain has suspended sales of elephant ivory after a series of high-profile seizures of smuggled ivory in Hong Kong and protests by conservation groups drew growing attention to the trade.

Chinese Arts & Crafts suspended sales of elephant ivory at its stores in China and Hong Kong beginning in mid-March, it said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters late on Tuesday.

HONG KONG, March 18 (Reuters) – A state-owned Chinese retail
chain has suspended sales of elephant ivory after a series of
high-profile seizures of smuggled ivory in Hong Kong and
protests by conservation groups drew growing attention to the
trade.

Chinese Arts & Crafts suspended sales of elephant ivory at
its stores in China and Hong Kong beginning in mid-March, it
said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters late on Tuesday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The world’s biggest luxury brands are slowing their expansion in China as more consumers shop abroad, leaving mall operators holding the bag.

Two-thirds of high-end retailers missed their targets for new store openings in China last year, according to an analysis of 43 retailers published by development and design consultants Knight Frank and Woods Bagot.

HONG KONG, Jan 24 (Reuters) – A state-owned Chinese TV
station which has run a string of stories criticising foreign
firms has accused U.S. retailer Wal-Mart of
circumventing its quality control process and fast-tracking some
products with higher profit margins.

The report by China Central Television (CCTV) was based on
an interview with an anonymous former Wal-Mart employee and
cited more than 200 documents dating from 2006 that referenced a
“special approval process” and mentioned alcohol suppliers that
did not have production permits.

HONG KONG, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Hong Kong plans to destroy 95
percent of one of Asia’s major hoards of confiscated ivory,
fulfilling a long-standing demand by conservation groups that
battle trafficking in the contraband material.

The World Wildlife Fund ranks China as the world’s biggest
end-market for poached ivory and Hong Kong, as a free port on
the country’s southern coast, has long served as a key
trans-shipment point for illegal tusks.

ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Asia’s top mergers and acquisitions bankers gathered two years ago at the swanky Island Shangri La in Hong Kong to celebrate the top deals of 2012. As the transactions were being toasted, one was unraveling.

Advisers on Caterpillar Inc’s $677 million purchase of ERA Mining Machinery Ltd picked up an award for cross-border deal of the year. The purchase was billed as a coup for Caterpillar, the world’s top maker of tractors and excavators. ERA was the holding company for Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical & Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Co Ltd, one of China’s biggest makers of hydraulic coal-mine roof supports. Siwei would help Caterpillar gain traction in the world’s largest coal industry.

23 (Reuters) – Asia’s top mergers and
acquisitions bankers gathered two years ago at the swanky Island
Shangri La in Hong Kong to celebrate the top deals of 2012. As
the transactions were being toasted, one was unraveling.

Advisers on Caterpillar Inc’s $677 million purchase
of ERA Mining Machinery Ltd picked up an award for cross-border
deal of the year. The purchase was billed as a coup for
Caterpillar, the world’s top maker of tractors and excavators.
ERA was the holding company for Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical &
Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Co Ltd, one of China’s
biggest makers of hydraulic coal-mine roof supports. Siwei would
help Caterpillar gain traction in the world’s largest coal
industry.

HONG KONG, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Wealthy Chinese are likely to
buy fewer luxury goods again this year after the steepest
cut-back on spending in at least five years, changing the game
for high-end retailers like Louis Vuitton which have
staked their growth on China.

Overall spending by wealthy Chinese fell by 15 percent in
2013, the third consecutive year of decline, according to a
survey by the Hurun Report. Spending on gifts in particular also
declined by a quarter.

DONGGUAN/HONG KONG (Reuters) – China crushed 6.2 metric tonnes (6.83 tons) of confiscated ivory on Monday in the first such public destruction of any part of its stockpile, after the country’s fitful enforcement efforts led experts to question its commitment to stamping out smuggling.

Animal rights groups say China’s growing appetite for the contraband material has fuelled a surge in poaching in Africa.