Content about Geography

For historical but also geographic reasons, France considers the crisis in Mali one of its top external priorities, and facing the risk of seeing Mopti captured by jihadists, President Francois Hollande ordered the French military to intervene in the Sahelian country.

Each autumn, Carol Biddell organises a small but enthusiastic band of volunteers to spend a day clearing the rubbish and tidying up an attractive stretch of beach and coastline on the outskirts of Sai Kung. This year, however, her clean-up has been called off.

“I cancelled it,” she explained. “Why should we be cleaning up after these people when they come out week after week and leave their trash and they can’t be bothered to take their mess from the barbecue pits to the bins, even though it’s only a few steps away?”

The time bomb of leaping bad loans worldwide may explode anytime. Dear Hong Kong and mainland bankers, please beware of the growth in banks’ non-performing loans!

Hong Kong’s economy is closely linked to that of the mainland. If the mainland had a non-performing loan problem, inevitably it would cascade into this world city in southern China. Prevention is always better than cure, as the saying goes. Please take measures to diffuse this situation. There is no room for complacency.

The unexpected visit by a senior Chinese military official to the United States is widely seen as being linked with territorial tensions in Northeast Asia, and analysts said the Diaoyu Islands issue would be discussed by the two militaries. 

Cai Yingting, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, left Beijing on Monday for an official visit to the US. This is the second visit by a senior Chinese military official to the US in three months. Defense Minister Liang Guanglie paid a six-day visit to the country in May. 

It is unlikely that a free trade agreement between China and South Korea will be signed within two years, due to disagreements over key sectors, a source close to the talks said. 

"Negotiations have progressed much more slowly than anticipated," the source told China Daily on condition of anonymity. "The target of wrapping up the talks in two years is too optimistic. I believe a much longer period is needed," he said. 

When visiting a theme park in China, listen for the shrieks as the roller coasters whiz past and the bumper cars collide. 

Chances are, the loudest such screams of joy are from the investors. 

Amusement parks are a booming business in China. But although attractions are springing up nationwide, industry insiders say the trend has less to do with tapping the thrill-seeker market and more to do with securing prime real estate. 

Another historic visit by three mainland astronauts, from the Shenzhou-9 manned space mission to Hong Kong last week, aroused a whirlwind of sentiment about our motherland in the city. Not only did the trio spend a fortnight in space and complete a series of experiments, they also carried out the first ever manual docking of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft with the Tiangong-1 space station. They are the first team of space explorers in our nation to have accomplished this mission, among which China’s first woman in space, Liu Yang, became the star of the visit.

Dongguan is a place of great strategic importance for investment, where tens of thousands of Hong Kong companies choose to build their factories. Recently, the Dongguan government has put forward many supporting measures, to correspond with the central government’s policy of helping Hong Kong companies to upgrade their integration with mainland enterprises. The local government sent some officers to Hong Kong last month to explain the important policies to the business circles.

Japan will return 14 activists who were illegally detained after landing on an island belonging to China, according to Chinese diplomats in Japan. 

China on Thursday again urged Japan to immediately and unconditionally release the activists. 

Cooling tensions over the Diaoyu Islands was the correct move for Tokyo, experts said, because Japan does not have the right to detain Chinese nationals on Chinese sovereign territory and acts of provocation will only harm Japan's interests. 

Hong Kong, by all metrics, is a wealthy city. But survey shows white collar workers feel disenfranchised, so can a disillusioned work force sustain the city’s prosperity? Daniel Pordes explores.

Taking in the spectacle of Hong Kong’s gleaming skyscrapered facade, the observer cannot help but remark, that the city, surely is among the most attractive places in the world to work.

Tensions between Seoul and Tokyo over the disputed islands continued on Monday, and the rift is prompting Washington to worry about the already shaky US-Japan-ROK trilateral collaboration, analysts said. 

ROK President Lee Myung-bak on Monday called Japan's reaction "expected" when discussing his Aug 10 visit to the disputed islands, which Seoul calls Dokdo and Tokyo calls Takeshima. 

The High-tech industry was cited by former Chief Executive Donald Tsang as one of six pillar industries in which Hong Kong should try to build on its “clear advantages”.

Tsang’s successor CY Leung has stuck to that plan, unveiling a preliminary plan and a series of measures to develop Hong Kong’s knowledge-based economy. The measures are in close correspondence with work already underway at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP).