The world might be sinking into its worst recession in generations, but China is on a wild shopping spree. Sitting some $2 trillion of cash reserves, Beijing is taking advantage of the woes of others to cement its grip on new sources of commodities ranging from olive oil to crude oil —often at fire-sale prices. China’s growth rate may be slowing in concert with the world economy, but even at that slower rate, its economy continues to expand, requiring a steady increase in supplies of oil, copper, aluminum and other minerals.
Tag Archives: africa
Nigeria militants ‘repel attack, kill troops’
Militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta region said they killed six government soldiers after the military attacked one of its camps on Thursday. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, in an e-mail, said three military gunboats attacked one of its camps around the Ke River in the country’s Rivers state. The group said the gunboats were repelled, with six soldiers dying and three militant fighters wounded in the skirmish
Is the Economic Crisis a Security Threat Too?
Could the deepening global recession boost the flagging efforts of Osama bin Laden to challenge the established global order?
India’s Top Automaker, Tata Motors, Hits a Rough Patch
Business cycles can be fickle, as officials for Tata Motors are discovering. During India’s economic boom, the country’s largest automobile manufacturer burst onto the international stage by acquiring fabled British luxury marques Jaguar and Land Rover for $2.3 billion
World Cup 2010 tickets go on sale
Tickets for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have gone on sale.
Nosediving plane damaged just one house
A commuter airliner whose crash late Thursday killed 50 people was in such a sharp nosedive when it hurtled into a residential area that only one house was damaged, local authorities said Saturday. “All the damage was specific to that one property and that one structure,” Erie County Emergency Coordinator David Bissonette said at a morning news conference. “There was a garage to the immediate south that had a little bit of exposure damage, but other than that, limited to the one property.” A 61-year-old man in that house died — as did all 49 people aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407 — when the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprop pierced the property like an arrow into a bull’s eye.
Is China Making Its Bird-Flu Outbreak Worse?
One thing is certain about avian influenza: it’s deadly. All three people who contracted the H5N1 strain of the virus in China last year died.
Crash victims include rights campaigner, beloved cantor
A human rights official known for her expertise on the Rwanda genocide. A 9/11 widow who channeled her grief into fighting for survivors and families. A beloved cantor
Salma Hayek, Breast-Feeding and One Very Public Service
If anyone on the planet could convince men that breast-feeding moms can have a sex life, it would be Salma Hayek. The beautifully busty actress, on a trip to Sierra Leone to support a tetanus-vaccination project, nursed a starving baby she encountered while being filmed by ABC News.
U.S. Navy arrests pirate suspects in Gulf of Aden
The U.S. Navy has captured seven suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the first arrests by a U.S.-led task force set up to curb rampant piracy off the Horn of Africa, a Navy spokesman said Wednesday