It is time to act on Mao’s call for democracy

Europe's sovereign debt crisis has for some time now roused euroskepticism in the UK.

China’s plans to unlock what could be the world’s biggest shale gas reserves risk running further off track after 16 firms awarded exploration rights in the latest auction lacked one core skill – not one has drilled a gas well before. Beijing is hoping shale gas can transform the country in the same way as the U.S. boom, though to date there has been little commercial production and a target of producing 6.5 billion cubic metres of gas by 2015 in the world’s biggest energy consumer looks out of reach, according to industry experts.

China’s plans to unlock what could be the world’s biggest shale gas reserves risk running further off track after 16 firms awarded exploration rights in the latest auction lacked one core skill – not one has drilled a gas well before. Beijing is hoping shale gas can transform the country in the same way as the U.S. boom, though to date there has been little commercial production and a target of producing 6.5 billion cubic metres of gas by 2015 in the world’s biggest energy consumer looks out of reach, according to industry experts.

HONG KONG — Tens of thousands of people marched in Hong Kong on the first day of 2013 to call for the city’s Beijing-backed leader to step down over allegations he was untruthful about illegal renovations at his mansion and to press for full democracy. Police said 26,000 people joined the march at its peak Tuesday while organizers said 130,000 took part.

A group of Chinese intellectuals has called on the government to implement urgent political reforms and respect human rights or risk "violent revolution".

HONG KONG — Mao Zedong's grandson just can't catch a break.  The most-mocked man at China’s annual rubber-stamp congress—which is wrapping up this week in Beijing—was in some respects also its most privileged.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — This city has been down for so long, it’s hard to believe what’s risen up here in the heart of America’s “Rust Belt.” On an industrial site littered with scrap metal, a French-Japanese joint venture called Vallourec Star has just opened a US$1.1-billion state-of-the-art steel pipe mill.

VANCOUVER — Construction has begun on a new radio telescope in British Columbia’s south Okanagan that will act like a type of time machine and help astrophysicists travel back to better understand the composition of our expanding universe. The $11-million project is being built at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory southwest of Penticton, B.C., and will use components from the cellphone industry to capture and turn radio waves emitted six to 11 billion years ago into a three-dimensional map.