Yao Will Be Back

Chinese basketball icon and Houston Rockets center Yao Ming underwent a successful surgery against the stress fracture in his left foot on March 4.

Rockets' doctor, Tom Clanton, who performed the surgery, said in a press release if the fracture does well, Yao will be fully recovered in the next four months and be able to rejoin China's national team for the August Olympic Games in Beijing.

"Everything is going well, and I am feeling much better now," said 7-foot-6 Yao in the press release.

The 27-year-old was assuring his local fans by dismissing rumors that he would not be available for the Beijing Olympics due to the injury. "I will be there, I will be stronger, I will be more careful to protect myself for a longer career life." he told a press conference after deciding to undergo surgery.

Yao is a household name in China and revered by the nation. He is seen as a vital part of the country's bid to an Olympic medal in basketball.

‘Trash Queen' at Center of Storm

China's wealthiest woman entrepreneur, Zhang Yin, stirred up a hornet's nest when she recently called to scrap the "open-term labor contract."

Zhang, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that she would submit a proposal about the contract to this year's full session of the national top advisory body.

The self-made billionaire complained of surging labor costs caused by open-term contracts, which she said would result in lifetime employment. "Foreign enterprises are moving to search for opportunities in neighboring Asian countries [with cheap labor forces] like Viet Nam and India," Zhang said, warning of a foreseeable drop in the employment rate.

However, her conclusion became a target of attack in the media and online communities immediately, with opponents agreeing unanimously that cheap commodities at the cost of labor welfare should no longer be the country's competitive edge.

The open-term contract stipulated by the Labor Contract Law, which went into effect on January 1, is aimed at assisting China's industrial restructuring and soothing labor relations, said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman of the First Session of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

The 51-year-old Zhang is founder and board chairwoman of the Nine Dragons Paper Holdings. The company is now China's biggest paper maker with Zhang's personal assets being estimated at 27 billion yuan ($3.4 billion).

Ahmadinejad's Neighborly Visit

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad paid a landmark visit to Iraq on March 2-3, making him the first leader of the Islamic Republic to visit the former enemy after the Middle East neighbors entered an eight-year war in 1980.

The visit is widely seen as part of Tehran's campaign to expand its influence in Iraq and neighboring countries. Many politicians now in power in Iraq, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, lived in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein's reign.

During the visit, Ahmadinejad denied a U.S. accusation that Iran was backing Iraqi Shiite insurgents to create instability.

"We think insecurity, dissension and violence in Iraq are the result of the plots of occupation forces because there had been no such differences at all prior to the country's occupation," he was quoted by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying.

"There is no so-called grain reserve crisis in China."

Nie Zhenbang, Director of the State Administration of Grains, referring to a recent report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, saying that the proportion of the global grain storage and consumption had dropped to 20 percent, the lowest in the past 30 years

"I know very well that some people think of China's growth as a threat. We want to make it an opportunity. I have told the Chinese: ‘You have to help us, you have to make the case that it's good for the global economy.'"

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, warning in an interview with the Financial Times on March 3 that protectionist sentiment was rising in the 27-nation EU as countries perceived Chinese growth as a threat

"If the prices are high, definitely they are not due to a lack of crude. They are due to what's happening in the U.S."

Chakib Khelil, President of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, after the 13-member cartel decided on March 5 to maintain its official production quotas. OPEC accused U.S. economic "mismanagement" of pushing oil prices to new record highs

"Let the spirit of healing begin today. Let it begin now."

Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, after his mediation helped Kenya's rival political leaders reach a power-sharing deal on February 28 to end the country's worst crisis since independence in 1963

"This (the coverage) is war reduced to entertainment, willingly ignorant of the truth that young men like Harry, both British and Afghan, are dying violent pointless deaths in Helmand province."

Leo Docherty, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, writing in the Independent on March 2, in response to the media mania about Britain's Prince Harry's military service in Afghanistan