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Western oil companies frustrated by Moscow's foot-dragging on foreign investment laws presented a study Tuesday designed to convince officials that Russia will take the lion's share of rewards in oil deals.
The study, outlining the benefits from six flagship production-sharing contracts requiring $129 billion in expend... | 28 |
Russia's metals sectors, key suppliers to world markets, showed varying degrees of concern about President Boris Yeltsin's latest ailment on Thursday, but most said they were no longer hostage to Kremlin health scares.
Aluminium officials were the least worried and said the Russian leader's admission to hospital with p... | 28 |
A multinational group trying to build a $1.5 billion oil pipeline linking Kazakhstan and Russia held frantic, last-minute talks on Friday to try to resolve how much involvent Russia's pipeline firm will have in the deal.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, or CPC, which groups eight international oil companies and the sta... | 28 |
Russia is eyeing its second bad grain harvest in a row and will need imports despite a prediction by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin that output will be enough to meet demand, industry sources said on Tuesday.
"The sheer volume Russia will produce is enough to meet demand, but the quality is not," said specialist An... | 28 |
Azerbaijan is proving more successful in attracting foreign oil investment dollars than big brother Russia, but the Caspian state must still deal with Moscow if it wants to become a major world energy player.
In the latest deal underscoring the shift, Azeri oil officials said Amoco Corp, Unocal Corp, Japan's Itochu Cor... | 28 |
Russia's aluminium industry has roared back to life with strong 1996 output figures and forecasts of small growth, but analysts say no new investments which could fundamentally reshape the sector are on the horizon.
"The situation for the Russian aluminium industry is quite stable and healthy," said a London-based spok... | 28 |
Russia, dramatically changing its approach to foreign investment in its huge oil sector, said on Monday that new domestic companies, not Western majors, would be given the upper hand in future billion-dollar energy deals.
Vladimir Tumarkin, chief spokesman for Rosneft, the state oil holding company which is being priva... | 28 |
Aluminium industry sources expressed doubt on Monday over whether producers association Kontsern Alyuminiy would be able to contain output to support sagging world prices.
"I don't believe they'll do it," said a Western trade source in Moscow.
A Moscow representative of the Krasnoyarsk smelter and two sources at the gi... | 28 |
Russia, whose sudden introduction of export curbs each winter can wreak havoc in the world's heavy fuel oil market, is unsure about what to do this season, traders said on Tuesday.
Most traders expected an export duty of up to 80,000 roubles per tonne of mazut, as heavy fuel oil is known in Russian. But Moscow is keepi... | 28 |
Russia's Fuel and Energy Ministry, sitting on the remains of the once-great power it wielded over the oil sector, is struggling to redefine itself in the new market economy, energy analysts said on Tuesday.
The body, known as Mintopenergo, could once command that oil wells be drilled, helped to restrict exports with qu... | 28 |
Russia is quietly importing some Western grain to offset its second meagre harvest in a row, but traders said on Wednesday that the country was too broke to be a big presence on world grain markets this year.
A senior Russian grains source who declined to be identified said unnamed Russian organisations had quietly bou... | 28 |
Crude oil output in Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer, is finally ending a decade of dramatic decline, but it is still a long way from switching back into top gear.
"We could see 1997 output stabilise at 1996's level," said Vitaly Kamenev of the Economy Ministry's fuel department. "But we won't see any rea... | 28 |
Russia's untapped gold reserves are unlikely to become the El Dorado of the East soon despite Moscow's promises to liberalise the tightly-controlled sector, precious metals sources said on Wednesday.
Russia's Central Bank said earlier this week it was gearing up to create a domestic gold market via measures that would ... | 28 |
Russia's oil sector has staged its first real comeback by nearly closing the door on a decade of dizzying output declines, but analysts said on Monday that the troubled industry was not yet in the clear.
"The larger declines are over; is that a turnaround? Yes," said Dan Lubash, managing director of Emerging Markets Eu... | 28 |
A big diamond deal between Russia and De Beers has been caught up in political manoeuverings in Moscow. Bickering ministries and a shake-up in the leadership of the Russian diamond industry are conspiring to delay a crucial agreement.
Senior officials on both sides declined on Tuesday to predict when the government wou... | 28 |
Russian Finance Minister Alexander Livshits warned financially-troubled Norilsk Nickel on Friday that it must pay overdue taxes, but analysts said the firm would not be liquidated or that its would assets would be frozen.
"Norilsk really is a big debtor, both to the federal and regional budgets," said Konstantin Chern... | 28 |
President Boris Yeltsin's surgery on Tuesday might be a heart stopper for some volatile commodities and currency markets, but recent history proves Russian oil and gas exports are unfazed by Kremlin dramas.
Traders have seen tanks fire at Russia's White House, cloak-and-dagger power struggles and war in oil-rich Chechn... | 28 |
Russia's new grain traders, looking for opportunities to make money and feed their vast country, said they were struggling to flourish in an arena now free of the state but lacking basic market structures too.
Preliminary data from the State Statistics Committee on Friday showed this year's gross grain harvest was 74.6... | 28 |
Russia's Rosneft oil firm won a new lease of life on Monday after a Moscow court ruled it could keep its crown-jewel asset, a key Siberian oil producer coveted by a major rival.
An arbitration court said prize producer AO Purneftegaz would stay at Rosneft, ending a high-stakes tussle between Rosneft and the big SIDANKO... | 28 |
Russian oil company officials said on Friday that Moscow would not slap a duty on heavy fuel oil exports this winter, leaving traders to breathe a sigh of relief but still wary of secretive government manoeuvres.
The prospect of no restrictions on exports of mazut, as Russian heavy fuel oil is known, soothed traders wh... | 28 |
Russian parliamentarians, in a stinging blow to foreign oil investors, on Thursday said they would ask lawmakers to reject a bill outlining oil reserves open to production-sharing agreements.
The bill, a list of about 250 oil fields holding 38 percent of proven Russian oil reserves, is a key step towards unlocking bill... | 28 |
Western oil firms frustrated by Moscow's foot-dragging on foreign investment laws presented a study on Tuesday designed to convince conservative officials that Russia will take the lion's share of rewards in oil deals.
The study, outlining the benefits from six flagship production-sharing contracts requiring $129 billi... | 28 |
Russia said on Wednesday it would restructure natural gas monopoly Gazprom's operations, but Western analysts and even a junior company official said the move would leave the world's largest gas company intact.
"What Gazprom has suggested for itself is not a restructuring but a commercialisation of their services in Ru... | 28 |
Russian and foreign oil companies signed a $2 billion deal on Friday to build a pipeline bringing oil from energy-rich Kazakhstan to Western markets, but frantic last-minute negotiations left questions unresolved.
In a delayed signing ceremony that saw Russia's leading oil officials huddling for secret consultations, t... | 28 |
Russia's Finance Ministry said on Thursday that Moscow was ready to cooperate with De Beers on a deal which a deputy minister said was vital to support the diamond market.
"The Russian Federation is further ready to cooperate with the De Beers company in the matter of continued support of the stability of the world dia... | 28 |
Russia's Gazprom natural gas monopoly plans to double exports to Europe by 2010, mostly via its ambitious $40 billion Yamal pipeline project, but energy analysts said the timing could be wrong.
"There's a market problem (with oversupply in Europe), and the cost of developing the Yamal field will be too high," said a se... | 28 |
Russia's oil industry earned higher export revenues from booming world prices in 1996 but has started 1997 increasingly worried about the slow pace of recovery in demand at home, energy analysts said on Wednesday.
Domestic producers, taking advantage of international oil prices which soared about 30 percent in 1996 to ... | 28 |
Russia's grain crop is proving to be one of its lowest in three decades, prompting trade sources on Monday to speculate that the government could return to world markets for imports to feed the military and remote areas.
The nearly complete 1996 harvest, bucking a trend of increased grain output across the world, weigh... | 28 |
Russian cocoa importers hope business will be sweeter this year, but increasing competition from Western chocolate bars and a lack of precise data on buying patterns have clouded the market, trade sources said on Monday.
"The general tendency is one of growth -- we'll be buying more cocoa this year," said Yuri Granilin... | 28 |
Russia is eyeing its second consecutive bad grain harvest and will need imports despite a prediction by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin that output will be enough to meet demand, industry sources said Tuesday.
"The sheer volume Russia will produce is enough to meet demand, but the quality is not," said specialist An... | 28 |
Russia's state oil holding firm Rosneft said on Friday it would protest against a local decision to award Exxon Corp the right to tap Arctic oilfields, signalling Moscow's tougher line towards Western energy companies.
Rosneft spokesman Vladimir Tumarkin said Exxon, which regional officials declared the winner of a ten... | 28 |
Russia is trying to shift financing of its tarnished gold sector to commercial banks while keeping control of exports, putting it on a collision course with the banks who say sales abroad are what interest them.
Moscow bullion officials view recent Central Bank decisions outlining new procedures for working with gold a... | 28 |
Russia's aluminium industry, in private hands and learning market-savvy moves in ways its former state owners never could, still holds surprise cards but may no longer terrorise world markets with sudden, secret exports.
Metals analysts said on Friday that Russia, which accounts for about 15 percent of world output, wo... | 28 |
Russia, hoping to boost industrial output, announced plans on Monday for lower electricity and rail transport prices, cheering energy-hungry aluminium plants but worrying Western economists.
President Boris Yeltsin's press service said Yeltsin had signed a decree at the weekend cutting wholesale electricity charges for... | 28 |
The head of war-torn Chechnya's oil company said on Thursday that Russia's rebellious region would guarantee the safety of a major oil pipeline across its land but demanded a cut in foreign deals that will use the link.
Khozhakhmed Yarikhanov, president of the Southern Oil Company, which is based in the devastated capi... | 28 |
Russia's demand for feed grains will outstrip any output increases its agriculture sector manages in coming years, which could turn the country into a big importer, industry officials said on Friday.
Russia, which has just completed its second poor harvest in two years, the third worst in 30 years, is heading into the ... | 28 |
The world's biggest aluminium smelter, Russia's Bratsk plant, opposes any output-cutting schemes and wants to boost production and to compete better on world markets, a senior company official said on Thursday.
"Bratsk is an inveterate supporter of market-economy principles and not of schemes that violate such principl... | 28 |
Russia's Norilsk Nickel metals group, a key supplier to world markets, said on Tuesday it was struggling with a shaky financial future despite keeping output steady at its top plant.
"We are undoubtedly in a state of financial crisis," said Viktor Feldman, deputy economics director at the Norilsk group.
Feldman singled... | 28 |
Russia's oil industry earned higher export revenues from booming world prices in 1996 but has started 1997 increasingly worried about the slow pace of recovery in demand at home, energy analysts said on Wednesday.
Domestic producers, taking advantage of international oil prices which soared about 30 percent in 1996 to ... | 28 |
Russia is finding the return of competitive Iraqi oil to world markets a bitter pill to swallow, but may use the occasion to revamp further its own marketing strategies to compete better, energy analysts said on Wednesday.
Russian Urals sour crude is similar in quality and composition to Iraq's Kirkuk blend and was Ira... | 28 |
Russia's former fuel and energy minister, Yuri Shafranik, tried but failed to create a mega oil corporation by merging four privatised companies, energy sources familiar with the ill-fated proposal said on Thursday.
They said Shafranik's proposal, first aired this summer, to merge the Tyumen Oil Company (Tyumenskaya Ne... | 28 |
Russia is trying to make things tougher for exporters of non-ferrous scrap metals, but impending tighter regulations will not keep Russian supplies from finding Western markets, industry sources said on Wednesday.
"There was a big once-and-for-all surge in scrap exports in the early stages of the break-up of the Soviet... | 28 |
Russia's second-generation, billion-dollar foreign oil projects are finding out that close ties to top government figures, delicate talks with new partners and careful handling of oil-rich, ambitious regions are vital.
Western oil companies eyeing Arctic reserves need close Kremlin relationships and savvy negotiating s... | 28 |
Russia's Western oil joint ventures are finding it increasingly difficult to export their output in the amounts needed to stay profitable as Moscow seeks to give domestic producers more pipeline space.
Joint ventures (JVs) produce only a trickle of Russia's crude oil -- but they need to export most, if not all, of thei... | 28 |
Russia is flirting with danger in considering a freeze on domestic energy prices, a move which could prolong the oil sector's recovery and in turn slow economic reforms, energy analysts said on Wednesday.
Fuel and Energy Minister Pyotr Rodionov has called for lower oil, gas and electricity prices to help domestic indus... | 28 |
Russian diamond giant Almazy- Rossii Sakha (ARS) said on Wednesday officials were battling for control over Russia's lucrative gem sector but a forthcoming deal with De Beers was in sight.
ARS president Vyacheslav Shtyrov told a news conference that a long-delayed trade agreement with the South African gem giant could ... | 28 |
Russia's diamonds could face a rocky future with tax officials seeking a bigger cut from rough gem exports, but industry sources said on Wednesday they hoped a deal with South Africa's De Beers would proceed.
In the latest shock to hit the Russian diamond sector and relations with De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd, the p... | 28 |
Russia's diamond industry, bogged down by structural chaos and unauthorised exports, cast a shadow over world gem markets on Wednesday by saying that prospects for a trade deal with De Beers by 1997 looked grim.
But a senior spokesman for Russia's diamond company Almazy Rossii-Sakha, or ARS, which is De Beers' negotiat... | 28 |
Russia's state oil pipeline firm Transneft on Tuesday cast a shadow of doubt over the go-ahead for a proposed new pipeline across Russia when it said it had demanded a stronger role in the strategic deal.
Transneft spokesman Ravil Polyanin said the monopoly, which owns and operates Russia's vast, existing oil pipeline ... | 28 |
Russia's aluminium sector will consolidate more in 1997 as domestic smelters, perplexed by limp world prices, seek to rationalise costs, a top aluminium official said on Friday.
Igor Prokopov, director of Kontsern Alyuminiy, the producers' group uniting Russia's aluminium industry, said in an interview that domestic sm... | 28 |
Hong Kong's leader-in-waiting Tung Chee-hwa on Friday invited the territory's top official, Anson Chan, to meet him amid intense speculation over whether she might stay in her post after China takes over next year.
The two would meet over breakfast at Tung's villa on Hong Kong Island on Saturday morning, a government s... | 37 |
Just months ago, shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa was a retiring man who avoided the limelight, kept his political views secret, and seemed to steer an even keel between his loyalties to China and Britain.
But in a short time, he has emerged as the hot favourite to become Hong Kong's first post-colonial leader and evolve... | 37 |
A shipping tycoon whose company was bailed out by Beijing when it was sinking years ago is poised to govern Hong Kong when China takes over next year, after a thumping victory in the first round of the ballot.
Tung Chee-hwa swept up 206 of the votes cast on Friday by an exclusive club of 400 Hong Kong's rich and influe... | 37 |
Signals from Hong Kong's likely future leader that the Chinese Communist Party might become legal in the territory in 1997 raised concerns in the pro-democracy camp on Wednesday about the party's future power.
Concern was stirred up after the man tipped as the favourite to become Hong Kong's chief executive, shipping t... | 37 |
The 11-year sentence handed down on Wednesday to Chinese dissident Wang Dan has awakened fears that critics of the Chinese administration in Hong Kong after the 1997 handover could face a similar fate.
Britain hands Hong Kong back to China in 243 days' time after more than 150 years of colonial rule.
The sentence impos... | 37 |
Hong Kong's top policeman said on Monday he was confident the territory's police could handle any disturbances after the July 1 handover to China without the help of China's People's Liberation Army.
Police Commissioner Eddie Hui, unveiling crime figures for 1996, told reporters that offences had fallen by 14 percent i... | 37 |
Shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa saw his fortunes almost dashed on the rocks in the 1980s when the family company met ill winds, but Beijing bailed him out and now he is poised to become Hong Kong's next leader.
Next month, China's carefully screened Selection Committee will choose a Chief Executive to run Hong Kong afte... | 37 |
Chinese dissident Wang Xizhe's flight to the United States via Hong Kong may be the last great escape of its kind, as China is sure to try to shut down the route next year, activists and analysts said on Wednesday.
Since Beijing sent tanks into Tiananmen Square in 1989 to put down a student-led protest movement, hundre... | 37 |
A Chinese plan for 6,000 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops to march into Hong Kong the very minute Britain hands the colony back to China in 1997 would send the world a bad signal, diplomats said on Thursday.
The Financial Times of London reported that China had told Britain it intends to march 6,000 troops across ... | 37 |
China launched the contest to pick Hong Kong's future leader on Friday, hailing the event as the birth of "real democracy" in the British-ruled territory which is set to revert to Beijing's control next year.
But pro-democracy protesters disagreed -- they stormed into the building where Hong Kong's rich and mighty had ... | 37 |
The leader of Hong Kong's biggest pro-Beijing party said on Thursday the China-appointed interim legislature Beijing plans to set up next month would not clash with existing institutions before the handover.
Tsang Yok-sing, leader of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), said the possibility th... | 37 |
As U.S. President Bill Clinton jumped into Asian foreign policy issues with a new enthusiasm on Wednesday, security experts meeting in Hong Kong called on all countries involved to ensure no conflict flared up over Taiwan.
Experts said U.S. policy on China and Asia was maturing, and they called for the status quo in Ta... | 37 |
Shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa was to fly to Beijing on Tuesday to be anointed by China's communist leadership as Hong Kong's first Chinese leader when Britain pulls out in mid-1997.
Tung was to head for the Chinese capital in the afternoon after addressing Hong Kong's business community in his first major speech since... | 37 |
China and Britain moved closer on Friday to removing some obstacles to Hong Kong's smooth transfer to Chinese sovereignty next year, but fresh controversies raised new potential hurdles.
Agreements took shape on issues of handover ceremonies and budgets but quarrels brewed over China's moves to appoint new political le... | 37 |
Thumbing its nose at Britain, China brought Hong Kong's elected legislature a step closer to oblivion on Saturday when it founded a new lawmaking body to take over next July when it takes back the colony.
The birth of the Provisional Legislative Council in the frontier city of Shenzhen brought Hong Kong to a crucial tu... | 37 |
Two hundred days before its historic handover to China, Hong Kong has adopted a charismatic shipping tycoon as helmsman to lead it into the 21st century.
But the British colony of 6.3 million people is waiting to see if chief executive-designate Tung Chee-hwa can form a "dream team" with the territory's most popular pu... | 37 |
Britain and China are deadlocked on core issues central to a smooth handover of Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997, ranging from citizenship rights to subversion and troop deployments, officials said on Tuesday.
"With only 210 days to go under the British flag, time is running out fast to sort out these problems," a British ... | 37 |
Shipping boss Tung Chee-hwa emerged as the most vocally pro-China contender for Hong Kong's leadership on Friday as a Beijing-controlled body wrapped up a three-day quiz of three men vying to rule Hong Kong after 1997.
The Selection Committee of 400 rich or influential Hong Kong people, who were picked under China's cl... | 37 |
Canadian envoys on Tuesday dismissed reports that thousands of Hong Kong people in Canada may be forced to flock home en masse ahead of Hong Kong's 1997 handover to China in order to protect their residence rights.
Canada's commissioner in Hong Kong, Garrett Lambert, and the country's ambasador to China, Howard Balloch... | 37 |
Britain's Prince Andrew has arrived in Hong Kong to inspect his troops in one of the last royal visits to the territory before its return to Chinese rule in the middle of next year.
During the three-day visit the Duke of York will watch jungle training and border patrols by soldiers of the 1st battalion of the Stafford... | 37 |
Hong Kong's post-1997 leadership campaign has begun in earnest with all the top candidates for the job as the territory's chief executive stating their positions on key issues in recent days.
The latest was Sir Ti Liang Yang, who on Monday made several policy statements including support for China's controversial plan ... | 37 |
Hong Kong shipping tycoon Tung Chee-hwa was rated by a poll on Thursday as the best man to deal with China as a Beijing-controlled committee grilled candidates vying to run the territory when Britain pulls out in 215 days.
Britain hands its colony back to Chinese sovereignty at the stroke of midnight next June 30, and ... | 37 |
The United States' top diplomat on Asia drew flak from leaders of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp on Wednesday as he met key officials and politicians on the colony's 1997 return to China.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord had separate meetings with local political parties and with China's top official ... | 37 |
With China's takeover of Hong Kong rapidly looming, the British colony faces a swirl of politics and diplomatic jousting in the week ahead, the last before China names the territory's first post-colonial governor.
British and Chinese negotiators, often sparring over the details of the sovereignty transfer, will meet on... | 37 |
Hong Kong, wary about upsetting its future Beijing masters when dissenters use it as an escape route, kept silent on Monday about Chinese dissident Wang Xizhe following reports he had fled to the British colony.
Human rights activists in Hong Kong said Wang, 46, fled here from his home in China's neighbouring Guangdong... | 37 |
A former top judge who is vying to lead Hong Kong after China takes over next year has said the territory needs a neutral and impartial leader rather than a well-connected tycoon, and one who is tolerant towards dissent.
"I'm for tolerance," Yang Ti Liang, one of three candidates trying to become Hong Kong's first chie... | 37 |
China is poised to take a major step in reversing democratic reform in Hong Kong by creating a new legislature to replace the territory's elected body when Beijing resumes control of the British colony next year.
The die will be cast on Saturday when 400 Hong Kong people, carefully screened by China, meet over the bord... | 37 |
On the eve of an historic gathering of the elite assembled by China to pick Hong Kong's future leader, the smart money was on Tung Chee-hwa.
Most observers viewed it as a foregone conclusion that the shipping tycoon would emerge the winner after the 400-strong Selection Committee of Hong Kong business titans and pro-Ch... | 37 |
Hong Kong's chief executive designate Tung Chee-hwa, fresh from an overwhelming leadership victory, launched a charm offensive on Thursday aimed at winning public confidence in a smooth transition to China.
At a meeting in this Chinese frontier city, the 59-year-old Shanghai-born former shipping magnate was also endors... | 37 |
British Governor Chris Patten challenged business on Thursday to defend the rule of law that had made Hong Kong a success, and to destroy fallacies that may harm the territory in the run-up to China's mid-1997 takeover.
"The rule of law is not an optional extra. It is what makes Hong Kong different, it is what makes Ho... | 37 |
Britain entered new talks with China on Hong Kong's future on Wednesday, admitting it could give no consular protection to Hong Kong people holding special British passports after the Chinese flag is hoisted in 1997.
Senior diplomats met to argue over handover details against a backdrop of disputes over a subversion la... | 37 |
Britain risked China's wrath on Tuesday by proposing new laws on subversion in Hong Kong, laying down legal markers intended to head off Chinese-style jailings of dissidents after Beijing takes over the colony in 1997.
The colonial government unveiled draft amendments to Hong Kong's criminal law, ordered by Governor Ch... | 37 |
The Hong Kong government was in a flap on Thursday after a bombshell admission that Britain could not protect Hong Kong holders of British passports after China takes over the colony next July.
Governor Chris Patten called an urgent meeting of the Legislative Council for later on Thursday to make a statement on the con... | 37 |
Hong Kong has arrived at the brink of history, set to name its first Chinese leader after a century and a half of British colonial rule.
At a gathering to be held under the red flag of communist-ruled China, Hong Kong's rich and mighty will meet on Wednesday to pick the first post-colonial leader -- and the smart money... | 37 |
He once sailed his shipping empire through rough waters, steered an even course between China and Britain for years, but navigating Hong Kong into Chinese rule in 1997 will be the challenge of his lifetime.
Shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa, chosen as Hong Kong's first Chinese leader on Wednesday after more than 150 years... | 37 |
Just months ago, shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa was a retiring man who avoided the limelight, kept his political views secret, and seemed to strike a balance between his loyalties to China and Britain.
But he has emerged as Hong Kong's first post-colonial leader and evolved into a conservative, Chinese patriot, loudly ... | 37 |
In an exercise dubbed by China as a "democratic election with Hong Kong characteristics", this bustling territory goes to the polls on Friday. But only 400 citizens out of 6.3 million people in the colony will be voting.
A 400-member Selection Committee formed under Beijing's tight rein will be inaugurated in Hong Kong... | 37 |
Hong Kong legislators plan court action and a lobbying mission to Britain in a "last-ditch battle" to save the territory's elected legislature from China's axe, pro-democracy leader Martin Lee said on Tuesday.
Britain hands the century-and-a-half-old colony back to China in 238 days, and Beijing is moving full steam ah... | 37 |
The skyscrapers are decked with fairy lights. Red-cloaked Santas pat children on the head. Christmas carols ring out. It is Christmas in Britain's last major colony, but will it ever be like this again?
The most spectacular Christmas light displays in the world are strung from Hong Kong's skyscrapers, featuring giant i... | 37 |
More than 100 politicians, including half of today's lawmakers, have sought seats on a controversial Beijing-controlled legislature in a move that may cripple Hong Kong's parliament in the twilight of British rule.
Before a registration deadline on Monday, 112 people had applied to join the "provisional legislature", a... | 37 |
Chinese communities across the globe will soon have their very own high-society magazine, rivalling the standards of glamour publications such as Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair.
Imagine a world-class magazine which combines the flair and colour visuals of the U.S. Architectural Digest and the New York Times magazine. No... | 37 |
Chief Executive candidate Tung Chee-hwa, rated by a poll as the best man to deal with China after Britain leaves Hong Kong next year, said a proposed subversion law faces review by the post-colonial government.
"The Basic Law (Hong Kong's post-handover constitution) clearly states that it is up to the future government... | 37 |
Hong Kong's Governor Chris Patten on Friday denounced a legislature that Beijing plans to impose on the territory as a "rubber stamp" and said Britain and China should fight it out in the World Court.
"The International Court of Justice will, I'm sure, be able to sort things out, and we'd be very happy to put our argum... | 37 |
Britain has suggested going to the World Court over China's plan to disband Hong Kong's elected legislature when Beijing takes back the territory next July.
The spectre of the two countries slugging it out in the International Court of Justice in the Hague raised the drama of Hong Kong's transition to Chinese rule to a... | 37 |
Hong Kong democracy activists staged a noisy protest on Monday after 134 politicians applied to join a Beijing-controlled assembly to replace the colony's elected legislature in mid-1997.
The rush to join the provisional legislature may cripple the colonial legislature in the twilight of British rule, political analyst... | 37 |
The contest for power in Hong Kong heated up at the weekend as the pro-China lobby cast a top judge into the race as the candidate to lead the territory after sovereignty reverts from Britain to China in 1997.
Controversial Chief Justice Sir Ti Liang Yang re-emerged as a rival to existing favourites after influential p... | 37 |
Britain and China clashed over the future of Hong Kong on Wednesday as the colonial power took steps to bring in a pre-emptive new law on subversion ahead of the capitalist territory's 1997 return to communist-ruled China.
The quarrel was ignited when the government on Tuesday laid down legal markers defining the conce... | 37 |
After a week of nervousness over its future freedoms, Hong Kong watched on Friday for the outcome of a Beijing gathering that will set the tone for the post-colonial government that takes over in 1997.
The Preparatory Committee of pro-China figures from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials was meeting in Beijing fo... | 37 |
Shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa saw his fortunes almost dashed on the rocks in the 1980s when the family company met ill winds, but his luck rebounded and now he could be Hong Kong's next leader.
Next month China's carefully screened Selection Committee will choose a chief executive to run Hong Kong after Britain hands ... | 37 |
The head of Hong Kong's main pro-democracy group said on Tuesday that the man likely to be the first post-colonial leader after British rule is a pro-China yes-man, and described preparations for the sovereignty change as a disaster.
Martin Lee, head of the Democratic Party, the largest in Hong Kong's legislature, told... | 37 |
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