Zhao’s memoirs revive Tiananmen

When I first saw Zhao Ziyang up close in 1987, he had just become the new party chief at the closing ceremony of a landmark Communist Party congress. Zhao seemed on top of his game: relaxed, confident and poised to break the old Communist mold. Inside the Great Hall of the People, he walked around an elongated U-shaped table, set up for a “cocktail reception” for Chinese and overseas media.

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Los Angeles Angels rookie pitcher killed in crash

Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was among three people killed in a crash in Fullerton, California, early Thursday, according to the team and a hospital spokesman. Adenhart, 22, of Silver Spring, Maryland, died at UC Irvine Medical Center, according to spokesman John Murray. “The Angels family has suffered a tremendous loss today,” Tony Reagins, the team’s general manager, said in a written statement

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Will the Economy Be Ahmadinejad’s Downfall?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to believe that only desperate measures on the economy can save his presidency when Iranians go to the polls in June, but he suffered a shocking setback on Monday when the legislature dominated by like-minded conservatives blocked his key initiative. Ahmadinejad had proposed legislation in the Majlis, Iran’s parliament, that would have summarily withdrawn government subsidies on oil, gasoline and electricity, freeing up about $20 billion in government funds, of which he planned to transfer more than half in direct cash handouts to middle- and lower-income households

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EU leaders in emergency economic summit

European Union leaders were meeting Sunday for an emergency summit in Brussels amid growing fears that national protectionism will sabotage coordinated efforts to reverse the current economic decline. The summit, called by Czech Prime Minister and President of the European Council Mirek Topolánek and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, will address the ways in which the individual member states implement their recovery plan and fight the impact of the financial crisis. The meeting follows French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s promise last week to bail out his country’s auto industry if it did not move jobs out of France.

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