China wrote history this week after gaining approval for oil exploration in the Amu Darya Basin in Afghanistan, making it the first international oil deal made by Afghanistan with a foreign country in several decades. more ›

• If you're like us, the fact that your Bank of China card has says "UnionPay" rather than, say, "Visa" or "Mastercard" is probably irksome at best. Good luck purchasing anything from a non-Chinese merchant! As it turns out, the World Trade Organization is kind of annoyed with the lack of Visa, Mastercard and AMEX representation, too - but for a different reason than you are. [Business Week]
• If we weren't, you know, a site about China (and related news), we might not even have realized Google had made its long-anticipated exit last week, tangibly-speaking. Indeed, it seems as if a lot of the "what will China do without Google?" hysteria has been coming from outside of China. Fear not: a blogger from Beijing has changed that. Seriously though, are we crazy or has Google leaving totally not changed anything? Sure, you now get a blank page instead of a "server not found" when you search for 'Tiananmen,' but come on. [The New Yorker]
• Is China's "organically-grown" food really organic? That's like asking whether or not out GDP really grew 8.9% in 2009 - only the CCP knows. What does appear to be fairly certain, however, is that forced labor has been used to harvest apparently organic goods, on at least a few occasions. Get your Google on, Whole Foods! [The Energy Collective]

• Online Market Flourishes in China [NYTimes] "Taobao fever has swept the school Mr. Yang attends, Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College, where administrators say that a quarter of the 8,800 students enrolled operate Taobao shops, often from dormitory rooms. And across China, millions of other ordinary people — recent college graduates, shopkeepers and retirees — are also using Taobao to sell clothes, mobile phones, toys and just about anything else they can find at neighborhood stores and wholesale markets or even smuggle out of factories."
• China turns back Xinjiang plane [BBC News] "An Afghan aircraft bound for Urumqi in China's restive Xinjiang region has been turned back, reports from both countries say. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported first that the plane had been hijacked, then that it had been the subject of a bomb threat. An Afghan diplomat said the plane's operators had not been told about a threat, just ordered to turn it back. "
• 3,000 China mobsters sentenced since 2006 [UPI] "Chinese officials say more than 3,000 reputed gang members have been locked up or executed for organized crime activities since January 2006. The tally was announced Sunday by the Supreme People's Court and was part of a continuing effort to curb violent crimes and the organizations behind them, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported."

A Shanghainese woman by the name of Wang Min has been charged with operating brothels that fronted as bars in the wealthier parts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and bringing unemployed women, all past 40 years of age, from Chongqing to work at the bars. She was sentenced to 11 years in jail and her accomplice six years. The judgement was meted out in China after the pair were extradited back home earlier this year. [Source] more ›

Well no he isn’t, but this recent AFP report has some Beijing kids getting their sugar fix on confectionery inspired by the cave dwelling terrorist rock star to welcome in the new year among the drums and dragons in Long Tan Park: more ›