Elite in China Face Austerity Under Xi’s Rule
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: March 27, 2013
BEIJING — Life for the almighty Chinese government official has come to this: car pools, domestically made wristwatches and self-serve lunch buffets.
In the four months since he was anointed China’s paramount leader and tastemaker-in-chief, President Xi Jinping has imposed a form of austerity on the nation’s famously free-spending civil servants, military brass and provincial party bosses. Warning that graft and gluttony threaten to bring down the ruling Communists, Mr. Xi has ordered an end to boozy, taxpayer-financed banquets and the bribery that often takes the form of a gift-wrapped Louis Vuitton bag.
Ben Fogle accused of fronting propaganda ignoring Sarawak 'environmental destruction and exploitation'
The BBC presenter says he now has 'serious questions' over the Malaysian state
The television presenter Ben Fogle has been accused of taking part in an environmental propaganda campaign for a regime with one of the world’s worst records in deforestation. Fogle, known to millions of BBC viewers as a face of travel documentaries, has become the poster boy for tourism to the controversial state of Sarawak in Borneo, where vast amounts of industrial logging have left only five per cent of forests that have not been either logged or converted to palm oil plantations.
The presenter has made a series of films for the Sarawak Tourism Board under the title “Ben Fogle’s Sarawak Adventures” in which he is pictured playing with orang-utans and swimming in waterfalls. Fogle wrote about his trip to Sarawak, which is part of Malaysia, in his “Ben Fogle, The Adventurer” column for the Daily Telegraph and in a large article in Hello!
Cyprus unveils radical capital control measures
Move geared towards stemming capital flight ahead of troubled banks reopening
Cyprus yesterday unveiled radical capital-control measures ahead of banks re-opening today, the first time a euro zone country has restricted movement of the single currency.
Under the rules, which are designed to curb the exit of deposits out of the country when banks re-open this morning, the use of credit and debit cards overseas will be restricted to €5,000 per month, while individuals will be permitted to take a maximum of €3,000 in cash out of the country.
The new rules will also severely affect businesses. Companies who buy products from abroad will have to provide official written documentation to access the cash needed.
ARMS EXPORTS
UN seeks Arms Trade Treaty in tough talks
Delegates have one day to seal a treaty somewhat controlling the global arms trade. Most UN members want a deal but differ on the particulars. Even if a treaty is signed, it's likely to lack firepower.
UN members were presented on Wednesday with a final draft on a proposed Arms Trade Treaty, an attempt to instill some level of control into a largely unregulated industry. After nine days of touchy talks, the president of the negotiating conference, Australian diplomat Peter Woolcott, laid down his final attempt at compromise.
"I will not consider any further amendments. It is take it or leave," Woolcott told the conference at the UN's New York headquarters.
Mining may contaminate Zambezi water
A coal-mining venture in western Zimbabwe, allowed by a special presidential grant, could cause trouble with the country's neighbours.
Zimbabwe faces a possible row with neighbours Botswana and Mozambique after it emerged that planned mining activities in the Matabeleland North region could disturb wildlife and contaminate the Zambezi River, according to a conservation group.
Zimbabwe, through a special presidential grant, has allowed China Africa Sunlight Energy to mine coal in the Gwayi valley.
But a conservation group is up in arms, saying the project may damage relations with regional partners, degrade the environment and affect the tourism sector adversely.
China denies damaging Vietnamese boat
March 28, 2013 - 2:29PM
William Wan
Beijing: After a week of acrimonious accusations between China and Vietnam, the Chinese military has admitted that one of its ships fired at a Vietnamese fishing boat, although it insisted that only flares were shot and that Vietnam's claims of fire damage to the fishing boat were a "sheer fabrication".
The altercation and angry rhetoric is just the latest in a string of maritime clashes over territory between China and many of its neighbours. But at their worst, such run-ins have consisted of boats ramming each other, the use of water cannons and the arrests of fishermen, and they have rarely escalated to the firing of shots. The clash and the prolonged trading of barbs for days afterward point to a worsening rift between the communist countries.
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