Wikimedia Commons Beijing, Mar 10 (EFE).- "The 33," the story of the Chilean miners who were trapped underground for more than two months, has arrived in Chinese theaters along with one of the capsules used to save them. The capsule, painted in the blue, red and white colors of the Chilean flag, was made by the Chilean navy to rescue the miners and will be on display in Beijing. "The 33,...

(Photo courtesy of Casa Presidencial) Chinese loans to Latin American and Caribbean governments and the region's state-owned firms climbed sharply in 2015 despite the slowing Chinese economy, rising to US $29 billion and focused once again on Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador, the Inter-American Dialogue public policy think tank said in its annual report issued this month. From nuclear power pl...

By Tamara Gil Beijing, Jan 22 (EFE).- Chinese human rights lawyers were targeted initially and then Hong Kong-based book publishers, two of them holders of European passports, and now Chinese authorities have arrested the Swedish co-founder of a non-governmental organization. These are but the latest in a long list of individuals persecuted by the Chinese government in a crackdown that has c...

Beijing, Jan 15 (EFE).- China's central bank said Friday it had extended 100 billion yuan ($15.18 billion) in loans to nine financial institutions, 10 days after announcing a similar operation to boost liquidity in the market. The injection of funds, which comes amid a slowdown in China's economy, was carried out via medium-term loans (six-month maturity) with an interest rate of 3.25 percent a...

Wikimedia Commons Beijing, Dec 27 (EFE).- The first direct flight between China and Cuba took off on Sunday from the international airport in Beijing for Havana, with state-owned carrier Air China aiming to promote Chinese tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean. The route is the first direct one linking China, the world's second-largest economy, and the Caribbean, as well as the first r...

Wikimedia Commons Beijing, Nov 13 (EFE).- Tibetan monks and nuns are receiving counterespionage instruction from the Chinese government, a program aimed at combating the Tibetan independence movement and counteracting the influence of the exiled Dalai Lama, the official daily Global Times reported Friday. Twenty-two monks and nuns from three area temples attended a three-hour-long class in ...

Pixabay Commons Singapore, Nov 7 (EFE).- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou wrote a page in the history of the two territories on Saturday, holding the first ever meeting between leaders of these longstanding rivals. The meeting - held at a neutral site, a luxury hotel in Singapore - ended with promises to further develop relations in the future as long as T...

A last-ditch effort by the government of Costa Rica to control the pesky deficit may not work as intended and may also force the appreciation of the United States dollar (USD) against the local currency. The administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis recently pitched an investment idea to the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The idea consisted of a bond package speciall...

EFE/David Fernández Beijing, Oct 9 (EFE; odds by IDS).- Spain's Rafael Nadal rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory here Friday over American Jack Sock to reach the China Open semifinals and give himself another chance to solve the riddle of Fabio Fognini, who has defeated the 14-time Grand Slam champion three times this season, most recently at last month's U.S. Open. Sock came out firing wit...

Pixabay Commons Washington, Sep 25 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he has reached an accord with China, according to which neither of the two countries will carry out or knowingly support the theft of intellectual property or business secrets in cyberspace, a source of great tension between these world powers. "Today, I can announce that our two countries have rea...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica San Francisco, Sep 22 (EFE).- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday began his first state visit to the United States in Seattle, the first stop on his U.S. tour that will include New York and Washington, where he will meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. Xi will spend three days in Seattle, where he will hold meetings with business and technology lead...

Mete Sohtaoglu, Twitter Beijing, Sep 22 (EFE).- The Chinese government said Tuesday it was working with Chile to provide reconstruction assistance and ship humanitarian aid to the South American country, which was hit by a magnitude-8.4 earthquake last week. The Sept. 16 temblor killed 13 people, forced more than 9,000 others from their homes and caused extensive damage. "We can particip...

Juliana Lopez Sarrazola. Source: Miss World Colombia 2015 Juliana Lopez Sarrazola, a 22-year old Colombian bikini model, could face the death penalty in China for the alleged crime of smuggling cocaine into the People's Republic of China. According to the online news daily El Mundo from Spain, Miss Lopez, who was also the 2015 Miss World Colombia candidate from Antioquia, a major coffee-pr...

Sony Pictures Beijing, Jul 25 (EFE).- Producers of the American science fiction comedy "Pixels," which debuted this week in the United States and Europe, changed the film's screenplay to avoid offending China and ensure access to that market, leaked internal e-mails appear to show. Among the thousands of internal Sony Pictures Entertainment e-mails made public by WikiLeaks in recent months,...

Beijing, Jul 19 (EFE).- The Chinese government deported 20 tourists from the United Kingdom, India and South Africa who had been arrested in Inner Mongolia for allegedly watching "a video inciting terrorism and religious extremism," authorities here confirmed on the weekend. The state-run Chinese press on Sunday said that the group of tourists had been released without charge and returned to th...

Wikimedia Commons Madrid, Jun 10 (EFE).- Beijing and Almaty will force voters "to choose between two very different but equally valid offers," with both still needing improvement in some areas, International Olympic Committee, or IOC, Executive Board member Juan Antonio Samaranch said. "They are very different, but both have taken advantage of the 2020 Agenda. We no longer want cities to co...

Flickr Commons Bangkok, May 30 (EFE).- The U.S. government said Saturday in Singapore that it is "deeply concerned" about Chinese island-building and military activity in the resource-rich South China Sea and urged all countries involved to halt their land-reclamation efforts to avoid an escalation of tensions in the region. "First, we want a peaceful resolution of all disputes and an immed...

Pixabay Commons Panama City, Mar 18 (EFE).- Europe is concerned about its loss of influence in Latin America and China's growing presence in the region, one of the co-presidents of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, or Eurolat, said here. "We worry about no longer being the big economic partner that Europe has been for many Latin American countries, and about being replaced by ...

Hainan. Source: ISA Thanks to the great performance of Costa Rica's National Surfing Team at the recent World Surfing Games in Peru, our professional surfers have another shot at high-level international competition. According to an official press release by the Surfing Federation of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: FEDESURF), our Tico pro surfers are now in Hainan, the smallest and southernmost pro...

A typical abandoned home in Detroit. The National Stadium in La Sabana, hundreds of patrol cars and the National Police Academy: These are some of the most significant donations given to Costa Rica by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Costa Rica is hardly the only country in the region to receive major aid from China; the Costa Rica Star has previously reported on the work of the PRC in th...

Photo of prisoners at Guantanamo BayThree Chinese men unlawfully detained by the United States at the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp in the island of Cuba were recently cleared for release to the Slovak Republic in Central Europe. At one point, however, these Muslims were ready to start a new life in Costa Rica, at least until the People's Republic of China (PRC) got in the way. A...

The Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, Anabel Gonzalez, said the Special Economic Zone (EEZ) that China and Costa Rica are implementing in Costa Rica, could be underway “in under a year.” This was stated by Gonzalez in an interview with EFE in Beijing, after inaugurating the Forum ‘Foreign investment and Tourism Opportunities in Costa Rica’. The minister is visiting in China to promote...

Costa Rica wants to attract more Chinese tourists and investors and so it is planning to open consulates in Shanghai and Hong Kong, the Central American nation’s envoy to Beijing said Tuesday. The opening of the two consulates, which will augment Costa Rica’s only existing diplomatic mission in China, is a “project for 2014” that still must be approved by the foreign ministry, said Ambassador M...

The City of Suzhou - Source: Flickr CC In the wake of the visit of the political leader of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, journalist Gustavo Arias of business weekly El Financiero, owned by Grupo Nacion, published a series of facts about the Asian economic powerhouse and her environmental record as it relates to Costa Rica. Mr. Arias did not mince any words when mentioning the ...

By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 18, 2012 6:02pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday pressed forward with plans to slap steep punitive duties on wind turbine towers imported from China at prices deemed unfairly low, even as officials welcomed a high-level Chinese delegation for trade and economic talks. The U.S. Commerce De...

Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:58pm EST (Reuters) - Apple Inc sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in China in just three days after its launch there on Friday, its best ever smartphone launch in the country, but Apple shares fell on Monday after Citi downgraded the stock. The highly anticipated release in China, Apple's second-biggest market, has not eased worries about stiff...

By Pete Sweeney SHANGHAI | Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:44pm EST SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange regulator has removed the $1 billion limit for foreign sovereign wealth funds, central banks and monetary authorities buying Chinese assets through the Qualified Institutional Investor Programme (QFII). The new regulations, published on the websi...

By Himank Sharma Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:03am EST (Reuters) - Apple Inc shares fell 3.9 percent on Friday after the iPhone 5 debuted in China to a cool reception and two analysts cut shipment forecasts. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek trimmed his iPhone shipment estimates for the Jan-March quarter, saying that the technology company had started cutting orders t...

SHANGHAI | Thu Dec 13, 2012 5:18am EST SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has launched a Kindle store for China, the company said on Thursday, selling Chinese electronic books for the mobile Kindle application, in a move that could soon see the device launched in China. The launch of the store could pave the way for a roll-out of Amazon's Kindle device ...

By Manuel Mogato MANILA | Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:33am EST MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. and Philippine officials are expected to agree on an increase in the number of U.S. military ships, aircraft and troops rotating through the Philippines, Filipino officials said, as tensions simmer with China over its maritime claims. Though he made no direct reference ...

By Lee Chyen Yee HONG KONG | Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:59am EST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese mobile phone makers chasing market share with lower prices in the world's biggest smartphone market will see their margins continue to be pressured as they upgrade to quad-core chips to satisfy demand from users for faster speeds and flashier graphics. Most sma...

By Aileen Wang and Kevin Yao BEIJING | Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:53am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's exports growth slowed sharply to a much lower than expected 2.9 percent in November, a customs report said on Monday, underscoring the global headwinds dragging on an economy showing otherwise solid signs of a pick up in domestic activity. Data at the w...

By Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay and Rod Nickel Fri Dec 7, 2012 12:48pm EST (Reuters) - Glencore International Plc won approval from China's Ministry of Commerce on Friday for its C$6 billion ($6 billion) purchase of Canadian grain handler Viterra Inc, clearing the last regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed deal. The takeover, one of the largest in the global ag...

Fri Dec 7, 2012 8:17am EST (Reuters) - Glencore International Plc won approval from China's Ministry of Commerce for its C$6 billion ($6 billion) purchase of Canadian grain handler Viterra Inc, clearing the last regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed deal. The takeover, one of the largest in the global agriculture industry in years, was originally expected to clo...

By Melanie Lee BEIJING | Fri Dec 7, 2012 5:16am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Xiaomi Technology is a fairy tale for nerdy entrepreneurs. Less than three years after its founding, the smartphone maker is valued at $4 billion and evokes Apple-like adoration from its fans, some of whom are desperate enough to skip work for a shot at buying the lat...

By Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG | Fri Dec 7, 2012 4:47am EST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese labor arbitrators have ruled against the father of a Foxconn worker brain-damaged in a factory accident in southern China, in a case that puts more attention on the labor practices of Apple Inc's largest contract manufacturer. The case involves Zhang Tingzhen, a 26...

BEIJING | Fri Dec 7, 2012 4:21am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry lambasted the United States on Friday for "disgusting" comments by a U.S. official on the human rights situation in Tibet, saying it had prompted them to file a formal diplomatic complaint with Washington. Maria Otero, United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, s...

By Lee Chyen Yee HONG KONG | Thu Dec 6, 2012 6:50am EST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Apple Inc's rank in China's smartphone market, which is set to become the world's largest this year, fell to No.6 in the third quarter as it faced tough competition from Chinese brands, research firm IDC said on Thursday. IDC's announcement comes a day after Apple's sha...

By Jussi Rosendahl HELSINKI | Wed Dec 5, 2012 6:14am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia is to partner with China Mobile, the world's biggest operator, to launch a version of its flagship Lumia smartphone tailored for the world's largest market. China Mobile, which has more than 700 million subscribers but no contract to sell iPhones, will start selli...

By Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:03am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of 134 Nobel laureates including the Dalai Lama and author Toni Morrison have written to Chinese Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting Xi Jinping urging that he release detained Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and his wife. Liu, a veteran dissident involved i...