 |  | | China Myths Debunked |
 WE all know the facts: In
1949 when the Communist
Party took over, China had
been mired in civil wars
and dismembered by foreign
aggressions; its people had suffered
widespread famine; average lifeexpectancy
was a mere 41 years.
Today, it is the second largest economy
in the world, a great power with global
influence, and its people live in
increasing prosperity; average life
expectancy has reached 74 years.
But the assessment has to go deeper
than that, for reasons none other than
the apparent discomfort, if not outright
disapproval, Western political
and intellectual elites feel toward the
Communist Party´s leadership. Five
misconceptions dominate... |
|
| |  | | THE CAMERON
COLLAPSE |
| PETER Oborne, writing in
the conservative Daily
Telegraph, recently suggested
that the
Conservative British Prime
Minister, David Cameron, was not
merely in a mess, he "is in a sewer."
That seems about right. Cameron
lost it over Rupert Murdoch. He
showed staggering lack of judgment
in hiring Andy Coulson, the former
News of the World editor, as his first
director of communications at
Downing Street, a hubristic decision
made against the best advice and
apparently with a dual aim: to show
he was not an old Etonian "toff" and
to get favourable treatment from the
37 percent of the British print media
owned by Murdoch.
He then spent a fair chunk of time
during his first year in office in 26
meetings with various News Corp
honchos, including Rebekah
Brooks, who was... |
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
India okays BP-Reliance deal, says report
AFP
NEW DELHI
INDIA’S finance ministry on Wednesday approved a $7.2- billion deal between Reliance Industries and Britain’s BP, the Economic Times newspaper reported on its website.
Under a deal announced in February, BP plans to buy a 30 percent stake in 23 of Reliance’s oil and gas blocks, including India’s largest gas field KG-D6, for $7.2 billion, plus another $1.8 billion linked to exploration success.
The oil ministry has already given its support to the deal, one of the largest foreign investments in India.
A finance ministry official had no immediate comment on the newspaper report which quoted unnamed sources who said the deal would not require further cabinet approval.
Reliance is pinning hopes on Europe’s second-largest oil company to help it find more oil and gas and boost output at the Indian company’s showpiece KG-D6 field.
Reliance wants to tap BP’s deepwater-drilling skills to improve gas production at its fields.
Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy said earlier he had recommended the cabinet’s approval of the deal without any conditions.
However, some government officials later raised concerns about contractual clauses that forbid export of crude oil from energy-hungry India.
Such access has become especially important for BP since a US governmentimposed moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in wake of last year’s massive oil spill and political upheaval in the oil-rich Middle East and north Africa.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
