China

China has refused to let Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, now near death, obtain medical treatment abroad. Beijing released dissidents in the past, but it no longer needs to cave in to foreign pressure.

Project promoters claimed a giant vehicle would beat traffic jams by straddling traffic. Last week, they were arrested on suspicion of fraud. "The idea was absurd, childish," says a longtime critic.

Southwest China's Guizhou province is one of the country's poorest, most remote regions. But Guizhou has some unique advantages, which it is trying to use to transform itself into a big-data hub.