(December 3, 2007) The death toll in the landslide in central China’s Hubei Province last month has risen to at least 34, after searchers pulled out one more body from the debris early on Monday. The landslide caused an avalanche of about 3,000 cubic meters of rubble that buried a nearby construction site and a bus travelling on State Highway 318, Xinhua reported.
Odious debts and nation building: When the incubus departs
(December 1, 2007) Few events in the life of a society are as heady as the ouster of a long-standing dictatorial or corrupt regime. In the euphoria that typically follows this kind of nation building, the new government will want to expunge all vestiges of the old regime – personnel, laws, decrees and offensive policies.
Beijing: Chinese suffering a new water torture
(December 1, 2007) Beijing’s dead waterways will be brought back to life—temporarily—in time for the Olympic Games, reports The Age. Officials will pump 3 billion cubic metres of water into the city from four dams in neighbouring Hebei province to replenish the water in the city’s dirty canal system.
Beijing: Chinese suffering a new water torture
(December 1, 2007) Beijing’s dead waterways will be brought back to life—temporarily—in time for the Olympic Games, reports The Age. Officials will pump 3 billion cubic metres of water into the city from four dams in neighbouring Hebei province to replenish the water in the city’s dirty canal system.
Deep concern over Three Gorges dam
(November 30, 2007) Chinese writer Dai Qing responds to the Chinese government’s campaign to downplay the environmental effects of the Three Gorges dam. “If they’re saying that the landslides have nothing to do with the reservoir than they are telling lies,” she told the BBC.
World bankruptcy
(November 28, 2007) When the World Bank staff staged a coup against then-President Paul Wolfowitz earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal editorials argued that one motivation was to stop his anti-corruption fight. Now The WSJ describes “another backroom putsch,” this time against Suzanne Rich Folsom, the head of the bank’s anticorruption unit (INT, or department of institutional integrity).
Equitable subordination, fraudulent transfer, and sovereign debt
(November 27, 2007) There is a growing body of scholarship that attempts to identify workable mechanisms to enable sovereigns to repudiate ‘odious’ sovereign debt – obligations incurred by sovereign regimes that provide no corresponding benefit to the sovereign debtor itself.
Canada’s PM right to take tough stance on China
(November 27, 2007) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s outspoken criticism of China’s human-rights record will not hurt Canadian business opportunities, say Canada’s business leaders; a new survey finds big business supports Harper’s stance and believes it will produce benefits in the long-run.
Residents fear China’s Three Gorges dam
(November 27, 2007) Residents in the Three Gorges dam reservoir area fear an increased risk of harm to the environment as a result of the dam’s impacts. One of the biggest concerns currently is that the reservoir’s seasonal water fluctuations have unsettled the delicate geology of the area and that this may escalate the risk of landslides and other dangers.
Equitable subordination, fraudulent transfer, and sovereign debt
(November 27, 2007) There is a growing body of scholarship that attempts to identify workable mechanisms to enable sovereigns to repudiate ‘odious’ sovereign debt – obligations incurred by sovereign regimes that provide no corresponding benefit to the sovereign debtor itself.
Norwegian environmental group urges Statkraft to stop hydro expansion in Laos
(November 27, 2007) A major expansion of a Nordic-built hydropower dam in communist Laos will cause serious flooding, ruin fisheries, and displace thousands of people living downstream, a Norwegian environmental group said this
week, Reuters reported.
SINOHYDRO Inks Mekong Hydro Deal with EGAT
(November 26, 2007) China’s Sinohydro Corporation signed an agreement to sell electricity to Thailand’s Electricity Generating Authority (EGAT) from future hydro dams on Nam Ou, a large Mekong tributary in Laos.
Three Gorges’ first earthquake monitoring centre under construction
(November 23, 2007) Construction has begun on the first earthquake monitoring centre in the Three Gorges area, www.china.org.cn reported on Nov 21. Located in Shizhu County, the centre will provide technical support regarding operation safety, earthquake damage relief, and geological disaster evaluation.
Landslide hits near Three Gorges dam
(November 23, 2007) Chinese officials have confirmed that a bus carrying as many as 27 people has been discovered buried in a landslide that occurred earlier this week.
New plan to address Three Gorges’ environmental problems
(November 22, 2007) China’s Three Gorges Project Committee has announced measures to protect the environment in the Three Gorges area, Xinhua reported on Nov 22.
Patricia Adams
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