News » Politics » Death toll rises in China coal mine blast

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• Death toll rises in China coal mine blast
• China's mutual funds shake off whopping losses
• Hong Kong iPhone fans are expecting new iPhone 5: Ming Pao
• Cosmetic surgery: a stealth imperialism with self-harm its main weapon | Hannah Betts
• China threatens to burst Australia's iron ore bubble
• Relief efforts urged for Taiwan's leveled Orchid island
• China's economic growth slowly stabilizing: senior official
• Li, Zheng Through to U.S. Open Third Round
• Air China H1 profits tumble 74%
• Acer becomes 2nd largest PC vendor in India
• Copyright key issue in cross-strait cultural exchanges: expert
• HTC says it is not settling patent dispute with Apple
• US quantitative easing could add to Taiwan's inflation
• Taiwan dismisses Tokyo governor's 'unilateral' claim to Diaoyutais
• Chinese dairies struggle to secure sources of raw milk
• Top China Stories from WSJ: GE Urges Open View, Merkel Visit, Shipper Sees Challenges
• China's film board pledges stricter monitoring of co-productions
• Chinese local governments sell land to boost revenue
• Deaths of only children present social challenge in China
• China to deploy drones for marine surveillance

Death toll rises in China coal mine blast Posted: 30 Aug 2012 12:51 AM PDT The death toll from a gas blast at a coal mine in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan rose to 19, with 28 miners still trapped underground, according to the local city government.

China's mutual funds shake off whopping losses Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:42 AM PDT China's mutual fund companies finished the first half of this year with total profits of nearly 100 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion) after posting huge losses in 2011. All of the companies had releas...

Hong Kong iPhone fans are expecting new iPhone 5: Ming Pao Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:42 AM PDT The price of the iPhone 4S has been dropping now that the debut of iPhone 5 is approaching, Hong Kong's Ming Pao reported on Aug 29. "Most potential customers would wait for iPhone 5, leaving fewer a...

Cosmetic surgery: a stealth imperialism with self-harm its main weapon | Hannah Betts Posted: 29 Aug 2012 11:35 AM PDT Women around the world are sold western ideals of beauty by an industry making billions and causing untold misery This weekend, I am off to interview a young Hollywood starlet. She is pale-skinned, blue-eyed, with golden hair falling lustrously about her shoulders. She resembles nothing less than a modern take on Botticelli's Venus, short merely of a clamshell. On closer inspection, this goddess is not actually that beautiful – charming certainly, but without the harmonious symmetry of planes and plumpness conventional notions demand. And, yet, she has The Package: the constituents that are perceived to win her leading roles and heartthrob boyfriends, and are a source of emulation for millions – punishingly so for some. Meanwhile, on the cover of September's O, or Oprah magazine – Winfrey's influential "empowerment"-focused organ – our heroine is shown letting her hair down, or rather up and out. For, behold, she is sporting a lavish afro rather than the Wasp blow-dry she usually favours – as advocated by the $9bn black hair industry examined in Chris Rock's 2009 documentary, Good Hair. Winfrey, at 58, has never looked more beautiful. Yet, even for a woman who has championed both black and feminist causes – and embodied Toni Morrison characters – this is clearly A Big Deal, requiring editorial explanation. The daytime diva reveals that she likes feeling "unencumbered" with natural hair: "But it's hard to manage daily … in order for me not to look, as Gayle says, 'like you put your finger in a light socket'." Gayle is Gayle King, a woman who appears similarly wedded to her straighteners. One is uncomfortably reminded of postcolonial theorist Frantz Fanon's arguments in his seminal 1952 study Black Skin, White Masks, where black upward mobility is expressed via stringent, self-policing white imitation. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970) also comes to mind, in which self-loathing Pecola Breedlove prays each night for whiteness. Meanwhile, its narrator, Claudia MacTeer, is presented with a succession of "blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned" baby dolls: "'Here,' they said, 'this is beautiful, and if you are on this day "worthy" you may have it'." I bow to no one in my love of lipstick, powder and paint, and the jubilant creativity in their wielding. Ornamentation rituals are a defining feature of human society: first we get food and fire sorted, then we daub cave walls and ourselves. However, in too many parts of the world "because you're worth it" translates as Morrison's "'this is beautiful, and if you are on this day "worthy" you may have it'". In India, an estimated 40% of the nation uses face whiteners, since pallor – like straightened black hair in America – is considered both professionally and sexually desirable. This year, its citizens are expected to spend half a billion dollars on such products, up 15% from 2011. Companies such as Unilever, L'Oréal and Garnier are reaping vast profits using Bollywood stars as role models. Yet, where 700 million Indians are living on less than $2 a day, perilous, unbranded chemical options are rife. In China, similarly racial, indeed racist, reinventions abound, most obviously in the realm of plastic surgery. Chinese surgeons undertake 13% of global procedures, generating some 20,000 complaints about disfigurement a year. Typical interventions include eyelid modification to create an upper-lid crease, rhinoplasty to raise the nose, cheek implants and even sole implants in the feet to make patients taller. Evidence also issues from traditionally wealthy nations. In Japan, breast enlargements are deployed to create a western "bon-kyu-bon" ("big-small-big", or hourglass) figure. In New York, where a century ago Jews were having nose jobs and the Irish ear-pinning to assimilate, Asians and Latinos are queuing up at surgeries in immigrant neighbourhoods. Only in Britain, it seems, do surgeons balk at such metamorphoses. At a meeting last year of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, preserving ethnicity was a central theme. This was manifested, most minutely, in a cross-racial study of "What makes the perfect belly button?", concluding that surgeons need to be aware of the nuances of racial preferences for a vertical or round "innie". Still, better navel-gazing than eyelid-slicing. Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth of 1991 posited the thesis that the beauty industry promulgates a cultural, economic and ideological scam. However, it is no less than an empire: a form of stealth imperialism in which self-harm is weapon-in-chief. Perhaps, in time, as China and India consolidate their positions as the new global superpowers, the west will learn to crave eastern pulchritude, ridding itself of blondness and blue eyes accordingly. Last week brought another outing for the theory that Shakespeare's "Dark Lady" may have been one Lucy Negro, a black Clerkenwell madam. In fact, in the sonnets of 1609, Shakespeare is arguing for colour-blind beauty against the classical and Renaissance norms that our culture has inherited. His mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun, her lips do not resemble coral, her skin is dun, with none of the "roses and lilies" loveliness found in the tradition of emblazoning beauty. She is no goddess. Her feet are firmly planted. She is her own self and beautiful for it. It is a statement that has, alas, lost none of its radicalism. Women Plastic surgery Beauty Health & wellbeing India Oprah Winfrey China Asia Pacific Hannah Betts guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

China threatens to burst Australia's iron ore bubble Posted: 29 Aug 2012 10:43 AM PDT China's economic slowdown has left commodity-rich Australia and its over-valued currency exposed Marc Faber, the Swiss investor and ultra bear, says there have been four mega bubbles in the past 40 years. In the 1970s it was gold; in the 1980s it was the Nikkei, and in the 1990s it was the Nasdaq. Bigger than all of them, though, has been the iron ore bubble, a tenfold increase in prices in less than a decade. Iron ore is the raw material for steel, production of which has rocketed as a result of China's economic boom. Consider the following facts. In the past 15 years, China has built 90 million new homes – enough to house the populations of the UK, France and Germany combined. A quarter of global steel demand is for Chinese property and Chinese infrastructure. Commodity-rich countries, like Australia, have never had it so good. China takes 25% of Australia's exports and iron ore accounts for 60% of all the goods Australia sells to China. One reason Australia avoided recession during the global downturn of 2008-09 was that it had a well-run banking system. A much bigger reason was that the country had become a giant pit from which China could extract the minerals it needed for its industrial expansion. Money flooded into the country from sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds looking for AAA investments. The Australian dollar has soared, as have property prices. China's economy is now slowing, and although the economic data is not particularly reliable, it seems to be slowing fast. The country has two million unsold homes, with another 30 million under construction. There is a glut of iron ore and the price is falling. Where does that leave Australia? Horribly exposed, quite obviously. It has an over-valued currency, an over-valued property market, and its major customer is now desperately pulling every available policy lever in the hope of avoiding a hard landing. Whatever happens, the Australian dollar is a sell. Just how big a sell will depend on how successful Beijing is in reflating the Chinese economy. Economics Australia China Asia Pacific Commodities Currencies Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Relief efforts urged for Taiwan's leveled Orchid island Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:18 AM PDT The minister of the interior has ordered that every effort to be made to assist the people of Orchid island or Lanyu, situated off the coast of southeastern Taiwan, to restore their homes and infrastr...

China's economic growth slowly stabilizing: senior official Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:18 AM PDT A senior Chinese government official said on Wednesday that price rises have continued to slow since the beginning of the year as a result of improving supply-demand relations and dropping prices for ...

Li, Zheng Through to U.S. Open Third Round Posted: 29 Aug 2012 07:31 PM PDT China's leading tennis players Zheng Jie and Li Na are in a New York state of mind.

Air China H1 profits tumble 74% Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:26 AM PDT China's flagship carrier Air China said late Tuesday that its net profits dropped 74% to 1.06 billion yuan (US$168 million) in the first half due to weak market demand and higher operating costs. ...

Acer becomes 2nd largest PC vendor in India Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:22 AM PDT Taiwan's Acer vaulted past Hewlett-Packard and Dell to become the second-largest personal computer vendor in India in the second quarter of 2012, according to research firm Gartner. The combined de...

Copyright key issue in cross-strait cultural exchanges: expert Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:22 AM PDT Taiwan and China will have to address many matters, including the key issues of copyright protection and censorship, if they are to engage in cultural exchanges, said Richard Bush, former chairman of ...

HTC says it is not settling patent dispute with Apple Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:22 AM PDT Cher Wang, chairwoman of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, said Tuesday that her company is currently not in any talks with Apple to settle a patent lawsuit. "We really are not," she said on the side...

US quantitative easing could add to Taiwan's inflation Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:22 AM PDT Taiwan will face higher inflation if the US Federal Reserve comes up with a third round of quantitative easing (QE3), a local scholar said Tuesday. The highly possible QE3 could serve as an adverse...

Taiwan dismisses Tokyo governor's 'unilateral' claim to Diaoyutais Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:58 AM PDT Taiwan does not recognize any unilateral move or argument by Japanese officials on the disputed Diaoyutai islands, a Taiwanese official said Tuesday amid growing tensions over the issue. From the p...

Chinese dairies struggle to secure sources of raw milk Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:54 AM PDT The price of raw milk in China is much higher than in other countries, with the exception of Japan and South Korea. Bright Dairy & Food, a major Chinese dairy, said the expense has become a problem f...

Top China Stories from WSJ: GE Urges Open View, Merkel Visit, Shipper Sees Challenges Posted: 29 Aug 2012 06:27 PM PDT Senior GE executives are urging countries such as the U.S. and Australia to become more open to Chinese investors; German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in China; the head of the world's biggest shipping line believes the current slowdown suggests more permanent challenges for China.

China's film board pledges stricter monitoring of co-productions Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:42 AM PDT China's film regulator will implement laws governing the review and approval of international co-productions more strictly, a senior official says. Zhang Pimin, the deputy director-general of the S...

Chinese local governments sell land to boost revenue Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:38 AM PDT Some cash-strapped local governments in China are selling land to boost their revenues, which have been affected by the country's economic slowdown, the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily reports. ...

Deaths of only children present social challenge in China Posted: 30 Aug 2012 01:54 AM PDT Ten million, or around one in 20, of the 218 million daughters born into single-child families in China will pass away before the age of 25, reports the state-run Beijing Times. Author Yi Fuxian, c...

China to deploy drones for marine surveillance Posted: 30 Aug 2012 01:54 AM PDT A Chinese official said on Wednesday that drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are to be deployed along China's coastline to undertake remote-sensing marine surveillance. The project also includes ...

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