By Olivia Chung HONG KONG – Rio Tinto executives, waiting to hear the fate of colleagues held in Shanghai on charges of bribery and stealing commercial secrets, may have to wait even longer for the outcome of usually contentious price negotiations for supplying iron ore to China. The annual talks involving Chinese steel companies and global ore suppliers set the price for the 12 months from April 1. Rio’s former lead iron ore negotiator in China, Stern Hu, is in custody with three other employees of the world’s third-largest mining company – Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong. A … Continue reading Rio gets back to business

By Brian McCartan VIENTIANE – A recent high-level meeting between United States diplomats and the Mekong River Commission in Laos was held amid growing suspicions of China’s management of the upper regions of the Mekong River, which in recent weeks has run dry in several downstream countries. The exchange was seen as the latest overture in a renewed US effort to counterbalance China’s rising influence in the region and boost the US’s image in a country where for historical reasons it has maintained a low profile. Neighboring China, meanwhile, has recently made deep inroads through trade, aid and investment initiatives. … Continue reading Superpower competition for little Laos

By Brian McCartan BANGKOK – Myanmar’s detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has come out strongly against new military-drafted election laws that bar her participation in the vote, referring to them as “unjust”. She has also called on her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party to boycott the polls, a date for which has yet to be set. The new election laws are likely to undermine the credibility of the polls scheduled for later this year in the eyes of the international community. Their restrictive nature also means that the national reconciliation that the junta claims its stage-managed transition todemocracy will lead … Continue reading Decision time for Myanmar’s opposition

By M K Bhadrakumar United States President Barack Obama is about to pull off his biggest foreign policy achievement thus far as a perfect twin to the historic healthcare reform bill passed this week. Obama was expected to pick up his “hotline” to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Friday to okay the first arms control agreement of the post-Cold War era. The “reset” of US-Russia ties is under way, which is no mean achievement considering the army of cold warriors in Washington, including within Obama’s administration. However, at this historic point in contemporary world politics, such an arms control … Continue reading China wary of US-Russia nuclear embrace

Supercar crash: 10 most expensive luxury car accidents A driver crashed a £528,000 supercar after spinning out of control on a test run down a country lane near Aberdeen, leaving an expensive insurance bill. Here are some other expensive crashes involving luxury cars. telegraph.co.uk The Aberdeen crash could leave a final bill of more than £300,000 once all the repairs are completed, insurers said. Photo: PA The car has now been sent for repair to Modena in Italy, where the vehicles are made. Photo: JEFF GILBERT 1 Ferrari 1962-64 250 GTO: £19 million. The car’s British owner, who has never … Continue reading 10 most expensive luxury car accidents!

Facebook: what social networking site ‘is blamed for’ amid syphilis claims There are, it seems, few social ills that have not at one stage or another been blamed on Facebook. telegraph.co.uk Facebook has been linked to a resurgence in the sexually-transmitted disease syphilis, according to health experts. Photo: BLOOMBERG Since its creation in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg the site has been held responsible for everything from the breakdown of marriage to childhood obesity. Most recently, a public health official even linked social network sites to a resurgence in the sexually-transmitted disease syphilis. Below are a few examples of the more … Continue reading Facebook blamed again… When will facebookers defend it?

Sex survey: third of Britons ‘would sleep with a stranger for £1million’ Almost a third of Britons would have sex with anyone who paid them £1million, a survey has found. telegraph.co.uk According to the poll the average Briton has sex three to four times a week and has slept with up to five different people Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson in Indecent Proposal Photo: REX Researchers, however, found that almost half said they would never accept such a proposal to have sex with a stranger. The Durex British Sex survey found that almost 30 per cent of people … Continue reading Britons would have sex with anyone who paid them £1million!

Professionals involved in dispensing medicine shouldn’t let their beliefs get in the way of patient care Balaji Ravichandran guardian.co.uk The new code of conduct for pharmacists across the country will continue to allow for exemptions on religious grounds, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) said yesterday. The body, which takes over the regulatory duties from Royal Pharmaceutical Society later this year, has said that pharmacists with strong religious and moral principles can refuse to sell or prescribe products if they feel that doing so would go against their beliefs. This so-called “conscience clause” is nothing new, nor is it restricted only … Continue reading Drug dealers shouldn’t invoke belief

Phil Woolas’s defence of the inhumane Yarl’s Wood removal centre reflects Labour’s shift to the right on asylum Simon Parker guardian.co.uk A discredited policy … Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA Phil Woolas’s response to a further damning indictment of Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre by the chief inspector of prisons shows that the government has to resort to scare tactics and lies to defend a policy that has been condemned by several royal colleges of medicine, the Faculty of Public Health, the former children’s commissioner for England, many leading Christian and Jewish faith leaders, all the major … Continue reading Can Labour ‘out-nasty’ the Tories on asylum?

It is part of society’s obligation to the victims to make a serious effort to hold Nazi criminals such as Heinrich Boere to account Efraim Zuroff guardian.co.uk Nazi war criminal Heinrich Boere at court in Aachen, western Germany. Photograph: Henning Kaiser/AFP/Getty Images There no doubt are many people who wonder whether the conviction this past week in Germany of 88-year-old Heinrich Boere for Nazi crimes committed during the second world war serves any useful purpose. They can point to the fact that more than 60 years have passed since he committed his crimes and that he was not a mass … Continue reading No time limit for Nazi convictions