reports wsj:
The drop in oil prices is eroding the Kremlin’s ability to replenish its gold and foreign-currency reserves just when it needs them most. Although the country’s reserves are the world’s third-largest behind China and Japan, it has been spending tens of billions of dollars in an attempt to prop up its falling ruble and stave off public panic.
South Korea’s main spy agency says it is not involved in an alleged plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, after Pyongyang’s claims of an assassination attempt fuelled cross-border tensions.
China topped the list of foreign investing countries in Cambodia in the past 14 years, with total amount reaching US$5.707 billion. South Korea came after with US$2.749 billion followed by Malaysia with US$2.199 billion, reported Xinhua.
Russia yesterday moved to expand its growing military influence in the Middle East when it announced it is giving Lebanon 10 fighter jets, in the most significant upgrade of Lebanon’s military since the civil war ended almost two decades ago, according to the guardian
.
Disney is teaming up with Media-One Holdings in a joint venture to launch a Disney-branded television channel in Russia.
According to the Orlando Business Journal, the free broadcast channel is slated to launch in 2009, pending regulatory approval from the Russian government. Programming would be broadcast on Media-One’s 30 stations throughout Russia, and feature family oriented programming, both Disney-branded and original Russian programming.
A great slide show from the International Herald Tribune.
The high seas kind, not the IP variant.
In what would be the first active deployment of its warships beyond the Pacific, China appears set to send naval vessels to help in the fight against hijackers in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden.
President Raúl Castro of Cuba arrived here on Saturday on his first official foreign visit since assuming power two years ago from his ailing brother, Fidel. The decision to visit Caracas first highlights Cuba’s continuing reliance on subsidized oil and other forms of aid from Venezuela reports nytimes.
from the nytimes:
The Chinese government has quietly begun preventing access again to Web sites that it had stopped blocking during the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, Internet experts said on Tuesday.
Chinese officials have followed a pattern over the years of censoring the Internet more tightly at times of economic or political stress. This fall the economy has slowed sharply, and Chinese leaders have begun cautioning about potential risks to social stability from high unemployment.
Russia’s arms exports will exceed $8 billion this year despite the global financial crisis, an increase of $1 billion from 2007, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, reported Reuters.
