"It coincides with what the Netherlands saw as a possible option to get Faber behind bars.”

"It's high time that Mr. Faber ends his peaceful and tranquil life in Ingolstadt and is incarcerated for his heinous crimes."

A Chinese sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, bought a 8.68pc stake in the UK's Thames Water, owned by Kemble Water.

The deal, believed to be worth around £500 million, was agreed, shortly after the British chancellor, George Osborne, paid a visit to China last week and urged the government to invest China's extensive foreign exchange reserves, estimated to be over $3.18 trillion, into UK investment projects.

Welcoming the news, Osborne said,

"It is a vote of confidence in Britain as a place to invest and do business. This investment is good news for both the British and Chinese economies."

The China Investment Corporation, formed in 2007, holds $410 billion of China's sovereign wealth fund.

Writing in the Financial Times, at the end of last year, the corporation's chairman, Lou Jiwei, described Chinese investment in British infrastructure projects as a "win-win" situation.

See Whither 'string of pearls'? (21 Feb 2011)

Thames Water provides water to over 8.8 million consumers in the London and Thames Valley region, and sewerage services to upto 14 million.

"It is the right time to say yes to an understanding of our past, to say yes to constitutional change, and to say yes to a future more united and more reconciled than we have ever been before.

It is going to require each and every one of us involved in politics to find it in ourselves to be our best selves, to advocate this case for change with the maximum degree of unity."

"For many Australians, the failure of a referendum on recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would result in confusion about the nation's values, commitment to racial non-discrimination, and sense of national identity."

"This is a time when truth and respect for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples needs to be achieved in our, through the recognition in our constitution. Strong leadership and our national interest are critical for our nation to go forward."

Fighting between the government and the Kachin rebels, in northern Myanmar, intensified, despite the widely proclaimed reforms.

Over the past month, Burma's military his reported to have launched mortar rounds targeting the mountainous region in northern Myanmar, near its border with China.

Over the past few months, international human rights groups have expressed growing concern at the Burmese army's atrocities against the Kachin people, citing the looting and burning of homes, as well as the rape, torture and execution of Kachin civilians. As a result, over a thousand villagers have sought refuge in China, whilst tens of thousands more are believed to be at risk of displacement if the Burmese army's actions continue.

The increased conflict has taken place despite Myanmar's President Thein Sein, calling on the military to cease the fighting.

On the border with China, the Kachin region is partly controlled by the Kachin Independence Army. 

After a 17-year ceasefire, fighting between the Burmese army and the Kachen fighters, threatened to resume after the Burmese government demanded that all ethnic rebels disarm and join the Border Guard Force, and Kachin political figures were not allowed to take part in the parliamentary elections of November 2010. The conflict fully resumed June of last year, after the Burmese military attacked a Kachen post at Bum Sen, near Chinese hydropower project.

The Burmese government's conflict with the Kachin Independence Army, is but one of the myriad of ethnic civil conflicts within Myanmar.

After Myanmar renewed its diplomatic ties with the US and UK over recent weeks, the Burmese government signed a ceasefire with the ethnic Karen rebels, who have also fought against repression by the Burmese military, which is overwhelmingly formed by the majority ethnic group, the Burman.

The government states it is attempting to negotiate similar peace agreements with the other ethnic rebel groups such as the Chin, the Mon and the Kayah.

Despite renewed tensions with Argentina, UK foreign secretary, William Hague, reiterated Britain's commitment to the Falkland islanders' right to self-determination.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Hague said,

"We believe in the self-determination of the people of the Falkland Islands... That will continue."

His comments came shortly after UK prime minister, David Cameron, had accused Bueonos Aires of "colonialism".

Cameron said,

"The key point is we support the Falkland Islanders' right to self-determination, and what the Argentinians have been saying recently, I would argue is actually far more like colonialism because these people want to remain British and the Argentinians want them to do something else,"

Brazil's foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, responded by reiterating Latin American support to "Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas and back the UN resolutions calling on the Argentine and British governments to hold talks on the issue."

In a statement, the UK foreign office said,

"as active players on international issues such as organized crime and counter-terrorism... frequently work together on challenges that face them.
"It is in this spirit and for this reason that the UK supports Brazil's aspiration for a permanent seat on a reformed (UN) Security Council, as a strong global partner in maintaining international peace and security."

“Rwanda had made material changes in its laws and had indicated its capacity and willingness to prosecute cases referred by the ICTR adhering to internationally recognized fair trial standards.”

"We don't believe that there are guarantees that Rwanda can provide a fair trial. The government of Rwanda does have the ability to influence what goes on in the courts, especially on political or sensitive cases."

"The fact that the Chadian authorities blocked me from seeing the Darfuri refugees, for which I had come to Chad, means that what I had said - warning the world of the Darfur genocide and blaming the Sudan government for it - still comes across the decade."

"I guess that they were afraid that I would draw attention to the matter again."

“They are inconvenient reminders of genocidal war that took place ten years ago, but which continues to this very day and continues to generate the humanitarian suffering that we are seeing now.”

A senior US diplomat, Robert J. Einhorn, urged South Korea to work with the US and increase pressure on Iran, during a visit to Seoul.

Einhorn, the US State Department's special advisor for non-proliferation and arms control, met South Korea's deputy foreign minister, Kim Jae-shin on Tuesday.

Einhorn said,

“We are urging all of our partners to help us, to work with us in putting more pressure on the government of Iran to get them to negotiate seriously,”

“In particular, we are urging them to reduce their purchases of crude oil from Iran, and we are urging them to unwind their financial dealings with the Central Bank of Iran.”

“We are confident that working together we can send this signal, and we can do it without the adverse effects that I know many in South Korea are concerned about,”

Jae-shin remained sceptical however:

“[South Korea was] committed to strongly supporting and participating in international efforts” to end the Iranian nuclear dispute"

“But many South Koreans are quite worried that further strengthening sanctions against Iran may at this time destabilize the international market of crude oil.”

"From the very beginning of the year's, last year's revolutions, from Tunisia through Egypt and beyond, I called on leaders to listen to their people, listen to the genuine aspirations of their people, what they need, and what are their voices.

Some did and benefited; some didn't, and today they are reaping the whirlwind.

Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end.

The winds of change will not cease to blow. The flame ignited in Tunisia will not be dimmed."

"The regime is trying to make its unrealistic plans for reconciliation and national dialogue credible, and it is in this context that it is making such announcements, for propaganda purposes." 

"Our Arab neighbours should not cooperate with these adventurers … these measures will not be perceived as friendly."

"China and Saudi Arabia are both in important stages of development and there are broad prospects for enhancing cooperation,"

"Iran has always exercised domination over the Strait of Hormuz."

Egypt's newly elected leaders must "urgently reform the arsenal of laws" used by Mubarak's regime, for law to become "an instrument that protects Egyptians’ rights rather than represses them", said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report released Monday - 'The Road Ahead: A Human Rights Agenda for Egypt’s New Parliament'.

Citing the penal code, associations law, assembly law, and emergency law, HRW said,

"[The exisiting laws] limit public freedoms necessary for a democratic transition, challenge respect for the rule of law, and impede accountability for abuses by the police and the military".
 
“Egypt’s stalled transition can be revived only if the new parliament dismantles Egypt’s repressive legal framework, the toolbox the government has relied on for decades to silence journalists, punish political opponents, and stifle civil society,”

“Egypt’s new political parties need to live up to the promises of the Egyptian uprising by ensuring that no government can ever again trample on the rights of the Egyptian people.”

“Are the “declinists” on the United States, focused on hard power and America’s falling share of global output, missing something?”

“U.S.-based global corporations added 683,000 workers in China during the 1999-2009 decade, a 172 percent increase, and 392,000 workers in India, a 542 percent increase. In all they added 1.5 million workers to payrolls in the Asia and Pacific region, while cutting 864,600 workers at home, according to figures from the Commerce Department.”

“American isolationism has become an oxymoron. As these figures show, it’s a non-option.”

“On one level this shift poses problems for the United States: Cash-rich companies are creating jobs elsewhere rather than at home. On another, however, the global American corporation expands U.S. power in ways that are hard to quantify but significant. They tend to propagate cultures of openness, connectedness and transparency.”

“A General Electric or a Goldman or a Twitter tries to work in each country in culturally appropriate ways, but at their base these companies hold an American set of values. And that is what influence is,” Xenia Dormandy, a senior fellow at Chatham House, told me. “Power viewed in state terms alone, or even primarily, is a false premise these days.”

"According to at least two or three sources, a Tibetan layperson set themselves on fire this morning in Ngaba town. As police put out the flames, they beat him severely."