links for 2007-06-18

Officials in South Korea and the United States on Sunday welcomed a move by North Korea to invite the United Nations nuclear watchdog back to the Communist state for the first time in four and a half years to discuss shutting down the North’s main nuclear

The recently declassified documents show that the administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter applied heavy pressure on Taiwan to end its quest for sophisticated equipment that Washington feared would be used in the manufacture of a nuclear bomb.

The funds, which the United States has charged are largely the proceeds of crime, were transferred out of Banco Delta Asia, a small family-owned bank in Macao, in the first step to have the money returned to the original account holders, the officials sai

The legislation, which appeared likely to be opposed by the Bush administration, was offered by Senators Max Baucus, the Democrat who heads the Senate Finance Committee, and Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the panel, which oversees trade measu

Proposals to set up a human rights committee which would review its policies around the world, specifically China, were also heavily defeated.

June 11 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s Finance Minister Koji Omi and his Italian counterpart Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa agreed China’s currency should be more flexible, a Japanese Finance Ministry official said.

BEIJING · China said Saturday that it had rejected a shipment of pistachios from the United States, saying it contained ants.

TOKYO (AFP) – Taiwan’s former president Lee Teng-hui on Saturday fired a defiant shot at China during a visit to Japan, urging Tokyo to take a harder line in an emotive row over a war shrine.

BEIJING – Turning the tables on the United States amid growing worries over dangerous Chinese products, Beijing said Friday some health supplements, raisins and pistachios imported from the U.S. failed to meet China’s safety standards and have been return

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (Reuters) – Japan and China emphasised their friendly relationship at a bilateral meeting on Friday, a day after Beijing had shown irritation with Tokyo for allowing a visit by a former Taiwanese president.

Abe Invites China’s Hu to Japan to Improve Relations

(HEILIGENDAMM) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo on Wednesday renewed his opposition to European Union moves to sell weapons to China during talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In the eyes of some scientists and public health experts it is a risky plan. They fear that mass treatments with artemisinin, particularly without associated measures to control the mosquitoes that carry the disease, could hasten the onset of resistance t

China’s Rise and the Reorganization of the Asian Regional and World Economy