The government’s caution arouses suspicions about what it knows
ALMOST as long as it has had people, Hong Kong has had booths selling squawking live chickens. They are treasured by locals who spurn frozen meat, finding it tasteless. But after the latest in a series of outbreaks of avian influenza, the government has offered HK$1 billion [...]

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Chinese authorities have detained a retired teacher who criticized the shoddy school construction that led to the deaths of thousands of children in May’s devastating earthquake, a Hong Kong human-rights group said Wednesday.
The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said Zeng Hongling, who wrote about official corruption in school construction and post-quake relief efforts, [...]

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As the economic mood darkens, Britain’s wealth generators are moving abroad. So where exactly is everybody heading, asks Terry Kirby
The exodus is accelerating faster than house prices are falling. Refusing to risk their livelihoods on our spluttering financial situation, or have their spirits crushed by fear of rising crime, a new swath of high-flyers, [...]

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The battle for “ownership” of the polar oil reserves has accelerated with the disclosure that Russia has sent a fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers into the Arctic.
It has reinforced fears that Moscow intends to annex “unlawfully” a vast portion of the ice-covered Arctic, beneath which scientists believe up to 10 billion tons of gas and [...]

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