China may not overtake America this century after all

Doubts are growing about whether China can pass the US to become the world’s biggest economy this century amid warnings that the country’s 30-year miracle is nearing exhaustion. (more…)

Rat Meat Sold as Lamb Highlights Food Fears in China

Even for China’s scandal-numbed diners, news that the lamb simmering in the pot may actually be rat took the country’s endless outrages about food hazards into a new realm of disgust. (more…)

157 killed, 5,700 injured in China’s Sichuan quake

 China’s worst earthquake in three years on Saturday killed at least 157 people and injured more than 5,700, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

The magnitude 6.6 quake hit a remote mountainous area of southwestern China’s Sichuan province at 8:02 a.m. (0002 GMT), close to where an earthquake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008. (more…)

Putin : Arms shipments to Syria should stop

It is necessary that arms imports to all sides in the Syrian conflict are halted, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said in Hannover , Germany, adding that Russia is ready to discuss this.

“As for Syria we don’t have a solution yet. What do I think should be done? Halt arms import to the country, but to all sides of the conflict,” (more…)

Iran, N. Korea, Syria denounce the first UN arms treaty

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to create the first international treaty regulating the global arms trade, a landmark decision that imposes new constraints on the sale of conventional arms to governments and armed groups that commit war crimes, genocide and other mass atrocities. (more…)

HRW: Syrians need more than empty words from the BRICS

Human Rights Watch (HRW) blasted on Wednesday the BRICS leaders over their lack of of concern for the Syrian people. ” Syrians need more than empty words from the BRICS countries. Rather than just call for an end to violence, it is time for BRICS states to make clear that the punishment of the civilian population must stop” (more…)

Syria’s Assad appeals to BRICS for help

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appealed to the leaders of a five-nation economic forum meeting in South Africa to help end his country’s two-year conflict. (more…)

Tension rises in Asia as China steps up drone deployment

China’s military is expanding its unmanned aerial vehicle forces with a new Predator-like armed drone and a new unmanned combat aircraft amid growing tensions with neighbors in Asia, according to U.S. intelligence officials. (more…)

Leaders around the world see hope in Pope Francis

Pope Francis received a flood of goodwill messages from around the world Thursday with non-Catholics hoping his papacy will usher in better ties with the Vatican.

China, which has long had strained relations with the Vatican in a dispute about authority over Catholics in the country, said it hoped (more…)

Bassil promises 7/24 electricity by 2015

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil praised the cabinet for approving the offer of the Greek construction group J&P-Avax and the U.S. industrial giant General Electric for constructing the the Deir Ammar power plant in north Lebanon.

“We will start producing 841 megawatts instead of 750,” Bassil said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Bassil had expressed optimism earlier in comments (more…)