Neighbour Watch

China-Taiwan talksBEIJING: Top Chinese leaders repeated their offer Tuesday to resume political talks with arch-rival Taiwan after a gap of ...

China-Taiwan talks

BEIJING: Top Chinese leaders repeated their offer Tuesday to resume political talks with arch-rival Taiwan after a gap of about three years. Premier Li Peng, while addressing a Chinese New Year party organised by the Communist Party, hoped Taiwan would respond positively to Beijing’s offer under the `One China’ principle, the Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier on Monday, China offered to resume talks with Taiwan without laying down any precondition of recognising Beijing’s sovereignty.

Bangla oil deal

DHAKA: United States oil alliance Chevron-Texaco may quit Bangladesh after talks with Ireland’s Tullow over a oil and gas exploration partnership broke down, officials said on Tuesday. A second round of government-sponsored talks on Monday “failed to reach an understanding as Tullow did not agree to the Chevron-Texaco proposals for the exploration of the Block-9,” an energy ministry official said.

Japan FM quits

TOKYO: Japanese Finance Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka tonight resigned over a bribery scandal engulfing his ministry. Mitsuzuka told newspersons after a meeting with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto that he had to resign in the wake of the police raid on his ministry last night.“I apologised again and that was because I felt my responsibility strongly as the supervisor,” he said.