Free Republic

US oil giant Unocal must stand trial in California for alleged complicity in human rights abuses by Burma's military junta, including forced labour, rape and torture, a judge has ruled. "Prior to its involvement in the pipeline project, Unocal had specific knowledge that the use of forced labour was likely, and nevertheless chose to proceed," Los Angeles Superior Court judge Victoria Chaney said. In the decision, Judge Chaney rejected arguments by the California-based energy firm, which built a gas pipeline in Burma, that the case should be tried at least in part under Burma or Bermuda law. Unocal had made...

US and China should break the "old economy" - Clinton By John Liu Hangzhou September 10. INTERFAX-CHINA - Former US President Bill Clinton has said that China had no choice but to develop renewable sources of energy, saying that if new alternatives were not found to traditional modes of economic growth, international conflicts over scarce resources would become increasingly likely. Clinton, attending the China Internet Summit at the West Lake, organized by the e-commerce portal Alibaba in the coastal resort city of Hangzhou, noted that in an "interdependent" world, growing nations such as China and India had to find...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chinese oil company's fight to buy Unocal ended last week in an angry retreat, but not without leaving clear signs that other political battles loom in Washington, D.C., over how much more of America the cash-rich Chinese can acquire