A consortium led by China Three Gorges Corp has agreed to buy a giant hydro-electric plant under construction in Peru from scandal-mired Brazilian company Odebrecht. The Chaglla complex, slated to be Peru's third largest dam, is the latest addition to a growing string of South American hydro facilities to come under control of Chinese companies.
Cambodia's National Assembly passed a bill prohibiting political parties from being affiliated with convicted criminals—clearly aimed at weakening the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, whose leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced to two years on "defamation" charges. The CNRP is building support among peasants angered by land-grabbing, and several peasant leaders also face politically motivated charges for opposing land-grabs by agribusiness interests.
As Chinese and Indian troops face off on the disputed Himalayan border, the small independent kingdom of Bhutan charges that its own territorial claims are not being respected. Map: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Panama is the latest Central American nation to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Bejing—under pressure of China's fast-growing economic presence on the isthmus.
Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement comes just as an unprecedentedly huge piece of Antarctica’s ice shelf is on the verge of breaking off from the continent. (Map: Geology.com)
Authorities in Qingyuan, in China’s Guangdong province, canceled a planned waste incinerator project after the city center was repeatedly shut down by angry mass protests.
The latest Amnesty International report on global use of the death penalty shows a decline last year—but China's massive statistics are kept secret and therefore not factored in.
Is Trump's breach with Putin real, or is all the sudden sabre-rattling part of an elaborate charade to throw Congress off the scent of ongoing Trump-Putin collusion?
As Burma's government tries to lure hold-out ethnic rebel armies to the negotiating table, Chinese-backed oil and hydro projects emerge as a last obstacle to peace.
Trump, whose own air-strikes have killed hundreds, decides he must bomb an Assad air-base to retaliate for a gas attack—while the “anti-war” left is undisturbed by the gas attack.
As the US moves to deploy the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, local farmers have launched a protest campaign and lawsuit to halt the installation.
The Uighur people of China's Xinjiang province are coming under unprecedented surveillance and militarization amid official fears of terrorism in the far-western region.
