Chinese president’s son linked to multi-million pound African corruption probe

October 5th, 2009 LONDON - Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is bidding to become the first President of Europe, stands to pocket a whopping 3.65 million pounds, if he is successful in his endeavor. Blair could be named President this month following Ireland's vote.

September 28th, 2009 BEIJING - Chinese experts Monday announced that the country's space scientists have completed the world's highest-resolution three-dimensional map of the moon. The map, covering the whole surface of the moon, is based on image data obtained by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera carried by Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe vehicle, launched Oct 2007.

September 19th, 2009 ISTANBUL - For peace to prevail along the Sino-Indian border, all boundary issues need to be resolved in right earnest, External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna said in an exclusive interview to ANI here on Friday.

September 13th, 2009 Coca-Cola says Chinese ex-employee in police probeBEIJING — A former employee of a Coca-Cola Co. bottling plant in China has been detained by police, a company official said Sunday, amid news reports that the person was being investigated for allegedly accepting bribes of almost $1.5 million.

August 31st, 2009 NAIROBI - Gabon went to the polls Sunday in an election expected to continue the family dynasty of Omar Bongo, who ran the oil-producing nation for over 41 years until his death in June. Voter turnout was reportedly high in the tiny West African country of 1.5 million, where Bongo's son Ali-Ben, 50, was up against over a dozen candidates.

August 4th, 2009 JOHANNESBURG - One of Zimbabwe's vice-presidents, Joseph Msika, has died at the age of 85 after a battle with illness, the South African public radio reported Tuesday. Msika died Tuesday in a hospital in Zimbabwe, the report said.

July 19th, 2009 LONDON - Tata Motors executives will warn Business Secretary Lord Mandelson that they will scrap plans to build electric cars in the UK if it does not receive a 10 million pound loan soon. The company is furious after being told by officials from Mandelson's Business Department last week that it needed more time to find out if the venture will be considered for the loan, taking the total waiting time to six months.

July 14th, 2009 LONDON - In a bid to avenge the deaths of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, Al-Qaeda's North African wing has threatened to target Chinese workers in Africa. The threat from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) comes in the wake of race riots in far West China which claimed the lives of at least 136 Han Chinese and 46 Uighurs, The Telegraph reports.

July 14th, 2009 LONDON - International terror group Al Qaeda's North African wing has threatened to attack Chinese workers in Africa in revenge for deaths of Uighurs during the ethnic clashes in Xinjian province, according to a media report Tuesday. The Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it would target the 50,000 Chinese who are working in Algeria and launch attacks against other Chinese projects in Northern Africa, the Telegraph reported, quoting London-based risk analysis company Stirling Assynt.

July 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - A former speaker of Bangladesh parliament and two former officials may be asked to return Taka 17.1 million ($285,000) that a parliamentary committee has said were "misappropriated" by them. Former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, his deputy Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and chief whip of the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) Handaker Delwar Hossain, drew the money as medical allowances and additional fuel allowances "ignoring the law", an all-party parliamentary probe committee has ruled.

June 28th, 2009 ADDIS ABABA - China continues to make inroads into Africa, as it bagged yet another major order for building infrastructure in the East African state of Ethiopia. China's state infrastructure major, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has signed an agreement to construct a new expressway connecting Ethiopia's capital to another city in the centre of the country, Nazreth.

June 6th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Six in 10 Pakistanis believe that their political parties are highly or very highly corrupt. According to a new survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan, political parties (60 percent) were public's perception of corruption, followed by parliament (57 percent) and private/business sector (41 percent).

May 31st, 2009 ADDIS ABABA - The contract for the proposed Dakar-Djibouti highway project will be awarded soon, according to the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), a multi-nation organisation set up to ensure an integrated socio-economic development in Africa. "Two engineering companies from South Africa and Tunisia are competing for this huge infrastructure project," said NEPAD transportation consultant Adama Deen at a recent press briefing in Midrand, South Africa.

May 28th, 2009 SHANGHAI - China's first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1, is expected to be launched in the second half of this year, an official of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) said Thursday. The probe had passed test of the research phase, Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of SAST, told the third Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition that began here Thursday.

April 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W.