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/ 15 October 2008
The US military says that a foreign insurgent killed in the Iraqi city of Mosul has been identified as Abu Qaswarah, al-Qaeda’s number two in Iraq.
Iraqi police and soldiers swept house to house through the southern city of Amara on Thursday in a new crackdown on Shi’ite fighters.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday called on the world community to do more to help Africa as he opened the annual meeting of the African Development Bank in Shanghai. Debt relief and technology transfers were among the tools the wealthier nations could use to help boost growth in Africa, Wen said.
China’s will next month increase down-payments on home loans and broaden the capital gains tax, moves analysts said on Tuesday should help cool the overheated real estate sector in the short term. The down-payment on homes above 90 square metres would be raised to 30% from 20%, as authorities target the high-end of the property market.
The Rolling Stones will finally play in China this weekend after a three-decade battle to win censorship approval, but there are few frenzied fans here awaiting the arrival of the British legends. The veteran bad boys of rock — the biggest music act ever to play in China — have chosen to play their one-off concert on Saturday at a tiny 8 000-seat theatre in Shanghai .
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/ 2 February 2006
China has banned Hollywood’s Memoirs of a Geisha a week before it was due to be released over fresh speculation that the Chinese actresses’ roles as Japanese courtesans could spark public controversy. The film tells the story of a girl from a poor Japanese fishing village who is sold to a geisha house and goes on to romance a rich businessman.
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/ 23 January 2006
China’s economy likely became one of the world’s five biggest in 2005 as booming exports and surging investment again helped secure growth of well above nine percent, analysts said on Monday. Ahead of Wednesday’s release of China’s 2005 economic data, analysts expect the world fastest growing major economy to surge between 9,5 and 10,3% to surpass the two-trillion-dollar mark.
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/ 10 January 2006
China’s $2.3-billion Nigerian oil venture is a major step forward for the energy ravenous country as it seeks to power its fast-growing economy but analysts said on Tuesday the race was just heating up. China National Overseas Oil Corp’s purchase of a 45% stake in the Akpo field is the biggest overseas investment by Beijing since China National Petroleum Corp’s took over PetroKazakhstan for $4,18-billion in October.
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/ 4 November 2005
Harry Han was pleased with himself. In the space of a few minutes, the dapper, handsome 29-year-old had pocketed a couple of women’s phone numbers and was now coolly scanning the crowd for his next target. ”There are five hours and each date takes eight minutes, so I can get to know a lot of people,” Han said on a recent Saturday evening of matchmaking in China’s largest city, Shanghai.
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/ 23 September 2005
Like exhausted but triumphant climbers, pudgy Chinese officials wheezed between smiles atop Kunlun mountain pass before their oxygen-outfitted locomotive whisked them southwards along bare-backed snowy peaks to the Tibetan border. At 4 780m, Kunlun in China’s western Qinghai province is one of the highest passes along the new Tibet railway that is rapidly nearing completion.