Police have killed 34 and injured 78 striking miners at a platinum mine in South Africa’s Marikana. The mine is owned by the Lonmin Plc, which has a 2011 total annual revenue of over $1.5 billion (sources here and here from Lonmin company accounts, used to calculate annual revenue. Revenues totaled $1.6 billion in 2010).

Israeli officials have said they threatened war against Iran in order to try and convince China to vote in support of economic sanctions at the UN Security Council.

The New York Times broke this story: "In February, a high-level Israeli delegation traveled to Beijing to present alleged evidence of Iran’s atomic ambitions. Then they unveiled the ostensible purpose of their visit: to explain in sobering detail the economic impact to China from an Israeli strike on Iran."

Following the operation in which nine civilians on an aid flotilla were killed by Israeli commandos, relations between Israel and Turkey have continued to take a dive. Most interestingly, The Times Online has this to say (found via Friday Lunch Club):

Zbigniew Brzezinski is a long time foreign policy expert and advisor to the U.S. government, former National Security Advisor to U.S. president Jimmy Carter, and is much listened to on the subject of maintaining the U.S. as the leading global power, specifically by way of being the dominant player in key geographies of Asia and Europe.

He gave a talk on foreign policy in April. The talk was held in Canada, and touched on the subject of U.S. geopolitical preeminence in the emerging multi-polar world.