Free Republic

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- When the Organization of American States asked its press freedom expert, Santiago Canton, to report on the state of the independent press in Venezuela, they must have known it was a sensitive mission. President Hugo Chavez's radical populist government does not take kindly to criticism nor does it appreciate outside scrutiny of its internal affairs. It's doubtful, though, that anyone at the OAS expected Canton to fall victim himself to the kind of tactics the Venezuelan press faces every day. Just moments after beginning the final press conference of his four-day visit to ...

BEIJING, Mar 15, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The third-ranking member of China's Communist Party was appointed Sunday to be its next premier, assuming control of a fast-changing economy that has carried the country to new heights and created staggering problems during two decades of reform. Wen Jiabao, 60, becomes the country's top economic official, replacing the retiring Zhu Rongji as expected. The appointment caps a generational leadership transition that inserted new top-level party officials into the highest seats of China's government. The largely ceremonial legislature, the National People's Congress, approved Wen's elevation overwhelmingly as the final top-level...

Zhu whips up storm in Hong KongBy Paul Lin ªL«OµØ Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji (¦¶Âè°ò) arrived in Hong Kong on Nov. 18 to host the opening ceremony of the 16th World Congress of Accountants. Following the meeting, he made some comments about Hong Kong that stirred up a storm. Since he has already announced his retirement, this trip may well have been his last as premier and thus his comments had the ring of parting words. Although they were made in earnest, he left people with the sense that he spoke recklessly. When Zhu met with managers of enterprises funded...

HONG KONG, Oct. 10 — Zhu Xiaohua, the former president of China's sixth-largest bank and previously one of China's leading financial officials, was convicted today in Beijing on bribery charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The verdict, reported by the official New China News Agency, was the latest sign of Beijing's increasingly tough stance in cases of possible corporate malfeasance. Mr. Zhu is the highest-ranking banker convicted so far in the Chinese government's move against executives at state-owned banks. Some have made huge loans to close friends — poor credit risks who are also sometimes the sources of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Details emerged on Friday of a tough U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution that would give Iraq less than six weeks to disclose any weapons of mass destruction and hold the threat of military action over its head. President Bush, facing resistance in Europe and at home to his avowed policy of forcing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, repeated his willingness to act without U.N. approval if necessary. "Our last choice is to commit our troops to harm's way, but if we have to, to defend our freedoms, if we have to, the United States will lead a...

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji recently cracked a joke about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Zhu told the joke to a captive audience of Asian executives during the April Bao business conference held on Hainan Island. Zhu's remarks came during a question-and-answer session with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. According to Zhu, "Japan bought many huge buildings in New York, but luckily they didn't buy the World Trade Center. If they had bought them, now the Japanese would be sadder than the Americans." Zhu's joke was quickly followed by a long round of laughter and applause...