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BEIJING - Chinese state-controlled oil company CNOOC Ltd. said Monday it is paying $2.3 billion for a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian oil field in its first major investment since its failed bid to take over Unocal Corp. last year. The deal adds to a multibillion-dollar string of foreign acquisitions by Chinese oil companies, which are aggressively pursuing energy supplies to fuel China's booming economy. The agreement, which requires approval from the Nigerian and Chinese governments, covers a deep-water area of the oil-rich Niger Delta region, CNOOC said. It said the area includes the Akpo oil field discovered in...

Total, France’s largest energy company, announced on Monday it was pulling out of a $4.8 billion (€4.1 billion) Iranian gas field project, after admitting it was extremely vulnerable to the threat of US penalties against those doing business with Iran. The French group was one of three major energy companies set to help supply the state-of-the-art technology needed to tap into South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas field shared by Iran and Qatar. However, after abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear accord in May this year, the United States has said it will reimpose sanctions on Iran in two phases,...

The rights to explore Brazil's biggest oilfield have been won at an auction by a consortium led by Brazil's state-run Petrobras, backed by Total, Shell and Chinese firms. The group made the only bid in the auction, offering the minimum share of the surplus production. The Rio de Janeiro beachfront hotel, where the auction took place, was guarded by 1,100 security personnel. Earlier, striking oil workers opposed to the contest clashed with police. Eleven companies had expressed interest in the Libra oilfield, but the Spanish Repsol pulled out on Monday, leaving the five winners as the only ones to present...

When a US delegate once confronted a Chinese diplomat about Beijing's uncompromising support for Pakistan, the Chinese reportedly responded with a heavily-loaded sarcastic remark: "Pakistan is our Israel". But judging by China's unrelenting support for some of its allies, including North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan, its protective arm around these countries is no different from the US and Western political embrace of Israel - right or wrong. ..."China is trying to reassert its political clout at the United Nations as a counterweight to its defensive stand on currency and trade issues." The New York Times newspaper said on Tuesday...

You don’t wait for war to buy fighter jets, says Gen. Museveni One of the new Russian-made jet fighters prepares for a demonstration take-off during President Museveni’s tour. PHOTO BY MARTIN SSEBUYIRA By Martin Ssebuyira (email the author) Entebbe The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, yesterday conceded calls by opposition for the government to give priority to infrastructure and healthcare ahead of military hardware are plausible but said defence cannot wait for war to purchase equipment. Mr Museveni, who was inspecting the new planes at the airbase in Entebbe, said the delivery of Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia and China blocked U.N. sanctions on Monday against four Sudanese held responsible for abuses in Darfur but the United States said it would force a public vote on the issue. The four men, whittled down from a longer British list, include one Sudanese government official, one pro-government militia member, and two rebel leaders, the first to be slated for sanctions authorized by the U.N. Security Council more than a year ago. The four were not identified. Both the Russian and Chinese ambassadors told reporters now was not the time to impose a travel ban or...

If anyone still naively believes the Obama administration attaches much importance to human rights on the world stage, they should take a look at its new policy towards Sudan. As the Associated Press reports, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have launched a new strategy of engagement with the barbaric regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, already responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Darfur. As Obama puts it: “If the government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives. If it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed...

The group, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), said it attacked the facility, run by a Chinese-led consortium in the Defra oilfield. Jem said its action was a message to China to stop helping the Sudanese government with their war in Darfur.

The forceful projection of China's hard and soft power in recent months marks a stunning departure from the foreign policy axioms of late patriarch Deng Xiaoping. Deng, who anointed President Hu Jintao as the "core" of the Fourth Generation leadership, noted shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre that China must "keep a low profile and never take the lead" in global affairs. Particularly in reference to the United States, Deng pointed out that China should "seek [opportunities for] cooperation and avoid confrontation." This advice was largely followed by Third-Generation leaders, such as ex-president Jiang Zemin and ex-premier Zhou Rongji, both...

The creeping reach of Chinese arms SINGAPORE, June 13 — Is China returning as a major player in the international arms market? According to data released by the United States Congressional Research Service, Beijing signed arms exports agreements worth US$3.8 billion (RM13.3 billion) in 2007 – its highest sales figures in more than a decade. In recent years, Chinese overseas arms sales have averaged more than US$2 billion a year, considerably higher than during the 1990s, when Beijing averaged less than US$1 billion a year in arms exports. In fact, China has not enjoyed sales this strong since the late...

At the Centenaire market in Dakar, Chinese wholesalers line the street on both sides, renting warehouses for $1,000 a month, selling everything in bulk from plastic toys to space-age looking DVD players. One buyer, Fatou Gueye, says Senegalese are poor and they love these new shops, because, she says finally she can afford something. Here she says, she can buy for children and adults, for her whole family, almost everything they need. One man who has just turned himself from chronically unemployed to retailer is also very pleased. He is buying bras, cameras, shoes, belt buckles, pots, pans, colorful pens...

Feb. 3, 2005, 7:30AM Putin signs order to send Russian troops to Sudan Associated Press MOSCOW - Putin has signed a resolution that would have Russian troops join a proposed U.N. peacekeeping operation in Sudan, the Kremlin said today. The resolution calls for Russia to send Interior Ministry units. The ministry has both police- and military-type units, and there was no immediate specification on what types of forces would be sent. Sudan's government and rebels in the south signed a peace deal on Jan. 9 to end the African nation's long-running civil war, setting up a national power-sharing administration with...

'Full text' of China-Russia Joint Statement on 21st century world order By BBC Jul 2, 2005, 19:00 GMT "Full text" of the China-Russia Joint Statement regarding the international order of the 21st century, released in Moscow on 1 July, carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Moscow, 1 July: Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Putin signed the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation Regarding the International Order of the 21st Century in Moscow on 1 July. The full text of the joint statement follows: Joint Statement of the...

Whatever the fate of Citic Pacific Ltd.'s contemplated bid for PSINet Inc., a distressed U.S. telecom company, the attempt signals a new level of interest by major Chinese companies in making off-shore acquisitions. "The Chinese are thinking big; China has capital and China is growing," says Michael Carr, head of investment banking for Goldman Sachs & Co. in Hong Kong. "We talk to quite a few broad-based Chinese companies with an interest in acquiring companies overseas," adds Dennis Wai, a banker with J.P. Morgan Chase in Hong Kong. "They are looking everywhere now: Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S." To ...

Sudan: Jews behind Darfur conflict Sudanese defense minister says '24 Jewish organizations fueling conflict in Darfur' by Yaakov Lappin Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, has accused "24 Jewish organizations" of "fueling the conflict in Darfur" last week in an interview with a Saudi newspaper. Hussein was interviewed during an official state-visit to the Saudi kingdom last week. A journalist from Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper asked Hussein: "Some people are talking about the penetration of Jewish organizations in Darfur and that there is no conflict there?" "The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, who are making...

Cotton, wheat, rice, and now corn. If revised Chinese import estimates by the US Grain Council are even remotely correct, look for corn prices of $6.80 a bushel at last check to jump by at least 15% in a very short amount of time. As the FT reports, "Corn prices – and with them, the price of meat – are set to explode if the latest import estimates from China are correct. The US Grain Council, the industry body, said late on Thursday that it has received information pointing to Chinese imports as high as 9m tonnes in 2011-12, up...

In the end, the Chinese government does not really care about the escalating violence in Sudan. As long as its investments and workers in Sudan are protected, it views the human rights issues as an internal Sudanese matter. In fact, the CCP is most likely sympathetic to the Sudanese government; after all, China has also been a victim lately of what the CCP would consider to be international ‘meddling’ in the case of Tibet. The CCP’s failure to promote positive change in Sudan is simply a manifestation of its own failures in China. Until China can improve the human rights...

Western media exaggerate China's limited arms sale to Sudan (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-02-22 22:34 LONDON - A senior Chinese diplomat has said that western media have exaggerated China's limited arms sale to Sudan. Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government on the Darfur issue, told a news conference at the Chinese embassy in London on Thursday that "China has adopted a high degree of restraint in its arms sale to developing countries, including Sudan. It is very limited in numbers." According to relevant international statistics, among a total of seven countries exporting arms to Sudan, China only accounted for 8...

Africa discovers dark side of Chinese master By Colin Freeman in Chambishi, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:05am GMT 04/02/2007 The smooth red carpet rolled out across Africa last week for Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, did not quite reach the gates of Zambia's Chambishi copper mine. A young street child outside a Chinese-run business centre His plans to make an official visit yesterday to the plant, which re-opened under Chinese state ownership eight years ago, fell victim to a hitch he rarely encounters at home: the not-so-grateful worker. Tipped off that miners were threatening protests about poor pay and conditions,...

UNITED NATIONS – China and Russia blocked the Security Council from demanding an end to political repression and human rights violations in military-ruled Myanmar, rejecting a resolution proposed by the United States. The vote was 9-3 in favor of the resolution, with South Africa joining China and Russia in the opposition. Indonesia, Qatar and the Republic of Congo abstained. While they were in the minority, China and Russia were able to kill the resolution because they have veto power as permanent members of the council. The two argued that the U.N.'s most powerful body was not the proper forum for...