At an oil-drilling site in Sudan in 2008, a Chinese employee teaches Sudanese workers to read Chinese characters for “Hello China, we are friends.” Hu Qingming/Imaginechina, via Corbis

Africa with a million plus Chinese immigrants building roads, start-ups that are taking advantage of countries like Mozambique, among others, in their quest for profit (via bribing officials in some cases) and resources. A good read, one of many for source reference, is China’s Second Continent by Howard W. French

On a trip to Lusaka, Zambia, last year, I kept chasing an energetic and jittery Chinese man, the only staff member of a Chinese mining company willing to talk to me after his firm had been involved in several scandals in which both Chinese and Zambian employees were either killed or injured on the job. Zambia, with its abundant copper ore deposits, is one of the most important investment destinations for China. His English was excellent, and he liked to talk — and talk. After telling me about how much he loved the country and its people, he sometimes went into a rant about how Zambian miners liked drinking and money too much, and did not like to work hard. It was that mentality, he continued, that had caused his company all its troubles (not the workplace-safety and low-pay grievances of which it was accused). But even though the Zambian government had repossessed his company’s mines, this man wasn’t leaving. He was now working as an interpreter for the government.

South America- Venezuela has come in the cross-hairs of the State Department and President Obama for a security threat:

President Barack Obama issued and signed the executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target the energy sector or Venezuela’s broader economy. The move raises tensions between Washington and the OPEC member just as U.S. relations with Cuba, another longtime U.S. foe in Latin America, are set to be

The New York Times did a useful article on Venezuela for a source reference.

If you haven’t visited Weird News from all over Asia, they cover Japan, China, Hong Kong, North Korea, South Korea for some Asian news that usually isn’t covered in other media.

Categories: World news