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...improving relations with Beijing. "We are all aware of the new role which China is assuming in the world," said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. This is great news for China, especially given its fury over the recent decision by the U.S. to sell $6.4 billion worth of arms to Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province. (See a brief history of U.S. Presidents in China...
...embargo is more symbolic than anything else - it would signal a European acceptance of the country's status as an equal player on the world stage. The weapons ban has certainly not prevented China from becoming a military power - its annual defense budget officially stands at $70 billion, although the Pentagon believes the real figure to be twice as high. Rather, Beijing sees the embargo as outdated and insulting, considering the other nations currently subject to an E.U. arms ban are all pariah states - Congo, North Korea, Iran, Burma, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. (A similar E.U. embargo against Uzbekistan...
Last summer, Hands proposed a deal in which he would inject $1.56 billion into EMI if Citigroup wrote off about the same amount in debt. Citigroup said no and offered instead to write off $1.56 billion in debt in return for controlling ownership of the company. Hands refused and then sued Citigroup, claiming the bank had persuaded him to pay too much for EMI in the first place. Now the two sides aren't speaking. Hands says Citigroup is playing "hardball for no good reason," while the bank feels that Hands is being unrealistic in his demand to remain...
...invasive species like the Rocky Mountain pine beetle, which has ravaged trees from Colorado to Montana, cause an estimated $120 billion worth of damage annually. "Invasives take over the habitat that native species need to survive and persist," says Frank Lowenstein, director of the Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Forest Health program and an expert on invasive species. "Eventually invasives just start replacing natives...
...space exploration higher on the political agenda of the United States? Some argue that we have too many problems to deal with here on Earth to spend money on propelling a few select individuals out of the gravitational hold of our planet. Granted, NASA’s 18-billion-dollar budget is a lot of money, but it accounts for only 0.6 percent of the federal budget. And while it is true that there are many important issues to deal with and many projects that need funding, the scale of NASA’s funding pales in comparison...