This, in a gist, is one of the observations — a striking one indeed — made in the 2010 Report on China's Modernization by the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The report generated...

Returning to his village of Tian Ping in a remote corner of south-western Yunnan province, he bought a pick-up truck with 50,000 yuan borrowed from relatives and started a new job at home: Hauling...

WASHINGTON -- Anyone who has been following the political chatter here would not be surprised by the latest postponement of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to...

NEW YORK -- Chinese students are flocking to the U.S., forming one of the largest groups of international students who contribute US$17.8 billion to the...

Most controversial among the suggestions for the overhaul of the evaluation system is the introduction of a quota under which three percent of government employees shall be given C grade every year...

In a land where the vast majority of the people are god-fearing, crooked godmen are tarnishing religion to satisfy their lust and greed for worldly wealth A GODMAN or a charlatan? How do you tell the...

I REFER to the speed limit set for the Penang Bridge. It is unrealistic for drivers to slow from 80kph to 70kph and to 60kph over such a short distance. The speed limit of 60kph at mid-span will...

But if Britain and France insist on maintaining these patrols, then they have to realize that one submarine cannot provide cover for both countries. The idea was apparently discussed for the first...

Science fiction induced dreams that scientists will find a way to provide everyone with limitless energy at practically no cost and no pollution. Climate change fears have imparted a new sense of...

It will also try to pick up marginal seats around the country where ageing Liberal MPs have said that they will retire at the next election.Rudd is now in a position to press federal Labor's campaign...

IN Barack Obama's agonising, year-long effort to pass universal health insurance, the latest bump in the road may seem trivial, and the US President must surely hope the Indonesians don't take it...

The response of readers to the Open Page becoming a full page from March 14, 2010 is simultaneously understandable and overwhelming. Many readers have long been asking for this change. In fact, I...

Mayawati has won repeatedly on the strength of the transferable Dalit vote. The community deserves more than currency garlands on the BSP's silver birth...

Will Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) think the unthinkable and participate in the flawed polls being promised by the military rulers? More precisely, will the opposition NLD do so by...

— FILE PHOTO: AFP GIRIJA PRASAD KOIRALA: His democratic convictions made him stand resolute against royal adventurism. His political pragmatism made him reach out to the Maoist rebels in...

What is your favourite film? I liked Pyaasa. My work for Kaagaz ke Phool was much better than Pyaasa, but i didn't like it as a movie. Pyaasa had a variety Kaagaz ke Phool didn't have. It had a...

Maha Shivratri is perceived by most as an all-night celebration that is ritualistic. To the evolved, it is a night of death - quiet and peaceful. Shiva as destroyer symbolises death. The...

IT does no good for any administration spokesman to address public fears about a military takeover by arguing, as Secretary Ricardo Saludo did the other day, that the country has never suffered a...

In their own minds, they probably were thinking their next opponent, the Blues, would be the ones to subject them to that particular test but, as so often happens when you're unprepared and bluffing,...

THE massive swings against the Labor governments of South Australia and Tasmania have few direct links to Kevin Rudd's policies or leadership, but there are serious ramifications for federal Labor's...

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou may have lost 7kg as he trims his body for the new year ahead, but it has hardly been his best pre-season. The AFL has botched its way through the summer in an...

THERE are two federal messages out of the Tasmanian and South Australian state elections at the weekend: momentum and mathematics. And both are moving Tony Abbott's way.First to momentum. Anybody who...

The surviving messages that matter are that Chinese-born executives, even if they become, like Stern Hu, foreign citizens, are expected to place the People's Republic above any other loyalty, and...

CRITICISING the nursing profession is like killing Bambi. Nurses who devote their lives to the care of the sick rightly deserve our honour and respect. But the problems with the Rudd government's...

THE ABC's Kerry O'Brien called it "a bit tricky". Mike Rann's deputy, Kevin Foley, said it's what you do in...

Hawker's ability to snatch a probable victory for Labor in South Australia despite losing the popular vote is an ominous sign for Tony Abbott and the federal Coalition as they prepare to take on the...

Non-government schools say education agreements between the commonwealth and the states designed to lift school performance have become bogged down by excessive amounts of paperwork and an onerous...

SHANGHAI No. 1 Intermediate People's Court is one of the formidable glass and steel structures that have transformed the city's centre in the past two decades: it stands like a vast mausoleum astride...

KEVIN Rudd is not a fair dinkum Queenslander. There's a lot more of Canberra in Kevin Rudd than there is of Nambour. He left Queensland a long, long time ago. Vox pops in Brisbane on ABC1's Insiders...