TAIPEI, Feb 5 (Reuters) – 
Taiwan said on Friday it would buy military helicopters from a European manufacturer, a move that could ignite China’s anger toward Europe following a storm over U.S. arms sales to the island that Beijing claims as its own.
The air force will buy EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters, defense ministry spokesman Martin Yu said without offering details.
Following Poland and the Czech Republic, top military officials in Romania announced that they have approved U.S. plans to base surface-to-air missile interceptors within their country.
Romanian President Traian Basescu hastily issued a statement yesterday saying he was prepared to negotiate the details of the missile defense system which, he added, could be up and running by 2015.
To further expand their uranium supply, state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) Overseas Uranium Holding Ltd. has come to a purchase agreement with Canada’s Khan Resources worth US$53 million.
Khan Resources is a uranium development company based in Mongolia, with their subsidiary Central Asian Uranium Company Ltd. (CAUC) primarily focused on the Dornod province in the country’s northeast.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somali pirates hijacked a North Korean cargo ship on Wednesday with an unknown number of crew on board, the European Union Naval Force said.
The MV Rim was seized in the Gulf of Aden, outside the internationally recommended transit corridor patrolled by the anti-piracy naval coalition, said Cmdr. Anders Kallin of the EU Naval Force.
It seems that since China apparently ruined the Copenhagen Summit in December and snubbed U.S. President Barack Obama while doing so, America has been on a mission show Beijing that although the U.S. is a mess, they will not be outmaneuvered in foreign policy.
They have done so by striking at some of the country’s most sensitive topics over the last month, namely: censorship, Taiwan, and the Dalai Lama.
It started with Google’s announcement that it would be leaving the Chinese market after suffering a series of sophisticated cyber attacks originating in China in addition to claiming that censoring their search results went against the company motto, “Don’t be evil.”
Google’s announcement came a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a private dinner with some of America’s top executives, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Coincidence?
McDonald’s opened its first outlet in Russia 20 years ago this past Sunday, on January 31, 1990, while thousands of Moscoviets braved the cold in Pushkin Square.
To celebrate the milestone, as well as a 23 percent year on year profit increase last quarter, McDonalds’ CEO Jim Skinner announced that they would be expanding their business in Russia by 45 outlets in 2010.
Polish scientists at the University of Szczecin have uncovered three teeth from the first Neanderthal remains discovered on Polish soil.
The findings were published in the German science journal Naturwissenschaften (Natural Sciences) on January 28 this year, after tests confirmed that the teeth found in 2008 indeed once belonged to a Neanderthal.
The teeth were uncovered in the mountains of the Polish Jura Chain – an area which claims more than 200 caves scattered among limestone rocks, cliffs, and outcroppings.
Demanding tax cuts and job creation, protests against Russia’s current administration were once again staged across the country over the weekend.
In Moscow yesterday, police detained as many as 100 protesters at an unauthorized anti-Kremlin demonstration in downtown Triumfalnaya Square.
Among those arrested were several prominent opposition leaders, including Eduard Limonov, leader of The Other Russia; Boris Newtsov, former Russian deputy prime minister; and Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights group.
America’s recent weapons deal with Taiwan was the correct decision, not “the wrong decision,” for the Obama administration. Here’s why:
WASHINGTON (New York Times)— For the past year, China has adopted an increasingly muscular position toward the United States, berating American officials for the global economic crisis, stage-managing President Obama’s visit to China in November, refusing to back a tougher climate change agreement in Copenhagen and standing fast against American demands for tough new Security Council sanctions against Iran.
Now, the Obama administration has started to push back. In announcing an arms sales package to Taiwan worth $6 billion on Friday, the United States leveled a direct strike at the heart of the most sensitive diplomatic issue between the two countries since America affirmed the “one China” policy in 1972.