World

Ceremony Marks the Full Operation of China’s First Integrated Refining and Petrochemical Complex with Foreign Participation

QUANZHOU, FUJIAN PROVINCE, China--(BUSINESS WIRE1)--ExxonMobil2 and its partners, Sinopec, Fujian Province and Saudi Aramco, today celebrated the full operation of China’s first integrated refining and petrochemical facility with foreign participation. This facility, the Fujian Integrated Refining and Ethylene Joint Venture Project, will help meet the region’s growing need for fuels and chemical products.    » read more »

November 10, 2009 -- Washington, DC – The Department of Energy announced today that Energy Secretary Steven Chu will travel to India and China from Thursday, November 12 to Wednesday, November 18 as part of the Department’s efforts to advance opportunities for international clean energy cooperation. During the China portion of the visit, Secretary Chu will join with President Barack Obama as part of the official White House delegation.

"China and India will play central roles in the world's energy future." Secretary Chu said. "By working together we can promote clean energy technologies, helping meet our energy and climate challenges while creating jobs here at home."    » read more »

November 10, 2009 -- A South Korean businessman was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to five years in prison for his role in a bribery conspiracy involving a $206 million telecommunications contract and employees of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade also ordered Gi-Hwan Jeong to pay a $50,000 fine. Jeong pleaded guilty on June 11, 2009, to a five-count indictment, charging him with one count of conspiracy, two counts of honest services wire fraud and two counts of bribery.    » read more »

November 9, 2009 -- (New York) - United States President Barack Obama should raise key human rights concerns publicly on his first official visit to China, Human Rights Watch said in a letter released today.

"President Obama has spoken forcefully about the importance of defending human rights globally in speeches in Egypt, Ghana, Turkey, and at the United Nations," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "The test now is whether he will do so in a country where the government remains profoundly hostile to these concepts."

The letter urges Obama to raise three key issues, including:

* Freedom of expression, including internet censorship and the imprisonment of peaceful government critics;    » read more »

750 families will be positively impacted by the partnership

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Nov. 10, 2009 – As a part of their commitment to women’s empowerment, Walmart and CARE announced the launch of a Cashew Value Chain Initiative. As part of the Walmart Foundation’s $1 million grant to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization, this project marks the first of a series of initiatives to elevate women from poverty worldwide.

Over the next year, Walmart and CARE will create a women owned-and-operated community-based institution to provide more equitable and consistent incomes for approximately 750 women in the cashew farming and processing sector in the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu State in Southern India, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam.    » read more »

November 9, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

“On November 9, 1989, the world witnessed a stirring moment of progress for all humanity. On that day, students, activists, and citizens tore down the Berlin Wall, pulled back the Iron Curtain, and opened the doors of democracy to millions in East Germany and beyond.

“The people of Germany rejected decades of division and grasped the opportunity to determine their own brighter future. They sent a clear message that echoed across the globe in support of freedom, human rights, and democracy.    » read more »

Approval marks an important milestone in the process of replacing 50 year-old egg-based flu vaccine production with modern biotechnology

November 05, 2009 -- Basel, November 5, 2009 - Novartis announced today that it received approval from the German regulatory authorities for its adjuvanted cell culture-based Influenza A(H1N1) 2009 monovalent vaccine, Celtura®. Novartis continues to pursue registration in other major countries, including Japan and Switzerland.    » read more »

November 10, 2009 -- Shanghai – General Motors Company announced that the automaker and its joint ventures in China today surpassed 1.5 million units in sales for 2009. With a strong October, the GM China family continued its string of record monthly sales that began at the start of the year.

“This has been a year of records for GM in China,” said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. “It is GM’s priority to put the customer at the center of everything we do. This is reflected in our vehicle design, engineering and production.”    » read more »

Letter urges Trade Ambassador Kirk to work toward opening South Korean and Japanese markets for U.S. automobile companies

November 6, 2009 -- (Washington D.C.) -- Congressman Sander Levin, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, released a letter today to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging that more be done to open South Korean and Japanese automobile markets.

During recent Korean and Japanese auto incentive programs, similar to the “Cash for Clunkers” program, market share for all foreign brands declined even further. The letter was signed by Senators Levin and Stabenow; Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel; Reps. Dingell, Upton, Ehlers, Kildee, McCotter, Peters, Sutton and Miller.    » read more »

November 03, 2009 -- Thirty years ago today, the American Embassy in Tehran was seized. The 444 days that began on November 4, 1979 deeply affected the lives of courageous Americans who were unjustly held hostage, and we owe these Americans and their families our gratitude for their extraordinary service and sacrifice.    » read more »

November 5, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released the following statement today after receiving news that U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that China intends to re-open the Chinese market to United States pork products and live swine.    » read more »

Washington, Nov 3 -- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement on the House Floor about H. Res 867, which condemns the ‘Goldstone Report’ or the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict:

“Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt. Almost as serious as committing war crimes is covering up war crimes, pretending that war crimes were never committed and did not exist.

“Because behind every such deception is the nullification of humanity, the destruction of human dignity, the annihilation of the human spirit, the triumph of Orwellian thinking, the eternal prison of the dark heart of the totalitarian.    » read more »

Italian Prosecution Highlights Inaction of US Justice Department

November 3, 2009 -- (Milan) - The verdict expected Wednesday in a landmark case may present a historic legal challenge to the US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) rendition program, Human Rights Watch said today.

The trial in Milan of 26 Americans in absentia and seven Italians for the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian imam began in 2007.    » read more »

Oppose House Resolution on Goldstone Report

November 2, 2009 -- (Washington DC) - Members of the US House of Representatives should oppose a resolution that calls for the Obama administration to reject scrutiny of Israel and Hamas for laws-of-war violations in the recent Gaza conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.

House Resolution 867 calls on the US president and secretary of state to "oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the ‘Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' in multilateral fora." Debate on the non-binding resolution is scheduled for November 3, 2009.    » read more »

3 November 2009 -- On the eve of a United Nations General Assembly debate, Amnesty International has called on UN ambassadors in New York to grasp a unique opportunity to address accountability for war crimes in Gaza and southern Israel earlier in the year.

The General Assembly will convene on Wednesday to debate the comprehensive and authoritative report of the Fact Finding Mission led by Judge Richard Goldstone. The report found that the Israeli and Palestinian sides committed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

Amnesty International sent an open letter to all permanent representatives to the General Assembly and another to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.    » read more »