At the United Nations headquarters, signs of a brewing debate as heated as the 2003 invasion of Iraq can be found aplenty. Parallel to the growing criticisms of the Barack Obama administration’s military gambit in Libya in the US Congress, which saw the House of Representatives speaker John Boehner demand an explanation from President Barack Obama on the “contradictions” of his Libya... 

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is fighting a war against his own people, and against NATO. This week, Brazil, Russia and China condemned the NATO strategy. Brazil joined its BRIC partners Russia and China in calling for an immediate cease fire in Libya. According to the Brazilian senate’s news agency on Friday, the Committee on External Relations and National Defense called for an immediate cease... 

Some countries Monday blasted the ongoing West-led military operation against Libya government forces, saying the air raids went beyond the UN resolution and must be scrapped immediately. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin severely criticized the U.S. role in the “Odyssey Dawn” operation against Libya. “The use of force against other countries became a steady trend in the U.S.... 

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responds to questions during a press briefing in Beijing where China reiterated its opposition to the use of force in Libya amid Western air strikes there and called for an immediate ceasefire in the country’s conflict. China Tuesday called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya, where a United Nations “no-fly zone” is being enforced. After... 

An “urgent” dispatch from Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Mikhail Fradkov to President Medvedev that is circulating in the Kremlin today says that the Chinese warship Xuzhou is preparing to offer protection to Libyan leader Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi and his family to protect them from assassination from the US-led air assault on that North African Nation. In what this report... 

Iranian technicians are seen at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facilities (UCF), 420 kms south of the Iranian capital Tehran. China has reaffirmed Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology, urging Tehran at the same time to expand its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Li Song, the deputy head of the Department of Arms Control of China’s Foreign Ministry,... 

Western cuts and swiftly rising defence spending in emerging economies are redrawing the global strategic map, a leading think-tank said on Tuesday, with the danger of conflicts between states also rising. In its annual Global Military Balance report, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said the shift in economic power was already beginning to have a real military... 

China opposes the intervention by foreign forces in the unrest in the Middle East and relevant missions should be led by the United Nations, a Chinese spokesman said Saturday. A similar unrest in China is “preposterous and unrealistic”, said Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for China’s top advisory body which is convening its annual session in Beijing. There would not be such a situation... 

National Geographic Magazine released a video clip, below, showing the most “typical” human face on the planet as part of its series on the human race called “Population 7 billion.” The researchers conclude that a male, 28-year-old Han Chinese man is the most typical person on the planet. There are 9 million of them. The image above is a composite of nearly 200,000 photos of... 

Attack: The report concludes that state or terrorist organisations contributed to the collapse of the U.S. financial system through a series of targeted financial attacks. Did China or Jihadists try to bankrupt America? Pentagon report reveals financial terrorists may have triggered economic crash. Two mystery investors ‘were number one traders in all financial companies that collapsed or are... 

Police officers react during a demonstration outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011, as they follow calls for a ‘Jasmine Revolution.’ Jittery Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a “Jasmine Revolution,” with only a handful of people joining protests apparently modeled... 

An Israeli border police officer walks out from a Palestinian house during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Halamish in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The United States has vetoed a draft UN resolution condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, turning a deaf ear to international... 

Confidential diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Hong Kong lay bare China’s growing influence as America’s largest creditor. As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms — from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money... 

Over the next few days, Al Jazeera will be looking at the impact of rising food prices around the world. With increasing wealth in China, expensive culinary tastes have grown in popularity. And as Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan now reports from Beijing, it is also impacting waistlines.  Read More »

China's economic success began in the 1980s. At the start of the decade the household responsibility system was changed to allow families to keep their surplus grain. In 1994, the pricing system was changed to allow freer price movements. These steps and others started opening up China's economy. China has overtaken Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy. Japan’s economy was...