Today's Links: The Olympic ticket fiasco, Sino-ASEAN relations and the Alibaba IPO

• China urges UN support for Olympic Truce in 2008 [Bangkok Post]
  China asked the UN General Assembly Wednesday to adopt a resolution supporting the Olympic Truce, a time-honoured practice from ancient Greece to respect the sportive events that will take place in Beijing next year.
• French foreign minister in China with sensitive issues on agenda [AFP]
  France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner held talks with China's leaders Wednesday to pave the way for President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit and push Beijing on a range of sensitive issues, including Myanmar and Iran.
• How Beijing is trying to meet "green" targets [Reuters]
  How Beijing is spending 120 billion yuan ($16.1 billion) to combat its chronic pollution and create a clean, green Beijing ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
• Beijing suspends Olympic ticket sales, apologises for fiasco [AFP]
  Beijing Olympics organisers apologised on Wednesday after suspending ticket sales following a booking system meltdown, their first major blunder in preparations for next year's Games.
• China starts developing new heavy-duty carrier rockets [Xinhua]
  China is building a new range of carrier rockets designed to send heavyweight satellites into space, boosting the current carrying capacity by nearly three times.
• Fuel shortages spread into central China [IHT]
  The worst Chinese fuel crisis in two years spread to the capital and other inland areas Wednesday, even as the country's top refiner pledged to guarantee supplies to a market crippled by the gap between state-set pump prices and record crude markets.
• China-ASEAN cooperation projects on the rise [China Daily]
  Chinese and Southeast Asian businesses will put $6.15 billion to jointly build machinery, building materials, consumer electronics, farm produce, foodstuffs and other projects, the organizers of the fourth China-ASEAN Expo said here Wednesday.
• China's Alibaba generating heat with impending IPO [SF Gate]
  Alibaba.com, the Chinese e-commerce site, will go public in Hong Kong next week in one of the hottest technology initial public offerings since Google.

Photo from theshanghaieye

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