China has warned the United States that ties between the two countries will be strained if the US President meets the Dalai Lama. This follows the little progress achieved at "sharply divided" talks between China and the representatives of the Dalai Lama in China. Chinese Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun, speaking at a press conference to discuss the five-day visit by the representatives, said that "corresponding action" would be taken if the White House did not step down. He elaborated, stating that "it will seriously undermine the foundati
Zimbabwean farmers' organisations have warned that the country may face a corn shortage, and corn crops may fail due to prolonged periods without rain.
The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) and the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZFCU) estimate that Zimbabwe might have to import up to a million metric tons of corn.
"All indications are that this season will be a total disaster. We will be very lucky if we get more than 500,000 tonnes," commented Deon Theron, who is the president of the CFU. In a telepone interview with Bloomberg, he also sai
Despite calls from Amnesty International for the protest to be allowed to go ahead, riot police detained dozens of people at an anti-Kremlin march in central Moscow on Saturday. Over a hundred turned up to protest against what the activists call a long-running Kremlin campaign to suppress the right of peaceful protest, in which the protesters shouted "Down with Putin!" and "Shame!", before being herded en masse onto buses by riot police. Among the people detained were influential opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy Prime Minister
China has stated that they will cease all military exchanges with the United States in response to a weapons deal with Taiwan going ahead. He Yafei, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister, said that there would be a "serious negative impact" with regards to the relationship between the US and China.
Taiwan and mainland China have been ruled by separate governments since 1949, and neither recognize each other's independence. In an effort to regain control of Taiwan, the government in Beijing has been open to running the island like Hong Kong, in a "one
Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya, has not been able to win his bid to stay as chairman of the African Union, losing out to Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika, who was backed by several eastern and southern states.
Gaddafi used his final speech to highlight the need for political unity between African states. Libya has been chairing the African Union for the last year, and the job of chair was due to go to a southern African representative. However, Gaddafi wished to retain the presidency, which was backed by Tunisia, and had allegedly won o
Ministers from thirteen countries in Asia pledged on Friday to doubling the wild tiger population on the continent by 2022, to seven thousand.
The commitment was made in Thailand, and is Asia's first ministerial conference on tiger conservation; the thirteen countries that upheld the pledge were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam — all countries in which the wild Asian tiger is still found.
"The wild tiger is already in crisis. This may be our last chance to sav
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced today that the country will supply US$1.8bn (€1.3bn) worth of weapons to Libya. The deal, which will include small-arms and other weapons, is worth almost a quarter of last year's arms exports.
The deal was signed on Friday, during a meeting with Libyan defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jaber, who was in Moscow for several days. Although Russian media have speculated that the deal will contain fighter planes, tanks and anti-air missiles, the Russian government is remaining silent, hinting only that
__NOTOC__
Tony Blair, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, appeared before the Iraq Inquiry today. He faced six hours of questioning, starting at 6:30 am, at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London concerning his role in the 2003 Iraq invasion. During the inquiry, Blair stood by his decision to invade, saying he would make the same decision again.
This is the third time Blair has given evidence at an inquiry into the Iraq War, having already testified before the Hutton Inquiry and the Butler Review, as well as participating
Diplomats have said that Chad called on the United Nations' peacekeeping force to withdraw its civilians and soldiers from the country, and wants a timetable for the withdrawal.
"There is a [Chadian] political imperative for a withdrawal. It doesn't matter how long it takes, it will be a withdrawal," said an unnamed diplomat to the Reuters news agency; diplomats say that the deployment of UN personnel was never fully accepted by the government, and that Chadian president Idriss Deby views their presence as an encroachment on their sovereign te
United Kingdom prime minister Gordon Brown and Irish premier Brian Cowen have left Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, where they had been attending talks on justice and the recent Northern Ireland crisis regarding the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast. No agreement has yet been reached, and the main parties have been given two more days to attempt to broker a deal.
Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister and member of the republican party Sinn Féin, was "deeply disappointed" by the lack of an agreemen
An international conference in London on Tuesday came up with a plan to fight al-Qaeda's presence in Yemen. Delegates present at the conference were from twenty countries, including Yemen, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The conference was called by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown due to the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a US plane, for which al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility. However, the attendees stress that the al-Qaeda presence is not Yemen's only problem, and that it cannot be solved without first dealing wi
A Canadian politician has denounced the recent pie thrown in the face of Fisheries minister Gail Shea, calling for the government to investigate the incident as a potential act of terrorism. The pie was thrown by Emily McCoy, a New Yorker acting with tacit approval of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, to protest Shea's support of the Canadian seal hunt.
MP Gerry Byrne made the comments linking the incident to terrorism on a talk radio program on VOCM in his native Newfoundland on Tuesday. He said that an investigation into PETA was
