UPDATE:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6508909.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 30 March 2007, 06:04 GMT 07:04 UK
"UN voices 'concern' on UK sailors"
"The captured sailors have been shown on Iranian television
Iranian TV footage"
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The UN Security Council has agreed a statement voicing "grave concern" at Iran's capture of 15 British sailors.
It also calls on Tehran to allow the UK consular access to the personnel.
The statement is a watered-down version as the UK wanted it to "deplore" Iran's detention of the Britons and call for their immediate release.
Iran, which the UK later said had sent a note to the British embassy, responded by saying it was not helpful to try to engage third parties.
The Foreign Office said of the note: "We can confirm that, as reported in the Iranian media, the Iranian government has sent a formal note to the British embassy.
"Such exchanges are always confidential so we cannot divulge any details but we are giving the message serious consideration and will soon respond formally to the Iranian government.""
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china
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Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808958/posts
The 'Genocide Olympics'
Wall Street Journal ^ | March 28, 2007 | Ronan Farrow and Mia Farrow
Posted on 03/29/2007 5:07:17 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"One World, One Dream" is China's slogan for its 2008 Olympics. But there is one nightmare that China shouldn't be allowed to sweep under the rug. That nightmare is Darfur, where more than 400,000 people have been killed and more than two-and-a-half million driven from flaming villages by the Chinese-backed government of Sudan.
That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg -- who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies -- to sanitize Beijing's image. Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?
China is pouring billions of dollars into Sudan. Beijing purchases an overwhelming majority of Sudan's annual oil exports and state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. -- an official partner of the upcoming Olympic Games -- owns the largest shares in each of Sudan's two major oil consortia. The Sudanese government uses as much as 80% of proceeds from those sales to fund its brutal Janjaweed proxy militia and purchase their instruments of destruction: bombers, assault helicopters, armored vehicles and small arms, most of them of Chinese manufacture. Airstrips constructed and operated by the Chinese have been used to launch bombing campaigns on villages. And China has used its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to repeatedly obstruct efforts by the U.S. and the U.K. to introduce peacekeepers to curtail the slaughter.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808816/posts
Beijing Tunnel Collapses; 6 Trapped ~ Subway Tunnel under construction for the 2008 ..Olympics ..
Las Vegas Sun ^ | March 29, 2007 at 11:25:5 PDT | BEIJING (AP) -
Posted on 03/29/2007 11:31:11 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BEIJING (AP) -
Rescuers are trying to reach six workers trapped underground after a subway construction site for the 2008 Beijing Olympics collapsed, but hopes for their survival are slim, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.
The accident occurred Wednesday morning on the No. 10 line, which runs through the main Olympics compound in northwest Beijing, Xinhua said.
The collapsed section covers an area of about 215 square feet and is about 36 feet deep, it said.
Debris has been cleared away and rescuers were trying to reach the missing workers, but experts fear there is little chance they have survived, the report said without giving further details.
Calls to the city government, Communist Party office and the China Railway 12th Bureau Group Co. Ltd., the stated-owned construction company overseeing the work, rang unanswered Thursday.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation, Xinhua said.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1809051/posts
Russia Eyes Stronger Partnership With China
cnsnews.com ^ | March 27, 2007 | Sergei Blagov
Posted on 03/29/2007 8:06:29 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Russia has renewed its pledge to build its strategic partnership with China, in a thinly veiled attempt to oppose what Moscow views as American unilateralism.
President Vladimir Putin told visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao Monday that the positions of both countries on Iran and North Korea "either coincide or are similar."
In response, Hu, whose three-day state visit to Russia ends Wednesday, hailed what he described as "strategic cooperation between China and Russia, permanent members of the U.N. Security Council." The neighbors, who share a 2,700-mile border, signed a joint statement pledging to cooperate on a variety of issues.
In an apparent rebuff to Washington's Iranian policy, Hu and Putin said the issue of Tehran's nuclear ambitions "should be resolved exclusively through peaceful means and negotiations." (Similarly, the North Korean nuclear weapons issue should be resolved "through a peaceful, diplomatic way.")
"[We] believe that Iran ... has the right to explore peaceful nuclear energy while adhering to all its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty," the joint China-Russia declaration said.
Russia's Foreign Ministry reiterated in a statement Tuesday that Moscow believed the setting of ultimatums for Iranian compliance was doomed to fail.
At the same time, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists in Moscow that Russia expects Tehran to listen to signals by the international community and respond adequately to the latest Security Council resolution.
Moscow and Beijing also moved to cement their partnership with economic agreements, with companies from the two countries signing some 20 agreements totaling $4.3 billion. Russia and China vowed to boost cooperation in the oil, gas and power sectors.
Moscow has prioritized China's lucrative energy market in its energy policy, and has been building a $12 billion pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific to pump supplies to China and Japan.
The China-bound pipelines for oil and gas are seen as a political expedient for the Kremlin, designed to send a message to European consumers that if they do not like Russia's sales terms, Russia can simply redirect its energy exports eastwards.
In 2006, Russia's trade with China reached some $30 billion or 15 percent up year-on-year. Moscow views high growth rates in Russia-China commerce as an important indicator of the state of bilateral partnership.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=russia