China, Australia | featured news

Tony Clift's family has plowed the rich black soil of Australia's Liverpool Plains for six generations. The thought of selling never crossed his mind — until a Chinese company came to town. Shenhua Watermark Coal offered to buy farms at unheard-of prices. The decision wasn't easy, Clift says. His pioneer ancestors settled the land in 1832. But farming is a business nowadays, and selling his 6,500 acres (2,600 hectares) made business sense.

China's Yu Wenxia has been crowned the 2012 Miss World. This is the second time Miss China has been awarded the title. The last time was in 2007 when Zhang Zilin took the honor. The first runner-up is Sophie Elizabeth Moulds of Wales and the second runner-up is Jessica Michelle Kahawaty of Australia.

An Australian mining magnate has commissioned a Chinese shipyard to build a replica of the ill-starred Titanic; complete in every detail but equipped with modern technology to prevent a repeat of the original's fateful maiden voyage 100 years ago.

The most recent statistics according to the IE6 Countdown shows that the world as a whole is at 10.9% usage on IE6. The United States, Turkey, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are at the top (bottom) of the list with under 3% of overall browsers running as IE6. Norway leads everyone at 0.4% and their neighbors in Finland are at 0.8%.

U.S. military efforts to strengthen its presence in Asia are not aimed at countering China, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday, ahead of talks on deepening defense ties with regional ally Australia.

The Australian negotiator for the mining giant and three Chinese co-workers are found guilty of taking bribes from private steel mills and stealing commercial secrets. An Australian mining executive was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday by a Shanghai court on charges of bribery and stealing commercial secrets.

Four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto pleaded guilty Monday to taking bribes, lawyers and an Australian diplomat said, in an embarrassing case seen as part of a harsh new attitude toward foreign business in China....

A 50 billion Australian dollar ($41 billion) deal for China to buy Australian natural gas shows current diplomatic tensions between the two countries will not trump their commercial interests, officials said Wednesday.

Investors on Friday firmly endorsed an Australian dollars 3.5 billion plan for Yanzhou Coal to buy Felix Resources Ltd. in what would be China's biggest investment yet in the Australian minerals sector.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant rejected Chinese allegations that its employees detained in Shanghai were involved in bribery and stealing state secrets.