latest world business news

Canada will formally withdraw its stand from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the country's minister of the environment Peter Kent has said, making it the first nation to pull out of the global treaty.  The protocol "does not represent a way forward for Canada" and would have forced it to take "radical and irresponsible choices", Mr. Kent said in Toronto on Monday. He added that it was a mistake for Canada to have signed up for Kyoto: "As we have said, Kyoto for Canada is in the past ... We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto." "The Kyoto protocol does not cover the world's two largest emitters, China and the US, and therefore cannot work," he said. China, which argues that it should be exempt from emissions reduction targets because it is a developing nation, said Canada's decision was "regrettable" and went against international efforts to tackle climate change. "We...

Seoul military officials say the North Korea has an army unit of elite hackers. The comments came  when the question arises from Seoul officials and diplomats that hackers in China have stolen secrets on South Korea’s defense and foreign affairs by using bogus emails, the intelligence agency said Friday. The National Intelligence Service uncovered the hacking early this year and warned government offices about the danger of such emails, a spokesman said. Hackers sent emails in the names of South Korean diplomats, presidential aides and other people familiar to Seoul officials. Attached files containing viruses were disguised as important documents, such as analyzes on North Korea’s economy. When a recipient clicked on the attachment, the virus started downloading documents in his or her computer, the spokesman said. Lawmaker Lee Jung-Hyun of the ruling Grand National Party told parliament Thursday that a ‘considerable volume of classified documents’ was feared to have been lea...

China's 11 years imprisoned and dissident Human Rights Worker Liu Xiaobo has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2010. The Norwegian Nobel Committee in their citation  declared that "It has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the "fraternity between nations" of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will. Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world's second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened. China's new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as...

"We demand Japan return the Chinese captain unconditionally and immediately. If Japan continues to take the wrong course, China will take strong counter-measures and Japan will have to take all the consequences", Chinese foreign ministry statement said. China had warned it would be taking "strong measures" against Japan after a court in Okinawa, southern Japan, said the sailor could be held for a further 10 days. China has closed top-level exchanges with Japan in a row over the detention of a Chinese ship captain following a collision near disputed islands. The disputed islands are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Chinese state media said ministerial and provincial-level contacts had been suspended, including talks on aviation and coal. Earlier, a Japanese court extended the detention of the captain, held after the collision in the East China Sea. A foreign ministry statement read out on Chinese state television said the decision had "serious...

Washington criticizes  Chinese currency intervention on Wednesday  and  the US administration has filed two new cases against Beijing at the World Trade Organisation in this connection, sources said. The moves are aimed to crank up pressure on Beijing to change what the US says are distortionary and illicit measures to favour its own companies. Tim Murphy, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, appeared at a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday to promote a bill that would allow the US to treat Chinese currency undervaluation as an illegal export subsidy when imposing emergency tariffs. "The American people are calling for Washington to create jobs. Since the administration won't hold China accountable, the Congress must." Separately, the US trade representative (USTR) filed two WTO cases against China, one concerning Chinese restrictions on foreign suppliers processing credit and debit card payments, and another challenging China's own use of emerge...