Chinese language class starts in Liberia’s capital amid China’s growing presence

August 31st, 2009 Copper, oil sell off after drop in Chinese stocksNEW YORK — Growing concerns about a potential falloff in Chinese demand for basic materials sent prices for copper, oil and soybeans tumbling Monday. The decline in commodities came after China's main stock index plunged nearly 6.7 percent overnight, adding to a nearly 3 percent drop on Friday.

August 11th, 2009 China's exports, imports fall sharply in JulyBEIJING — The decline in China's imports accelerated in July despite a rise in economic growth, while exports also fell more sharply amid weak global demand, data showed Tuesday. Imports fell 14.9 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 13.2 percent decline the previous month, the customs agency reported.

August 11th, 2009 Yanzhou considers takeover of Australia's FelixSYDNEY — China's Yanzhou Coal Mining is in talks to buy Australian coal miner Felix Resources Ltd. in a cash takeover bid worth about 3.5 billion Australian dollars ($2.9 billion), a person close to the negotiations said Tuesday.

July 29th, 2009 Chinese stocks dive after huge IPOBEIJING — China's main stock market index has dived nearly 8 percent after the world's biggest initial public offering this year started trading. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 7.7 percent in afternoon trading after shares from the $7.3 billion IPO by China State Construction Engineering entered the market.

July 20th, 2009 Drinking binge at banquet kills Chinese officialBEIJING — One Chinese official is dead and another is in a coma after bouts of excessive drinking, state media said Monday in a report highlighting the dangers of a drinking culture connected with government and business work. Jin Guoqing, a district deputy director of water resources in Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province, fell unconscious while entertaining guests at an official banquet last week and died on the way to the hospital, the official China Daily said.

July 8th, 2009 GM says Chinese company bidding for OpelBEIJING — Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive Industries Corp. has joined the bidding for General Motors Corp.'s German unit, Adam Opel GmbH, a GM spokeswoman said Wednesday.

June 3rd, 2009 China's Hu, Obama, discuss North KoreaBEIJING — President Barack Obama discussed the crisis on the Korean Peninsula with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in a phone call early Wednesday, Chinese state media reported. A brief report by the official Xinhua News Agency gave no details of the discussion, which comes amid efforts by the U.S.

May 29th, 2009 CIA seeks to broaden foreign language skillsWASHINGTON — The CIA is undertaking a five-year plan to boost the agency's fluency in foreign languages, Director Leon Panetta said Friday. Less than a third of CIA analysts and overseas spies are proficient in a foreign language and Panetta said he aims to raise foreign language proficiency inside the CIA to at least half of all analysts and intelligence operatives within the next five years.

May 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pre-schoolers pick up language faster in the presence of classmates with better linguistic skills. Of course, they also learn how to speak and understand language by the way their parents at home and teachers at school speak.

May 7th, 2009 LONDON - Do you want your child to have the perfect pitch? Well, then start him or her early on Mandarin or Vietnamese lessons, that's the suggestion of a new study. The study, which confirms children's excellent ability to pick up things early in life, claimed that the likelihood of developing perfect pitch seems to be strongly linked to the language people speak.

April 20th, 2009 China launches new English-language newspaperBEIJING — A new English-language paper published by China's Communist Party hit newsstands on Monday — part of Beijing's efforts to raise its profile on the global stage and find an international audience for the party line. The inaugural English edition of the Global Times led with stories about public support for naval development and how the Great Wall of China was even longer than thought.

March 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Indicative of growing bilateral military ties, Indian Navy warships will, for the first time, participate in China's International Fleet Review in late April, an official said. 'Three warships and a tanker from the Eastern Fleet sailed today (Friday) to participate in the International Fleet Review April 20-24,' a senior naval officer said.

February 3rd, 2009 BEIJING - The Chinese government has protested India's ban on Chinese toy imports and is likely to ask the World Trade Organization (WTO) to probe it, a newspaper here reported Wednesday. The move came after India announced a six-month ban on toy imports from China Jan 23.

January 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - 'Ni hao!' If you have studied Chinese earlier and these words don't ring a bell, then 'Hello', join the 'Chini Adda' club here to brush up your knowledge of Mandarin. Indians who learn Chinese often forget the language due to lack of practice.

January 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - There is a rising demand in India to learn the Chinese language, but New Delhi is hardly issuing visa to teachers from China, says Beijing's top diplomat here. 'There are no native Chinese teachers to teach the language to Indians since April 2008 despite the growing demand to learn the language,' Consul General Mao Siwei said in an interview here.