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slavin:

TURN THE PEARL RIVER DELTA INTO ONE

And let @moleitau know his battlesuit is warming up.

kateoplis:

China is planning to create the world’s biggest mega city by merging nine cities to create a metropolis twice the size of Wales with a population of 42 million.

The “Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One” scheme will create a 16,000 sq mile urban area that is 26 times larger geographically than Greater London. The new mega-city will cover a large part of China’s manufacturing heartland, stretching from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and including Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. Together, they account for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy.

Telegraph (image by rastaschas)

More China . . . . . . .

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Ransoms paid to Somali pirates averaged $5.4 million last year, compared with $150,000 in 2005, according to One Earth Future, a non-governmental organization based in Louisville, Colorado. A total of $238 million was paid out in 2010, the group said in a report, estimating the annual cost of piracy at $7 billion to $12 billion. That includes ransoms, insurance premiums, re-routing ships, security equipment and naval forces.

Somali pirates still held 28 ships and 638 hostages as of Dec. 31, the IMB said. Pirate attacks also took place in Nigeria and Bangladesh and Indonesia reported its highest level of attacks on ships since 2007, the IMB said. (via Pirates Hijacked a Record Number of Ships and Crew Last Year, IMB Reports – Bloomberg)

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From imprisoned Pirate Party member to government leader, it’s been an eventful week for Tunisian blogger and software developer Slim Amamou. (via Jailed Pirate Party member becomes Tunisian government minister)

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