sunsnow sunday

The Chinese government has threatened broad economic measures against American military contractors unless $6.4b in U.S. arms deals with Taiwan are canceled immediately. U.S. defense contractors including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon will face Chinese retaliation in other business areas in a tangible expose' of China's growing power.

“Such sales contribute to maintaining security and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said Laura Tischler, a State Department spokeswoman.

Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi said, The US should “truly respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and immediately rescind the mistaken decision ... in order to avoid damaging broader China-US relations.”
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Hank Paulson has accused Russia of propositioning China to sell Fannie and Freddie Mac bonds in late 2008 to induce a U.S. government bail out. The former U.S. Treasury secretary wrote “Russian officials had made a top-level approach to the Chinese, suggesting that together they might sell big chunks of their GSE (government sponsored enterprise) holdings to force the US to use its emergency authorities to prop up these companies,” in his recently published memoir, On the Brink.

The reported proposition was declined by the Chinese in the time surrounding the Russian-Georgian conflict.
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Pakistani media has reported that Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed "sometime in the last two weeks" by U.S. drone strike. Tehrik-e-Taliban spokesmen have denied the claims but have not provided video evidence that the group's leader is alive.

U.S. C.I.A. has increase drone activity following the attack on their Khost outpost.

I called this btw. wooop.
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Slate.com slide show of the Davos Economic Forum sessions and participants is here.