Free Republic

<p>Fox news ran stories last night based on some of the things we were tracking right here in this post. Here is their on line story.</p> <p>As unfinished as my research is, I feel compelled to release what I've found so far as the story cannot wait any longer.  I am not looking for a scoop on anyone or anything, but at the same time I don't want anyone thinking I made this stuff up after the fact either.</p>

India says Goldman Sachs helped China's CNPC bid for PetroKazakhstan - report10.16.2005, 10:08 PM BEIJING (AFX) - India has accused Goldman Sachs of presiding over an auction for the PetroKazakhstan oil group marred by a 'lack of propriety and transparency' and where the rules were changed mid-way through to help a state-controlled Chinese oil group, the Financial Times reported, citing an interview with Mani Shankar Aiyar, India's petroleum minister. 'The Indian bid was easily highest and the matter should have been closed,' Aiyar was quoted as saying. 'I'm sick and tired at the lectures we are given by the west...

Beijing — Less than two months after stepping down as prime minister, Jean Chretien is moving quickly to forge a relationship with China's wealthiest and most powerful business conglomerate. Making a surprisingly speedy entrance onto the global business stage, Mr. Chretien will arrive in China this weekend with a team of Power Corp. executives to meet some of China's most influential business leaders. The visit, his first major overseas trip since his retirement, is being kept hush-hush. Neither the Canadian embassy in Beijing nor his law office in Ottawa is revealing any details of the visit, insisting that it is...

HONG KONG State-owned oil companies in China and India are trying to buy a Canadian company with oil fields in Kazakhstan in the most direct competition yet for energy between Asia's two most populous countries. A joint venture of China National Petroleum, China's biggest oil company, and PetroChina, its publicly traded subsidiary, offered roughly $3.2 billion late Monday for PetroKazakhstan, a person close to the negotiations said. Oil & Natural Gas, India's main government oil company, has already reportedly submitted a bid of $3.6 billion in cooperation with the steel maker Mittal Group. PetroKazakhstan, whose shares are traded in Toronto,...