BEIJING (Reuters) – China is considering increasing its participation in the rescue funds aimed at resolving the European debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told journalists on Thursday.

But Wen did not make any explicit financial commitments for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) or the upcoming European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is considering increasing its participation in the rescue funds aimed at resolving the European debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told journalists on Thursday.

But Wen did not made any explicit financial commitments for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) or the upcoming European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is considering providing greater involvement in the rescue funds aimed at resolving the European debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told journalists on Thursday.

But Wen did not made any explicit financial commitments for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) or the upcoming European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela
Merkel on Thursday urged China to use its influence to persuade
Iran to give up its nuclear programme.

Merkel, in Beijing at the start of a three-day visit widely
expected to also seek China’s support for the ailing euro, said
she had had “long discussions” with President Hu Jintao and
Premier Wen Jiabao over Iran sanctions.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese farmer Chen Shusheng’s biggest worry is his son, whose scholarly glasses, pale skin and slim blue jeans contrast sharply with the older man’s thick, dirt-caked hands, uneven teeth and bulky home-made clothes.

The family’s brand-new, whitewashed home an hour from Beijing is complete with flush toilet but lacks a daughter-in-law — because the son has been unable to hold down a job.

JUBA/BEIJING (Reuters) – South Sudan will announce plans for an oil export pipeline through East Africa next week, a priority for the new nation because its crude is “no longer safe” in Sudan, a government spokesman said on Saturday.

Landlocked South Sudan took about three quarters of Sudan’s roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil production when it seceded from Sudan in July under a 2005 peace deal, but it still relies on Sudan’s infrastructure to export crude.

JUBA/BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) – South Sudan will announce
plans for an oil export pipeline through East Africa next week,
a priority for the new nation because its crude is “no longer
safe” in Sudan, a government spokesman said on Saturday.

Landlocked South Sudan took about three quarters of Sudan’s
roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil production when it
seceded from Sudan in July under a 2005 peace deal, but it still
relies on Sudan’s infrastructure to export crude.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing began disclosing the amount of tiny pollution particles in the air on Saturday, in a move that could improve disclosure but alarm a public barely resigned to the capital’s choking smog.

The new measurement of particles of 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, or PM2.5, comes after growing attention to air quality in Beijing, one of the world’s most heavily polluted capitals, from Chinese as well as foreigners.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Ministry of Commerce said a U.S. investigation into wind towers from China could hurt bilateral clean energy cooperation, an area the White House has been eager to develop.

The ministry hit out at a U.S. Commerce Department announcement on Thursday that it would investigate whether wind tower producers from China and Vietnam had harmed American producers by undercutting prices. Wind towers are the pylons that hold up the blades that generate wind energy.

BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) – China diversified its spot
iron ore buying away from India in 2011, largely in favour of
South Africa, but failed to reduce its dependence on term
purchases from top suppliers Australia and Brazil, customs data
showed on Saturday.

Chinese planners have said for several years that iron ore
supplies from India and elsewhere could help break the dominance
of the world’s top three iron ore miners, BHP Billiton
and Rio Tinto of Australia and
Brazil’s Vale.