China

Possible abnormal behavior that could indicate imminent earthquakes includes chickens flying atop trees, fish leaping out of water or toads moving in a group.

China Development Bank and the Asian country's export credit financing agency agreed to provide a total of $7 billion in financing for Brazil's state-run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro. And Tianjin Airlines signed a contract to buy 22 jets from São Paulo-based Embraer.

Prior to the project’s approval by the Legislative Assembly in February various professional and business groups warned that changes to the project would be needed and that those changes would inflate the price tag.

Although panda numbers are on the rise, they are facing a new threat: economic development. Twenty-four of the 33 separate panda populations in China are so small they are deemed "high risk for survival."

The loan comes with the condition that the project be developed entirely by a Chinese firm using only Chinese workers.

“It’s common to see Ortega trying to steal the show.”

HKND plans to dredge 715 million cubic meters of material from the bottom of Lake Cocibolca, possibly the biggest dredging job ever. In comparison, all dredging and excavating in the 100-year history of the Panama Canal has removed a total of 550 million cubic meters of material.

News of the agreement came as Costa Rican and Chinese officials reached consensus Friday on how to move forward with the $1.5 billion project after the Comptroller General’s Office canceled the previous project over a conflict of interest in 2013.

Increasing purchasing power and fewer travel restrictions has made of Chinese travelers one of the most coveted demographics for tourist destinations. China has become the world’s largest source for international tourists, who spent $129 billion on travel in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organization.

Costa Rica could find itself once again as a center of high-tech manufacturing, including cars and renewable energy equipment, after President Luis Guillermo Solís and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a strategic partnership agreement that included future discussion of "special economic zones" in Costa Rica for Chinese enterprises, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.