Friday 29 January 2010 at 08:45 am
An official ceremony sending off the Russian national team for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was held here on Thursday.
President Dmitry Medvedev in a greeting to the mission wished all athletes achievements at the Olympic arena.
He said Russian athletes have repeatedly shown a high level of training and skill at the most prestigious international contests, according to the message published by the Kremlin website.
Nowadays Russia pays special attention to the development of sport activities and healthy lifestyles, said Medvedev, to which successes from professional athletes would be the best contribution.
Russian Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitaly Mutko and President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Leonid Tyagachev attended the ceremony.
ROC Vice President Vladimir Vasin, who was appointed as head of the Russian Olympic mission, announced on Tuesday a preliminary list of 175 athletes involved in the mission. The final list would be announced on Feb. 1.
Russia won 22 medals, including eight golds, to rank fourth in the medals table four year ago in Turin.
Monday 25 January 2010 at 09:17 am
--Lack of investment and rampant property development pose real threats to the preservation of China's cultural heritage, reports Zhang Yuchen
It has stood for more than 1,000 years and was once owned by a Chinese royal family, yet the corridors of Dongyue Temple no longer ring with voices in prayer, nor is the air filled with the scent of incense. Instead, it is close to ruin; the temple buildings are crumbling and the grounds surrounding them are piled high with litter.
Experts say the 18,000-sq-m complex, which is in Beijing's northwest Haidian district, has suffered decades of neglect despite being included on two lists of key cultural heritage.
"My 80-year-old father-in-law tells me the temple was once extraordinary and magnificent, and had walls filled with giant paintings of Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism," said Yao Baosheng, 45, who grew up close to the site in Yongtaizhuang village. "My friends and I all played in the temple when we were children, and even then it was in poor condition."
Dongyue Temple highlights the massive challenge China faces in trying to protect cultural heritage, say experts, many of whom warn that insufficient funding and rapid property development have put vital relics under threat.
Originally built as a Taoist temple during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), the site was later owned by the Nalan royal family in the 1600s and is famed for its links with ci poetry, a popular Chinese form of lyrical verse.
"It is a must-see for my Taiwanese friends every time they visit Beijing," said Ding Yizhuang, a researcher for the institute of Chinese history at China Academy of Social Sciences. "I act as a tour guide for them and I have visited the site many times. It is obviously worth protecting."
Time began to take its toll on the temple's four main buildings following the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and in 1949 it was one of three ancestral temples incorporated into the site of a military hospital. One of the temples was demolished, while the other was converted into a conference hall.
The ancestral shrine was listed as a Key Cultural Heritage site by the Haidian district authority in 1997 following the discovery of the Nalan family tombstone. It was also named one of 30 Beijing Key Cultural Relics by the city in 2003. Yet today it is all but abandoned, with only a handful of families living in its buildings. "They are the families of either retired cleaners or workers who were employed by the hospital," a 70-year-old temple resident surnamed Wang told China Daily.
Walking through rooms on the complex, there is little sign of Dongyue Temple's former glory. Gone are the elaborate wall hangings, and visitors must now tread carefully to avoid stepping on discarded rags of clothing or rotting rubbish.
"When I was at college, I used to visit the temple about three or four times a month, and I once even played truant to spend about five hours there," said Li Junqing, 29, a diehard fan of Nalan Xingde, one of the most famous ci poets. "It was in a very sorry state even then, but it has always been a kind of home for me."
There is hope for Dongyue Temple. Bosses at the military hospital are in negotiations with the local cultural protection officials about turning the property over to the government in return for land. If a deal is successful, money could be spent to extensively refurbish the temple.
"The old temple has been useless to the hospital for a long time," said a hospital source who did not want to be identified. The hospital, which lies about 30 km from the capital, houses a general and psychiatric clinic, covers 22,000 sq m, has a capacity of 800 beds and cost about 90 million yuan ($13 million) to build, according to the official website of the hospital.
If agreed by officials in Shangzhuang, the township that administers Yongtaizhuang, the temple-land exchange plan would see the hospital receive 18,000 sq m of adjacent land on which it can expand and increase capacity, the inside source told China Daily.
The local government declined to comment on the deal. However, local media reported that, while officials are keen on taking responsibility for the temple, they are reluctant to part with a large area of land to get it .
Experts have supported the proposed exchange but many have also slammed the time it has taken for authorities to find a solution to the problem.
Little work has been done to maintain Dongyue Temple since 1949 because of limited technology and resources, according to Huang Zhaotong, former deputy general director of the Nalan Family Relics Co.
The most recent repairs were carried out in 2006 when the Haidian district culture commission and Beijing Administration of Cultural Heritage spent almost 2 million yuan to reinforce the main building and prevent it for collapsing, Beijing News reported.
"Such rescue plans, as well as the regular checks we carry out on cultural heritage sites, are mainly just to make sure buildings stay standing," said Qiu Wenzhong, director of the cultural market administrative law enforcement corps under the Haidian cultural commission. "Our officers check each heritage relic once or twice a year, sometimes even four times a year. They focus on fire prevention and ensure buildings are being used in the proper way, especially those used by work units. Most of our efforts to protect cultural relics is almost always at the 11th hour."
Companies or government work units are legally required to maintain or renovate any protected sites of cultural importance they occupy under the Law on Protection of Cultural Relics, which was implemented by the State Council in 2002. However, many business owners argue they simply do not have the funds to carry out the necessary work.
"To entirely renovate Dongyue Temple it would cost at least 100 million yuan but that is far beyond what the hospital could afford," a hospital source told China Daily.
Xie Chensheng, an advisor to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said he believes no relic should fall into ruin and urged local authorities to offer more help in shouldering the financial burden.
"Even if work units using heritage sites cannot pay for repairs, cultural protection departments can. The Beijing Administration of Cultural Heritage is rich enough to afford the fees, absolutely," he said.
According to Qiu, before 2007 the Haidian district government spent less than 500,000 yuan protecting relics. However, that soared to 4 million yuan last year and is expected to more than double to 10 million yuan in 2010. The annual amount spent by the Beijing cultural heritage bureau already tops 10 million yuan, he said, although the city authority did not respond to efforts by China Daily to confirm the figure.
Heritage experts say they fear government money is failing to reach those relics not recognized at municipal level.
Beijing alone has 326 heritage sites with municipal status or above. Haidian district has 16 national-level cultural relics, 21 municipal, 32 district and 280 others with minor status.
"Finance is the biggest issue in the process of preserving cultural relics," said He Shuzhong, founder of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Center, a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting China's historical landmarks. "Once a site is classified as famous or important, it should be legally preserved. Yet even still a huge number are not being properly protected. It is usually only relics recognized at national level that are well cared for."
The temple-land exchange plan was first mooted in 2002 but the deal broke down "because the local authority were more interested in agricultural revenue than saving a temple," said Huang Zhaotong. The talks restarted in 2007.
"The idea of exchanging land for cultural relics was not new even in 2000," said Qiu. "There have been several cases in Beijing, such as Dahui Temple, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) site also in Haidian. However, only White Tower Temple in Xicheng district has so far been fully renovated , costing more than 100 million yuan."
The amount of land being demanded by the hospital could be a stumbling block to the transfer of Dongyue Temple, he said. "I don't think the negotiations will be completed in the short term."
While the future of the site remains uncertain, villagers have raised concerns about the temple being made into a tourist attraction if it is handed over to the local government.
"Pilgrims would start flooding into the village if it was renovated, and I am just worried the original flavor of the site will be lost," said Zhou Weixin, a villager in his 80s. "A lot of the original pieces from the temple have already been destroyed."
Culture expert Ding agreed and added: "Development always follows protection, and it is usually commercial development. That is not a good way to protect the true value of this cultural heritage."
Monday 25 January 2010 at 09:16 am
With the official end to all search-and-rescue work due to troubled relief efforts, the confirmed death toll from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake has surpassed 150,000, Haitian government officials said on Sunday.
Haitian Communication Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said that by counting bodies collected and buried in a mass grave located in the north of the Haitian capital, more than 150,000 people have been killed by the earthquake.
The newly confirmed data have been raised by nearly 40,000 compared to the figure of 111,481 released on Saturday by the Haitian government.
The minister added that the statistics are incomplete as they do not include the deaths in other affected cities outside the capital city or bodies buried by families.
"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble, 200,000, 300,000?" Lassegue said, "Who knows the overall death toll?
In order to facilitate the distribution of relief goods, the Haitian government on Friday announced a conclusion to searching for survivors buried deep down in debris.
Ever since the international rescue efforts started on the ground, 132 persons have been pulled out alive from the tangled mass of crumbled walls and roofs, and the hopes to find more are fading every day.
In the wake of the calamity, the official figures of victims have been revised many times, yet the government has disclosed no information on how they have made the counts, raising concerns over the figures' authenticity.
As complex and time-demanding as the death-toll calculation is due to disrupted communications and traffic services, it's understandable that the figures might be incoherent.
Edmond Mulet, the new UN chief of mission in Haiti on Sunday called for more manpower and vehicles to help quake relief efforts, and said that clearing rubble and counting victims could take years.
"I need manpower. I need soldiers," said Mulet, whose predecessor was killed when the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed in the Jan. 12 quake.
Due to a lack of assistance, the current goods distribution in Haiti is rather ineffective.
Italy's top disaster official Guido Bertolaso said the United Nations and powerful countries need to craft international procedures to follow when such catastrophes occur.
"I think it has truly been a pathetic situation," Bertolaso said, "It could have been run a lot better, and instead of being the first time that the world came together to do something good, it's instead been the latest time that the world has done it this way."
"No one came here with the idea of running the emergency," he said. "They came here thinking this was just a humanitarian catastrophe ... so they came with the idea of bringing them a bit to eat, some water, and the problem is resolved."
The massive U.S. military presence has also caused disputes, with former Cuban top leader Fidel Castro writing an article criticizing the U.S. military involvement in the relief efforts as mere occupation instead of helping international cooperation.
The post-quake disease control is also a major concern that deserves much attention both from the Haitian government and the international relief workers.
It is feared that infectious diseases could be spread among the survived 3 million homeless Haitians living in unsanitary conditions of the refugee camps, pleading for food, medicine and water.
"We are talking about thousands of amputations and maybe half of the people who have been amputated have several limbs amputated," Dr. Mirta Roses, director of the Pan American Health Organization, told a news conference at Haiti's airport.
Besides that, hospitals are so crowded that many Haitians who have been treated would not vacate their beds because they have no other places to go to as shelters.
To reinforce the exhausted and stretched-thin assistance personnel on the ground, a 40-member Chinese medical relief team on Sunday embarked on their journey to the ravaged Caribbean nation.
The situation in Haiti remains unpredictable and dangerous. A 4.7-magnitude aftershock rocked the island country on Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data.
The aftershock's epicenter was 30 km (20 miles) west of the capital, at a depth of 4.1 km (2.5 miles), the USGS said on its website. It struck at 4:51 pm local time, or 2151 GMT.
Monday 25 January 2010 at 09:15 am
The word "hutong" is synonymous with history, and Zhuanta is the prototypical example. This lane has born witness to events as far back as the Yuan Dynasty, 700 years ago. During that time, as well as in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhuanta was an entertainment center where up to 10 different opera troupes flourished. In early 1900, it was occupied as the headquarters of the Boxers (aka the Righteous and Harmonious Fists) during the Yi Ho Tuan Movement, a drive to expel foreign influences from the city.
After the retaliatory Eight Nation Alliance arrived and took control of the city, the hutong was significantly damaged, resulting in the evacuation of the opera players. Soon afterwards, Zhuanta was taken over by ordinary residents.
Zhuanta has also harbored more recent celebrities like Lu Xun and Zhang Henshui, two writers from recent history.
But Zhuanta's most obvious landmark continues to be the brick tower for which the hutong is named. While the residents and homes surrounding it have evolved constantly, this single tower remains as a legacy to its long history.
A monument for a monk
The owner of the tower was an old monk named Wan Song who lived during the early Yuan Dynasty. A monk since the age of 15, before settling in Beijing Wan traveled the country to study Buddhism, and was thus considered quite erudite in his old age. After his death in 1246, people built the brick tower to commemorate this respectable monk.
But Wan's story is not quite so cut and dry. He's also linked to YeLüChucai, the senior assistant of Genghis Khan who later became prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty. Wan was his lifelong tutor, and his advice to manage a country with Confucianism and a heart with Buddhism had a great influence on Ye's governance.
For a time after Wan's death, the tower's significance was forgotten, and individuals moved in to open inns and meat stores. Some nearby residents even used the bricks of the tower for knife grinding. But during the Ming Dynasty, a traveling monk from the south named Le Yan passed through. Realizing the true story of the tower, he bought it and funded its reconstruction with donations, living there as its safeguard until his own death.
Le Yan's reconstruction of the 10-meter tall, nine-floor tower would not be its last; a more recent one was in 1976, to repair damage after the Tang Shan earthquake. Fortunately, the tower's original Yuan Dynasty style has been preserved.
Although it is situated at the entrance of the hutong, the tower currently is not easy to find. A 50-year-old woman surnamed Zhang, who has lived in the area for decades, explained that new reconstruction commenced in 2008 but has yet to be completed. According to Xicheng district's website, the tower is leaning three degrees to the northeast. That and the consideration of potential shifting due to construction of Subway Line 4 prompted the city to erect scaffolding around the tower for support. Xu Wei, the vice president of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Xicheng district, said that the stabilized tower will be partially reconstructed and also observed to see if the subway has an impact on it before it's reopened to the public.
The writers' home
Zhuanta Hutong, as mentioned, was also home to writer and noted house-hopper Lu Xun, who moved into No. 64 (which is now No. 84) after splitting up with his brother, Zhou Zuoren (see last week's HOTW). The small, shabby door and narrow yard in the corner of the hutong hardly seem like a suitable residence for one of China's most well known writers, but when Lu moved there in 1923, he was going through a rough patch. His poor financial condition meant he had to squeeze into the three-room house with his mother and wife; the two women occupied the side rooms, while Lu stayed in the middle room, which was used as a living room during the day and his workroom at night. Still, he managed to accomplish masterpieces like Zhu Fu (Blessing) during this period.
The modern neighbors are unfazed. "You should go to the Lu Xun museum not here," an old man living in No. 64 said. "All the houses in this siheyuan were completely reconstructed 2 decades ago."
Lu only spent a year in Zhuanta, but the writer Zhang Henshui lived in No. 43 spent half his life in this hutong. In 1946, Zhang came from Nanjing to Beijing to organize the Beijing version of the Xin Min Newspaper. He bought around 30 houses for newspaper staff to work and live; the back door of the paper's siheyuan opened onto Zhuanta. In his article "Hei Xiangxing" ("A Walk in a Dark Lane"), Zhang wrote of falling into a world of darkness and quiet, with only a few far away lights to remind one of the distance of the main street. Visit Zhuanta in the evening, and it's very easy to see what he meant.
While the atmosphere remains the same, Zhang's old place has been completely razed. Apart from a few old locust trees, nothing of the houses remains.
Invisible opera houses and temples
However quiet it is now, the hutong was once considered one of the busiest places for opera activities, where songs and music played from morning till night during the last three dynasties. There were approximately 20 theaters, some large enough to accommodate audiences in the thousands. That's all history now; the music is long gone.
Not far from the tower, some private small restaurants and stores have replaced the original inns that occupied 50 meters of roadside from the entrance. Some migrant workers finish their day's work having dinner and beers in a noodle restaurant. The lights are on in other stores, but no one's shopping. Many people pass by on the main road, but none seem to see the hutong entrance, and no one bothers to enter.
If they did, they might happen across one door in particular, with a note reading "Historical Remains Under Official Protection." A 60-year-old woman who was born and raised in the hutong explained that this was the old Guan Yu Temple. "Actually, the original temple was there when I was young, but it was thoroughly razed during the Cultural Revolution and nothing else remains," she said. In that case, the note's claim seems farfetched or is but a sign of a burst of attention to heritage that has come decades too late.
Monday 25 January 2010 at 09:15 am
An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people fell into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after taking off from Beirut early Monday and Lebanese authorities said 23 bodies have been recovered so far.
Ethiopian Airlines said its Boeing 737-800 passenger plane crashed into the sea minutes after it left the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut at 2:35 a.m. local time (0035 GMT).
The ET409 flight, carrying 82 passengers and eight crew, was bound for the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, it said in a statement, adding that the plane lost contact with Lebanese air controllers shortly after takeoff from Beirut.
Lebanon's Defense Ministry said 23 bodies have been recovered from the jet crash, local Naharnet website reported.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi earlier said at the airport that the airliner carried 83 passengers and seven crew members and that "the crash site has been identified 3.5 km west of the coastal village of Naameh" near Beirut.
Aridi told local television that bad weather conditions are probably the main reason for the crash as the Ethiopian airliner was flying in a thunder storm and heavy rain.
A Lebanese committee was set up to investigate the crash, he said, adding that the committee will cooperate with a French team to uncover the details of the disaster.
He said the Lebanese Armed Forces and the UN maritime task force serving off the Lebanese coast were taking part in the search-and-rescue operation.
Aridi said that among the passengers, 57 were Lebanese nationals, three with dual nationalities: British, Canadian and Russian.
He said one Iraqi, one Syrian, and two French nationals were also on board, and the rest Ethiopians.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said that authorities have ruled out sabotage as the cause for the crash.
"Up until now we have ruled out foul play," Suleiman was quoted by Lebanese media as speaking at a press conference.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri declared Monday a national day of mourning for the victims of the Ethiopian plane crash.
Hariri said at the airport that all efforts currently are focusing on finding survivors and that divers will look for the black box to determine the cause, according to the Naharnet report.
As Ethiopia's flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines now serves 56 international destinations. It operates 37 aircraft including five Boeing 737s.
Monday 25 January 2010 at 09:15 am
A Rhode Island company, Daniele Inc., recalled ready-to-eat pepper-coated salami, sausage and other cured meats Saturday, saying they may be contaminated with salmonella.
The recall came amid a salmonella outbreak began in July. So far it has sickened 184 people in 38 states, leading to at least 35 hospitalizations but no deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To date, health officials have not found this salmonella strain in any Daniele products. But 11 people who recently ate "Daniele Italian Brand Gourmet Pack" were infected, said the company's Davide Dukcevich, in a statement on its website.
The answers won't be known until the factory investigation is finished.
Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps; in infants, elderly and those with weak immune systems, illness can be severe.
Sunday 24 January 2010 at 09:40 am
Andy Roddick admitted he was wrong in his clash with the chair umpire over his ruling on a match point after he marched into the third round at the Australian Open yesterday.
The straight-shooting American finished his 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci by arguing with umpire Fergus Murphy over a Hawkeye video review decision which went against him on the first of his two match points.
The video review ruled a Bellucci volley had fractionally clipped the line saving the first match point but Roddick contended he wasn't allowed to play the shot by an out-call from a line judge.
Even when he won the next point to clinch victory, the seventh seed continued haranguing the umpire as he walked to the net to shake hands with the 35th-ranked Bellucci.
"There was just a disagreement about a rule on a continuation of a call," Roddick said. "To be fair, I didn't come in here (press conference) until I watched the video of it. I was more wrong than I thought I was out on court.
"That being said, it was very close. To take away a match point at that juncture in a match, it's a big call."
Roddick said his beef was that the out-call came after he had let the ball pass.
"I thought I was going to be a 100 percent right. It's definitely closer than I felt it was while I was on court."
Roddick said it was part of his nature to challenge what he feels is not right.
"I don't do it for entertainment. I do it because I strongly believe what I feel," he said.
"That's not just on the court. I think if I believe in something strongly enough, I'm pretty outspoken about it."
But despite his initial rush of blood, Roddick said the adjudication technology was fair.
"It definitely puts less pressure on them (umpires) as far as having to stick your neck out there," he said. "But I'm still a fan of Hawkeye because there's always going to be some judgment calls. That's like my match today, where they have a split second to make a very important call."
Sunday 24 January 2010 at 09:39 am
-- Liu Qi, an advertising firm employee in Beijing for eight years, Thursday spent 80 yuan (11.7 U.S. dollars) at a supermarket. About a half went on food and the rest on daily necessities.
However, the biggest financial pressure for the 29-year-old is not food, but her plan to buy an apartment in the city as home prices had risen through the roof.
China's Consumer Price Index (CPI), the main inflation gauge, climbed 1.9 percent year on year in December, mainly boosted by food, rent and related prices, Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said Thursday.
The CPI in November and December was lifted by rising consumption on the back of faster economic expansion, and food price hikes caused by winter weather, said Xiong Peng, a senior researcher with Shanghai-based Bank of Communications (BOC), China's fifth largest lender, Thursday.
A BOC report out Thursday predicted year-on-year CPI growth might stand between 3 percent and 4 percent in 2010.
"I have felt vegetable, egg and meat prices rise quickly after heavy storms and temperature drops in Beijing and neighboring provinces. But my food bill is still around 1,200 yuan per month. I don't have plans to curtail my food shopping list," Liu said.
Vegetable prices surged 16.4 percent in December from the previous month, Ma said, without specifying figures.
Another 1,300 yuan of Liu's income went on rent for her bedsit, power, water and maintenancee bills, accounting for more than a fifth of her monthly income.
"I spend about 1,000 yuan to party or dine out with friends, another 500 yuan on clothing and 200 on my cellphone credit each month. Most of my colleagues and classmates have similar situations. I can't save much. Buying a home is an unrealistic goal for me now, and to rent a bigger apartment is a luxury I can't afford," Liu said.
Second-hand home prices jumped about 43 percent near the southern Second Ring Road in Beijing last year where Liu lives, and apartment rents increased about 5 percent on average in this area, said Qin Rui, a senior analyst with Beijing-based 5i5j Real Estate Service.
The government has taken a series of tax, land and monetary measures in recent months to cool the property market, which has soared since February 2009 too much public complaint.
"I heard the inflation ratio was insignificantly bigger in November. I got a slightly bigger paycheck this year, but my income rise lagged behind home price and rental spikes," Liu said.
China's CPI fell 0.7 percent year on year in 2009. The CPI was up again in November by 0.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the NBS.
REAL-TIME PICTURE
The CPI was an important economic gauge, but it needed frequent modification in line with actual conditions to give a clearer and real-time picture of general living costs and financial pressures, said Ou Minggang, director of the international finance department of the Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University.
"People's eating and consumption habits have changed greatly in recent years. Housing costs also occupy an increasingly bigger share of incomes, so corresponding modifications are necessary, as policy-makers will read CPI and other metrics for judging economic performance," Ou said.
The NBS raised the weight of rent, water, electricity and maintenance costs in the CPI basket from 9.7 percent in 2000 to 13.2 percent in 2006 as the rents rose.
"The NBS has made some minor modifications, and the weight now is around 13.6 percent," Xiong said.
China's CPI basket includes seven other types of commodities: food; alcohol and cigarettes; clothing; home appliances and maintenance; medical care; transport and communication; education and entertainment.
Home purchase costs were excluded from the CPI calculation and food still accounted for the biggest proportion, said Ge Zhaoqiang, vice general manager of strategy and development department at China Merchants Bank.
Liu and her friends spent at least 20 percent of their income on rent and bills, more than the official calculation ratio. For most young and middle-aged urban married people, one third or even more of their income went to repay mortgages or to rent a bigger home.
"As a third of the CPI basket, rising food prices might easily stoke inflation forecasts. The food weight in the CPI is too high," said Ge.
Food prices rose 5.3 percent in December from a year earlier nationwide, pushing up the CPI by 1.74 percentage points, while rental and related bills edged up 1.5 percent, pushing up the monthly CPI by 0.21 percentage points, NBS figures showed.
The government should also closely monitor property prices and bank credit to avoid bad inflation from affecting people's lives, Ou said.
"Inflation risk looms large and policy-makers should take timely steps to curb a rapid CPI spike and better regulate the property market so people can live more comfortably and affordably," Xiong said.
Sunday 24 January 2010 at 09:39 am
Renowned Chinese star Zhang Ziyi has filed a suit against an entertainment media company in Chaoyang district court, claiming it seriously damaged her reputation.
The hearing is expected to be held soon.
Huang Kai, Zhang's lawyer, said they want the Shopping Guide (Gouwu Daobao) to immediately stop damaging Zhang's reputation, delete relevant reports and publish an open apology.
The dispute centers around former singer and business woman Zhao Xinyu, who is known as the capital's "party queen".
Zhang's claim says a story in the Shopping Guide on Jan 13 that claimed to speak of Zhao's "special friendship" with Zhang was libelous.
Zhao said in the article that she introduced Zhang to a Shanghai billionaire, identified only as "A", at a charity party in November 2008.
The story said "A" was married, but soon developed a "deeper relationship" with Zhang while Zhang was dating Vivi Nevo, a 43-year-old Israeli billionaire with the largest private stock shares in Goldman Sachs and Time Warner.
Zhao claimed in the story that "A" gave Zhang many luxury gifts, which amounted to 200 million yuan.
She said the gifts include a 10-million-yuan limited edition Tiffany necklace, a pair of diamond earrings and a diamond necklace, worth 10 million yuan, a one-million-yuan Hermes diamond lascote handbag, a two-million-yuan Audi and two precious oil paintings worth $600,000.
The story said the wife of "A" found out about the secret relationship and blamed Zhao for introducing them.
The article said Zhang and Zhao fell out after that, with Zhang believing Zhao revealed the relationship to "A"'s wife.
In the piece, Zhao said Zhang Zinan, the brother of Zhang Ziyi, insulted her and sent threatening messages, prompting her to flee to Hong Kong.
Websites were rife at the time with reports that Zhao was competing with Zhang for Vivi's attention, so Zhao flew back to Beijing to clear the air, the story said.
Tian Jinshuang, a well-known independent entertainment promotion designer, said the conflict between Zhang and Zhao was a commercial promotion strategy aimed at increasing their celebrity.
"Anyway, the two women now have been appearing on headlines of local publications' entertainment editions almost every day," said Tian.
Sunday 24 January 2010 at 09:38 am
Eager to capitalize on the big-screen trend, manufacturers plan to roll out 3-D TVs this year.
Days after James Cameron's 3-D epic Avatar surpassed $1 billion at the box office worldwide, 3-D video made its first major move to the small screen.
And 3-D HDTV was arguably the most buzzed-about new technology at the International Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas. Almost every major HDTV manufacturer announced a 3-D HDTV, and some models will be available as early as this spring.
TV manufacturers believe that this development will have a profound impact on the way we watch television, similar to how color TV changed the way we saw the world after years of black-and-white images. "We believe [3-D TV] represents a fundamentally new experience in home entertainment because it adds the immersive nature of real life," Panasonic President Yoshi Yamada said in a statement.
The technology is the same that is used at movie theaters (and much more advanced than the old-fashioned red-and-blue cardboard-glasses used since the 1950s): Basically, the TV displays two slightly different images on top of each other. The total picture looks blurry to the naked eye, but a specialized pair of glasses filters out one of the images per eye, so that each eye sees a different image. The viewer's brain interprets the slight differences as depth, just like it does in real life. The new sets will be available in all sizes and display types and yes, they will still be fully compatible with 2-D programming.
The Right Time For 3-D TV
3-D-ready TVs from Samsung, Philips and a few other makers have been available since 2008, but prices were high and there just wasn't enough 3-D content to compel consumers to upgrade. Spurred on by the success of 3-D films like Avatar and improved display technology, the industry finally seems ready in 2010 to commit to 3-D hardware and programming.
Beginning this June DirecTV will offer three dedicated 3-D channels. ESPN also plans to launch a 3-D channel for the start of the World Cup this summer and the Discovery Channel has a 3-D network in the pipeline as well. Several 3-D Blu-ray players were announced during CES for release in 2010 (Sony PlayStation 3 among them, which will also have 3-D games by 2011) and the specifications for putting 3-D content onto Blu-ray discs has been finalized as well. So six months from now 3-D TV will be popping out at viewers across the country.
By year's end the number of 3-D TVs sold likely will be just a fraction of the 200 million sets estimated to be bought this year, but the manufacturers are optimistic. Panasonic, a major proponent of 3-D's push to the small screen, expects to sell 1 million 3-D sets worldwide in its fiscal 2010. LG expects to sell 400,000 in 2010 and 3 million in 2011. Sony hasn't given any sales projections, but it sees a bright future for the new format. The company doesn't expect 3-D TV to become "mainstream" until 2012, but it predicts that 3-D sets will account for up to half its total TV sales by then.
Despite the hype coming from TV makers, consumers are skeptical about the change to 3-D. The comments sections of tech Web sites like Gizmodo and Engadget suggest that people hate the glasses, especially if they have to pay extra to get them. Even folks who were wowed by 3-D effects at theaters are hesitant. Travis Palano of Acton, Mass., says that the 3-D effects enhanced his appreciation of Avatar when he saw it in an IMAX theater, but he isn't so excited about the concept of 3-D in his living room. "I really don't want to sit around my house wearing glasses," he says.
Industry commentators also question whether consumers are ready to drop the big bucks for yet another new TV technology, given than conventional HDTVs have only recently achieved widespread market share, a feat that took up a better part of the last decade. Plain and simple, 3-D TVs are expensive. It's a luxury feature on high-end TVs. What should help boost 3-D sales numbers, however, is that most luxury models will be 3-D compatible, whether or not consumers want that option.
The industry also must prove that 3-D isn't just a gimmick to get people to spend more money, and it must produce content that takes full advantage of the technology. Viewers won't spend extra on these TVs simply because it's a new format.
These 3-D TVs are years away from being viable options for most consumers, and the format will certainly take years to catch on. Further down the pipeline are glasses-free 3-D TVs; three prototypes debuted at CES, though the effect only works from, at most, nine specific spots in front of the TV. That technology, when it finally matures, could be the key to 3-D TV's success.
Meanwhile, Back In The Second Dimension...
Though 3-D sets commanded most of the HDTV coverage at CES, other exciting developments were unveiled as well. New HDTV sets continue to get thinner, cheaper, more powerful and closer to breaking free of cables and cords.
As has been the trend every year, consumers will get more TV for less money in 2010. LED LCD sets, which are desirable because they're brighter, thinner and more energy efficient than conventional LCD sets, are no longer strictly a luxury item. The 32-inch, LED-edge-lit Sony Bravia KDL 32EX600, for example, goes for an MSRP of just $800. When LED TVs hit the market just a few years ago a set like that could have easily cost twice as much--if any manufacturer would have bothered to put such a high-end feature into a small set.
Organic LED, presumed to be the next big display type, continues to come along. They're used on small, portable devices, like the Zune media player and several point-and-shoot cameras, but they're several years away from being viable for TVs. The high cost is reason enough, but manufacturers can't build displays large enough for any popular screen size. Sony's 24.5-inch model, which may or may not be available this year, is absolutely massive considering that the company's largest OLED screen at last year's CES was just 11 inches.
Like every other gadget in the world, HDTV continues to move toward better Internet connectivity and wireless capabilities. Panasonic and LG models will come with Skype in 720p HD, while Netflix streaming has been added to Panasonic and Sharp Web-ready TVs. Wireless HDMI (WHDMI) will be supported on dozens of sets this year as well.
Haier, a relatively small player in the HDTV market, premiered a completely wireless model at CES. Even the power supply is wireless. It's just a prototype, one that needs some work before it's commercially viable, but the concept is promising and hopefully a sign of things to come.
Sunday 24 January 2010 at 09:38 am
South Korean teen idols Super Junior (SJ) will take to the stage at Wukesong Gymnasium Friday night, hoping to wow fans with their catchy brand of pop music.
The three-hour-long performance will feature 38 songs, including dance versions of their latest hits, seven costumes changes, vibrant hip-hop dancing and state-of-the-art lighting.
Debuting in November 2005, SJ was formed by SM Entertainment and with 13-members, is the largest boy band in the world.
Selected from a pool of singers, actors, composers and models, SJ features perform-ers Leeteuk, Heechul and Han Geng, a Chinese member who was chosen from 3,000 appli-cants through auditions held in China.
Mainstream-Korean-pop in style, the group has released three studio albums, two live albums and five CD singles. Their 2007 production Don't Don ranked as the second best-selling album of the year in South Korea. SJ is the second group to win Korea's Best Artist at the MTV Asia Awards in 2008.
Super Junior's Beijing show is part of the group's second Asian tour that will take them to Guangzhou and Shanghai as well as various stops in Asia.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:35 am
The answer to a long dispute over levels of pollution from making real fur garments or from manufacturing imitation furs is expected early this year, it was announced at the recently held 36th China Fur and Leather Products Fair in Beijing.
In 2008, the International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF) commissioned an independent Canadian team to research the environmental impact from the entire lifecycle of a mink coat.
"We are keen to find out how much impact on the environment a fur coat does make, from the farm to the consumer," said Andreas Lenhart, IFTF chairman.
"It will be a thorough piece of research. We may not like all of the results, but it is important that we understand fully how our trade impacts the environment."
Animal furs have been worn by people and traded for goods and money for thousands of years across many cultures.
People in the industry say fur is a natural product that keeps people in touch with the environment even in the middle of a city.
Yet many believe wearing fur requires cruelty and unnecessary killing of animals, while chemicals used to produce such garments cause pollution.
An article from furisdead.com, the website of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the largest animal rights organization in the world, contends that fur production damages the environment.
According to the website, the amount of energy needed to produce a real fur coat using animal skins is approximately 15 times that needed to make an imitation fur garment.
PETA also argues that chemicals used to preserve real fur is dangerous because it causes water contamination.
Lenhart said that the full environmental impact from making a real fur coat is unknown, but it cannot be worse than artificial fur, adding that claims by some animal rights organizations are not scientific enough.
"The fur trade is a responsible trade," he said.
Anti-fur campaigns reached a peak in the 1980s and 1990s in Western countries.
Their influence has now expanding in China with the participation of many celebrities in the country.
Animal rights organizations oppose trapping or raising animals for fur due to concerns over their suffering and slaughter.
Tan Jin, a 25-year-old fashion aficionado in Beijing, said animal rights organizations are misguided.
"If you think killing an animal for fur is murder, then what do you call killing an animal for meat?" she asked.
"Is it possible to make all people vegetarian?"
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:35 am
Dongcheng district will dig and clear out 8 sq km of underground space in the next 20 years to fill with public constructions including shopping malls and subterranean roads.
With 625,000 residents and 37 percent of the city's protected historic sites, the 25 sq km district is bursting at the seams with new buildings and expanding streets.
So to allow for greater development, an ambitious plan was released last Wednesday by the local government which claimed the "new Dongcheng" would have three floors of underground space.
Yao Wei, secretary general with Dongcheng district committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and lead researcher in the underground investigation project, told METRO that more than 100 experts and government officers had been involved in research that suggested almost one third of the district's underground space was workable.
The space includes previous bomb shelters, the basements and car parks of business complexes, residential apartments and public buildings, as well as subways and underground utilities.
Yao said the bomb shelters are relics from a forgotten time and most have been abandoned.
"Some were renovated as underground hotels. Some have even been used to grow mushrooms by local residents due to the humid environment," he said, with a slow shake of his head.
"Land resources in the city are rare, but Dongcheng district has a greater issue with space above ground," said Yao.
"The district is covered with 17 courtyard-house blocks, accounting for 50 percent of all the blocks in the capital," he said.
Yang said the focus was on going subterranean because rules from the municipal government state that buildings taller than two floors can no longer be built inside the Second Ring Road.
Data from property analyst website Anjuke.com revealed that second-hand properties in Dongcheng district were hitting average sales of 24,000 yuan per sq m in January, a 5.5 percent growth on the previous month.
Digging down is not a recent trend in the city. Beijing has dug out an average 3 million sq m of underground space every year since 2001, according to the International Academic Conference on Underground Space.
"The deepest underground space is the subway at 18 m, but experts say we can go as low as 50 m," said Jin Jianguo, a researcher of the project.
Jin added the project investigation team is paying close attention to potential risks such as the seismic belt and ground water permeation.
"Safety is essential. Our experts are also looking at the protection of large trees and historic relics," he said.
After a six-month investigation, the tremendous "underground city" has now been laid out as a preliminary blueprint.
Four to five subway stations for line 6 and 8 will be developed, with 30,000 sq m of underground business facilities for each.
Wangfujing, clustered by modern shopping malls and tourist attractions, is set to connect all the subways and commercial constructions underground.
Dongdan Park and Dongdan Sports Center will construct multi-story underground facilities.
In terms of getting around, a 5 km underground road will be built to link Yonghegong, or Lama Temple, to Dongdan.
Naturally, not every local resident welcomed the enormous underground project.
Liu Yongxin, owner of a clock shop along Dongsi Street, said the underground project might affect his normal life and business.
"When Line 5 was being built, residents felt shaking on the floor almost everyday," Liu said.
Xue Yan, a 31-year-old IT technician working near Lama Temple, is also worried about the upcoming construction work.
"The huge space will be hollow. If an earthquake hits, it could be very dangerous because passengers and vehicles may fall into the big holes," he warned.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:33 am
Government websites have seen a dramatic spike in hacking attacks, a report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows.
At least 178 government websites had their content modified by hackers between Jan 4 and Jan 10, five times more than the previous week, the ministry said on its website.
The number of other domestic websites having content altered by hackers rose 30 percent during the same period.
The report was compiled by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team, which warned of the "serious situation".
An insecure Internet environment could bring enormous risk to the online community, and website maintenance should be carried out frequently, said Shi Xiaohong, an engineer with Qihu360 security center, a popular domestic network security company.
The website of the Center of Agri-food Quality & Safety was attacked on Jan 3 when an advertisement was inserted, Qihu360 reported on its website.
An employee of the website who did not want to be named confirmed the attack, and told China Daily they were not sure when they were hacked.
"Our website server is already out of date, that's why we are upgrading it and we assume that the hacking happened at the same time," the employee said.
"We cleared the malicious plug-in immediately after we discovered it."
Compared with commercial websites, government portals often do not have enough security capacity to protect themselves from the attack, said Shi.
"Security checks as well as maintenance of government websites are not carried out in time in most cases, and they often do not install the latest patches immediately after system bugs have been discovered" Shi added.
"Many small government websites were constructed by external Web design companies and many of these don't carry out any maintenance afterwards. Hackers don't have to attack the government's server but they can use bugs in the system to hack into the websites."
IT giant Microsoft also released a security advisory on its website on Jan 14, claiming that there is a bug called 0day for its Internet Explorer users and attacks utilizing this bug have already spread online.
Network experts have advised users to install the latest patches to avoid possible attacks.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:32 am
China's best-selling writer Han Han announced the launch of Chorus of the Soloists this month and he'll be the magazine's editor-in-chief.
Though there is no specific date for the magazine's publication, it spices up the rivalry between Han and Shanghai-based Guo Jingming, another best-selling young writer.
Guo launched his fiction mook (magazine book) Top Novel in 2006, and sells 500,000 copies on average per issue, with the highest run of 700,000, said Guo in an interview with Moneyweek magazine.
Targeting teenage readers, Top Novel includes novels by Guo, Di An, Luo Luo and other young writers. The magazine topped the "Best 10 Chinese Fictional Journals" list in 2008 and 2009, following an online poll by a research organization from Tongji University.
Han revealed his plan for a literary magazine last May, triggering a heated discussion about the payment he planned to offer, from 250 to 2,000 yuan ($36-293) per 1,000 words, some 10-40 times higher than is usual.
Han says Chorus will be totally different from Guo's magazine.
"Apart from the fact that they're both printed on paper, there won't be any similarities between the two," said Han. He also said in an interview with Southern Metropolis Weekly that he and Guo are completely different - "like men and women".
Guo didn't comment on Han's remarks, but said "the market is open to the increase or fall of a magazine".
The two pop writers' rivalry has been long and heated. Han and Guo are roughly the same age, respectively, 28 and 27. They both kicked off their careers after winning the New Concept Writing Contest held by Meng Ya magazine and several leading universities. Han won it in 1999 and Guo in 2001, and both were high school students at the time.
Although their emergence triggered debates over the merits of the Chinese education system, they have since become icons of the post-80s generation.
Han's representative works include Triple Gates, Minus One Degree Centigrade, and Guo's are The City of Fantasies, Never Flowers in Never Dreams.
Han said that novels and essays by young authors Zhou Yunpeng and Luo Yonghao will be included in his debut issue.
But he advised readers not to expect too much: "Just regard it as a Zhiyin magazine (the Chinese equivalent of Reader's Digest)."
Han said he would like the magazine to be like free land for literary seeds to grow.
Han revealed in a recent blog that the publishing date of the first issue is still being decided.
"The flight is delayed, not due to mechanical troubles, but poor weather conditions," he said, ironically.
Culture critic and researcher Zhu Dake compares Han to painter/writer Chen Danqing, as they are both "independent and critical", and Guo to scholar Yu Qiuyu, who is "zealous in pursuit of honors".
"None of their discords are personal. Their differences are caused by divergent values, which reveals not only the differences between people born in the 1980s, but also a Chinese society in transition," Zhu said.
Besides Guo and Han, other young writers are joining the magazine business.
Under Shanda Literature Ltd, Rao Xueman, a writer born in the 1970s, launched 17@Seventeen magazine earlier this month, aimed at teenage girls.
Zhu said the rush to print is partly due to the realization by publishers that these young writers are a lucrative business.
Online writing contest returns to popular acclaim
The 4th Rongshu Xia Original Internet Literature Contest kicked off on Jan 4, after a gap of nine years, to the same enthusiasm that it triggered in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Established in 1997, www.rongshuxia.com quickly grew into a leading website for online reading and writing and gave birth to such writers as Anne Baby and Ning Caishen, known, respectively, for the novel Farewell Viva and the TV script, My Own Swordsman.
But after 2001, the website ran into financial problems. It has now passed into new hands and they have revived the popular contest.
"We are different from traditional contests. Contributors don't need to appeal to the tastes of magazine editors. We provide a platform, and they find a way to attract online readers," says Zhang Enchao, who manages the Rongshu Xia website.
The contest invites contributions in two categories - long, narrative works of at least 100,000 words, and shorter novellas, essays, poems and prose of less than 100,000 words.
The deadline for submissions is the end of June, with the top prize of 50,000 yuan ($7,300) and the chance to be published.
Zhang says the most prominent feature of the contest is that the prize money is kept separate from the payment for the copyright. "If the winners want to give the copyright of the works to us, we'll pay extra," he says. "We hope this will attract more writers."
By Tuesday, Rongshu Xia had received more than 7,000 works, including some in English, according to Zhang, who says one English-language editor is in charge of these entries.
All submitted works will be put on the website, with frequent updates on the number of hits and editor recommendations. Readers will then be invited to vote and a final list will be sent to a panel of professional judges comprising writers, literary critics, senior editors and publishers.
The contest is aimed at promoting an appreciation of literature and encouraging creative writing.
Literary critic and Peking University professor Chen Xiaoming says there will be a big surge in Internet literature this year.
"The contest will give impetus to its development," he says.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:32 am
China said Thursday that its issues with Google should not be "over interpreted" or linked to Sino-U.S. relations.
"The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it's an over-interpretation," said Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei at a press conference.
If foreign companies, including Google, encountered difficulties in China, they should seek resolutions in accordance with Chinese law. The government was willing to help them solve relevant problems, he said.
His remarks came just nine days after Google said it might quit China.
Google's corporate development and chief legal officer, David Drummond, posted a statement on Jan. 12 on the company's official blog, saying it was "reviewing the feasibility of our business operations in China."
According to the statement, the disputes with the Chinese government on Internet regulation and major cyber attacks on the company allegedly originating from China had forced Google to consider exiting.
Google's statement sparked a worldwide focus on ties between China and the United States. Discussions included China's Internet environment, the China-U.S. trade relationship.
But China dismissed the links of Google case with the bilateral relationship.
"I think that should not be interpreted too much, and come up as something concerning the Chinese and U.S. governments," said He.
"When there is content concerning national security and unhealthiness, Internet supervision is normal," said He. "No matter what country, there is always supervision, and China is no exception.
"If foreign companies have different viewpoints with this regard, they should also seek solutions according to the law," said He.
China encouraged Internet enterprises to develop business in China, but "their development must follow Chinese law."
China has said that it firmly opposed and prohibited hacker attacks as China itself was the victim country of cyber attacks.
"China's Internet is seriously threatened by cyber attacks like other countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Tuesday.
According to the Internet Society of China, the number of cyber attacks from abroad saw a year-on-year increase of 148 percent in 2008. The website of China's largest search engine, Baidu.com, was temporarily paralyzed on Jan. 12 in the worst attack since it was established.
Also on Tuesday, Google China posted an entry on its own Chinese-language blog, www.googlechinablog.com, saying that Google China employees were working "as usual" in their Beijing offices.
Although the Internet giant had announced that it would negotiate certain issues with the Chinese government, Google China's employees were still trying to provide the best products and services for their clients, it said.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:31 am
Lady Gaga's Monster Ball concert in New York City will donate all proceeds from both ticket and merchandise sales to relief organizations — as well as any merchandise purchased on her website that day. In addition, she’s also created a special edition t-shirt that will send all proceeds from its sale to various organizations on the ground in Haiti.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:30 am
A new cold wave is headed for most of China, which could send temperatures dipping to record lows once again.
The National Meteorological Center issued a blue-level warning for a cold wave Thursday, saying that a cold front will affect most parts of China until Saturday afternoon, causing the temperature in north China to drop by 8 to 12 C.
The cold alert said that strong winds would sweep the northern and eastern part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the following days, which had already been crippled by a snowstorm last Sunday.
Seven people, including a woman, were reportedly missing in a blizzard when they tried to retreat from snow-swept Halahate to Zuhalagai, both of which are in Altay Region in northern Xinjiang, the Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.
The local government dispatched two helicopters to rescue workers because road to Halahate and Zuhalagai were blocked by the 2-meter snowfall. Rescuers have saved 14 people trapped in the mountain.
The temperature in Fuyun county dropped to –47.5 C on Wednesday as the northern part of the region experienced the worse snowstorm in 60 years.
The heavy snowstorm affected 1.25 million people in Xinjiang, of whom five were dead, 623 people got sick and 151,600 homeless people were transferred. The direct economic loss caused by the blizzard reached 450 million yuan ($66 million), according to the report of tianshannet.com, a website managed by the Xinjiang Information Office.
"My ears are nearly frozen," a herdsman was quoted as saying Thursday by the China Central Television.
The Commerce Department of Xinjiang has transported two batches of vegetables and fruits weighing nearly 760 tons to Altay and Tacheng since last Friday, following the 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) of subsidies aided by the central government for relief of disaster-stricken families, China News Service reported Thursday.
Other parts of the nation also saw temperatures falling. Temperatures in Beijing will drop to –11 C this weekend, according to weather.com.cn.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:30 am
Prosecutors in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality said Friday they had officially charged a former police officer with taking bribes and protecting organized crime.
Wen Qiang, former deputy director of Chongqing's public security department, was also accused of rape and being unable to explain the sources of his assets, according to a statement published on the website of the municipal procuratorate, www.cqjcy.gov.cn.
Prosecutors said investigations showed Wen had abused his power by offering benefits to others and accepted huge bribes personally or with his wife Zhou Xiaoya when he served in a series of Communist Party of China and administrative posts at the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing.
He had also covered up or allowed organized crime led by notorious gangleaders, including Xie Caiping, Wang Tianlun and Gong Gangmo, and received bribes from them.
The statement did not reveal the amount of bribes or his unidentified assets.
Wen's wife and three other police officers involved in the case also faced prosecution.
Wen was among many high-ranking local officials prosecuted during a massive crackdown against organized crimes started in June last year, which exposed deep ties between police and criminals.
In addition, former head of the city's traffic police Chen Honggang, former vice director of Chongqing's public security department Peng Changjian, and former vice general manager of the Development and Management Co. Ltd. of Chongqing's bonded zone Liu Xinyong, were also prosecuted in separate cases on corruption charges.
Chongqing police have detained 1,176 people and prosecuted 782 people, including 78 gangs, allegedly involved in organized crimes over the past six months, according to the statement.
A total of 87 officials have been prosecuted during the crackdown, including 12 high-ranking officials.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:29 am
China's rescue team in Haiti has so far rescued and offered medical treatment to more than 2,500 people in quake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, according to China Earthquake Administration (CEA).
More than 500 of those patients had been critically injured, the administration said in a statement posted on its website.
The China International Search and Rescue Team (CISAR) had shifted the focus of its mission in the Caribbean country to providing health services and disease prevention, it said.
The 60-member team sprayed disinfectant in areas where quake-affected people gathered in Port-au-Prince, and had set up a small mobile hospital near Haiti's presidential office on Jan. 19 .
They were also providing immunization and health education as well as psychological counseling for local people, the statement said.
Since their arrival in Haiti on Jan. 14, the team has carried out search and rescue operations at the headquarters of MINUSTAH (the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti), the prime minister's palace and other places.
A total of 15 bodies were found by the team, including those of Special Representative Hedi Annabi of MINUSTAH and other UN staff.
More than 50,000 people are believed to have died in Haiti's 7.3-magnitude quake that struck the island country on Jan. 12.
Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, announced Thursday that the country would contribute an additional 2.6 million U.S. dollars in cash to Haiti and would send a 40-member medical care and epidemic prevention team to the Caribbean island.
The new contribution followed a donation from the Red Cross Society of China of 1 million U.S. dollars in cash to Haiti on Jan. 13, and a decision by the Chinese government to provide 30 million yuan (4.4 million U.S. dollars) worth of humanitarian emergency supplies on Jan. 15.
Saturday 23 January 2010 at 08:28 am
Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher said on Wednesday the neck injury which hampered his return to Formula One last August is no longer a factor as he prepares for the 2010 season.
Despite retiring from F1 in 2006, Schumacher signed a three-year contract with Mercedes GP last December and has been testing with Mercedes in Jerez, Spain, but says last year's neck injury has long since healed.
Schumacher insists any concerns over the injury he sustained in a motorbike accident nearly a year ago and forced him to abort a return to Ferrari last year are no longer an issue and it feels like he has never been away.
"The after-effects of that accident are long gone, that's why I was sure that the neck would not cause any problems," he said on his website.
"This was one year ago - that's over.
"I have been practising since December very carefully and feel extremely fresh and fit.
"That was one of the reasons I felt so good in the car in Jerez.
"But then, F1 is another thing, the g-forces are higher, that's not really comparable.
"That is why I look forward so much to testing in February.
"Only then the old feeling will be completely back. I can't wait to be back there."
Schumacher says testing of Mercedes' GP2 car went better than expected with his first drive in the F1 car set to take place next month.
"The test was super, I can't tell the difference," said Schumacher.
"We have been handicapped a bit because of the wet weather in the first two days but on the third day we could do a lot and even simulate a race on slicks.
"It went better than I had expected.
"I immediately felt well in the car, it was as if I never was gone."
The 41-year-old said he has signed a three-year deal to race with Mercedes because he wants to win the world championship again having linked up with Ross Brawn, who orchestrated the pits in each of his seven world championship wins.
"I signed because we want to achieve something together," said the German.
"The set up we have here is pretty unique - with Ross and his world championship-winning team, with the know how of Mercedes, with the best engine at the moment, we want to use that.
"We have a clear aim: we want to win the championships.
"That's what we will fight for from the beginning.
"That is my personal standard too."
Despite repeatedly saying he would never return to Formula One during the years of his retirement, Schumacher explained his decision to return to the track.
"I couldn't imagine my return before last year," he said.
"After my retirement at the end of 2006, I was very happy, I felt relieved: like I had been freed.
"I enjoyed that feeling because especially in the last two years of racing, F1 had demanded a great deal from me.
"It was not just the racing, I loved during that time but all those things which relate to living under constant observation."
Thursday 21 January 2010 at 03:40 am
China and France have stepped up their diplomatic rapport after a reconciliation at the G20 Summit in London late last year.
It will reach a high point when French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits China to attend the opening of World Expo in Shanghai in May.
Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin hailed the development as a clear sign the two countries have put their previous differences behind them.
"I am glad that all the problems in the past have been cleared up," Raffarin said in Shanghai, where he is leading a drive to promote the investment of small and medium-sized French companies in China.
"I believe that diplomatic relations between France and China are back to normal, thanks to the efforts of both governments," he said.
A highlight of his visit to Shanghai is to preside over the opening ceremony of the "Salon du Chocolat", a showcase of the exquisite French touch in fine chocolate. The show will be held in the Shanghai Exhibition Center between today and Saturday.
Raffarin also met Shanghai Expo officials during his visit to the site and to the French pavilion, which is under construction.
Raffarin has been a keen promoter of Sino-French relations since he was the prime minister of France between 2005 and 2007. He has made more than 30 visits to China to show his firm support for cooperation between the two countries.
His popularity in China has been enhanced by his personal blog on ifeng.com, the Chinese website of a Hong Kong television station.
"The meeting between the presidents of France and China will promote Sino-French cooperation on global strategies and the rebuilding of the world financial system," Raffarin wrote in the latest message on his blog in Chinese. "The reconciliation between France and China is especially important to President Nicolas Sarkozy," he wrote.
A string of events, including a meeting of the French president with the Dalai Lama, led to increased tension between China and France. The differences were largely resolved at the meeting between Hu and Sarkozy in London before the opening of the G20 Summit.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon's visit to China in December also enhanced cooperation in science and technology, information, water conservation and culture.
Yet the view held by the French government towards carbon tariffs has raised concern in China that Paris is resorting to trade protectionism.
Raffarin disagreed. "The carbon tariffs are purely for the protection of the global environment and support the wider use of renewable energy. I'm sure that France will never return to protectionism," he said.
Thursday 21 January 2010 at 03:39 am
YouTube announced Wednesday that it will begin testing an online movie rental service on Friday to kick off the Sundance Film Festival.
Five independent films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance festivals will be part of a "small collection of rental videos" to be available to US users of the popular video-sharing website in "the weeks ahead," according to YouTube.
"Making content available for rent will give our partners unprecedented control over the distribution of their work -- they can decide the price of their videos and the rental duration," YouTube said in a blog post.
"They can decide when and where their content is available; and they can keep 100 percent of their rights."
Sundance films available for rental from Friday through January 31 will include "Bass Ackwards" and "Children of Invention."
YouTube invited independent film makers to sign on to have their works offered for rent at the website.
The move represents another step for Google in generating revenue from YouTube, which it bought in 2006 in a deal valued at 1.65 billion dollars.
YouTube will also be stepping in as a potentially formidable contender in the growing market of online distribution of films that includes videogame consoles, Apple's iTunes shop, and US DVD rental giant Netflix.
Thursday 21 January 2010 at 03:39 am
Microsoft will release a patch on Thursday for an Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) software hole through which China-based cyber spies attacked Google and other firms.
"Microsoft continues to see limited attacks, and to date, the only successful attacks have been against Internet Explorer 6," the US software giant said Wednesday while announcing the "out-of-band" security update.
"We recommend that customers install the update as soon as it is available."
Microsoft will release the patch as soon as it is ready instead of following its protocol of releasing security updates the second Tuesday of each month.
Microsoft will host a public webcast starting at 1:00 pm Pacific time (21H00 GMT) on Thursday to discuss the security update and field questions. The software patch will be released three hours earlier, according to Microsoft.
"We are working 24-by-7, around the clock," Microsoft general manager of Trustworthy Computing Security George Stathakopoulos told AFP. "We have been monitoring the threat landscape since the start of this issue."
Attacks that prompted a showdown between Internet giant Google and global power China only worked against IE 6, so computer users can protect themselves by switching to newer versions of the Web browser, according to Stathakopoulos.
"IE 7 and 8 seem to be holding," Stathakopoulos said. "None of the attacks we know of will be effective against IE 8. That could change, but that is what we know."
No matter which Web browser people use, upgrading to the most current version promises to increase protection against hackers.
Microsoft confirmed last week that a previously unknown security vulnerability in its IE 6 browser was used in cyberattacks which prompted Google to threaten to shut down its operations in China.
Revealing the attacks on January 12, Google said they originated from China and targeted the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists around the world but did not explicitly accuse the Chinese government of responsibility.
Web security firm McAfee Inc. said that the attacks on Google and other companies showed a level of sophistication beyond that of cyber criminals and more typical of a nation-state.
Google said more than 20 other unidentified firms were targeted in the "highly sophisticated" attacks while other reports have put the number of companies attacked at more than 30.
Stathakopoulos described the attacks as "limited and targeted."
Only one other company, Adobe, has come forward so far and acknowledged that it was a target.
Attackers used email or some other lure to get employees of a targeted company to click on a link and visit a specially crafted website using Internet Explorer.
Malicious software would then be downloaded that has the capability to essentially install 'back doors' in machines and give hackers access, according to McAfee.
Thursday 21 January 2010 at 03:38 am
Dongcheng district will dig and clear out 8 sq km of underground space in the next 20 years to fill with public constructions including shopping malls and subterranean roads.
With 625,000 residents and 37 percent of the city's protected historic sites, the 25 sq km district is bursting at the seams with new buildings and expanding streets.
So to allow for greater development, an ambitious plan was released last Wednesday by the local government which claimed the "new Dongcheng" would have three floors of underground space.
Yao Wei, secretary general with Dongcheng district committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and lead researcher in the underground investigation project, told METRO that more than 100 experts and government officers had been involved in research that suggested almost one third of the district's underground space was workable.
The space includes previous bomb shelters, the basements and car parks of business complexes, residential apartments and public buildings, as well as subways and underground utilities.
Yao said the bomb shelters are relics from a forgotten time and most have been abandoned.
"Some were renovated as underground hotels. Some have even been used to grow mushrooms by local residents due to the humid environment," he said, with a slow shake of his head.
"Land resources in the city are rare, but Dongcheng district has a greater issue with space above ground," said Yao.
"The district is covered with 17 courtyard-house blocks, accounting for 50 percent of all the blocks in the capital," he said.
Yang said the focus was on going subterranean because rules from the municipal government state that buildings taller than two floors can no longer be built inside the Second Ring Road.
Data from property analyst website Anjuke.com revealed that second-hand properties in Dongcheng district were hitting average sales of 24,000 yuan per sq m in January, a 5.5 percent growth on the previous month.
Digging down is not a recent trend in the city. Beijing has dug out an average 3 million sq m of underground space every year since 2001, according to the International Academic Conference on Underground Space.
"The deepest underground space is the subway at 18 m, but experts say we can go as low as 50 m," said Jin Jianguo, a researcher of the project.
Jin added the project investigation team is paying close attention to potential risks such as the seismic belt and ground water permeation.
"Safety is essential. Our experts are also looking at the protection of large trees and historic relics," he said.
After a six-month investigation, the tremendous "underground city" has now been laid out as a preliminary blueprint.
Four to five subway stations for line 6 and 8 will be developed, with 30,000 sq m of underground business facilities for each.
Wangfujing, clustered by modern shopping malls and tourist attractions, is set to connect all the subways and commercial constructions underground.
Dongdan Park and Dongdan Sports Center will construct multi-story underground facilities.
In terms of getting around, a 5 km underground road will be built to link Yonghegong, or Lama Temple, to Dongdan.
Naturally, not every local resident welcomed the enormous underground project.
Liu Yongxin, owner of a clock shop along Dongsi Street, said the underground project might affect his normal life and business.
"When Line 5 was being built, residents felt shaking on the floor almost everyday," Liu said.
Xue Yan, a 31-year-old IT technician working near Lama Temple, is also worried about the upcoming construction work.
"The huge space will be hollow. If an earthquake hits, it could be very dangerous because passengers and vehicles may fall into the big holes," he warned.
Thursday 21 January 2010 at 03:38 am
The New York Times announced Wednesday that it intended to charge frequent readers for access to its website starting next year.
"Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access," says a report on NYTimes.com.
However, subscribers to the newspaper's print edition will receive full access to the site without extra charge, it says.
The New York Times is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States. It has won 101 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization. Its website was the most popular American online newspaper website as of December 2008, receiving more than 18 million unique visitors in that month.
However, executives of The New York Times Company said they could not yet answer fundamental questions about the plan, like how much it would cost or what the limit would be on free reading.
"This announcement allows us to begin the thought process that's going to answer so many of the questions that we all care about," said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the company chairman and publisher of the newspaper.
However, the publishers fear that income from digital subscriptions would not compensate for the resulting loss of audience and advertising revenue.
This would not be the first time the company had tried an online pay model, says the report.
In the 1990s it charged overseas readers, and from 2005 to 2007 the newspaper's TimesSelect service charged for access to editorials and columns. TimesSelect attracted about 210,000 subscribers who paid 49.95 dollars a year, but it was scrapped to take advantage of the boom in online advertising.
Company executives said the current decision was not a reaction to the ad recession but a long-term strategy to develop new revenue.
Two specialized papers already charge readers: The Wall Street Journal, which makes certain articles accessible only to subscribers, and The Financial Times, which allows nonpaying readers to see up to 10 articles a month, a system close to what is planned by The Times.
Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 05:16 am
China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) gained 1.34 trillion yuan ($196 billion) in profits in 2009, up 9.8 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Finance said on its website Tuesday.
Centrally-administered SOEs' profits totaled 944.54 billion yuan in 2009, up 10.3 percent from the previous year. The profits of central SOEs' subordinate enterprises topped 765.26 billion yuan, up 14.3 percent year-on-year. Local-government-controlled SOEs’profits were 394.68 billion yuan, up 8.4 percent year-on-year.
SOEs' operating revenue in 2009 was 22.51 trillion yuan, up 5.9 percent year-on-year. The taxes imposed on these enterprises increased 12.1 percent year-on-year to 1.92 trillion yuan.
The costs of the SOEs totaled 21.26 trillion yuan, up 6.3 percent year-on-year.
Profits of the sectors of petrochemicals, automobiles, real estate and building materials keep rising. Power grid companies and railway transportation industries eventually turned a profit after losing money in the first 11 months.
The SOEs involved in the ministry statistics included 130 enterprises administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, on behalf of the central government, enterprises affiliated to 82 central departments, and those administered by provincial, regional and municipal governments.
Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 05:15 am
The US$453 billion increase in China's foreign exchange reserves last year partly reflected currency valuation effects and was not solely due to inflows of "hot money", the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said yesterday.
The foreign exchange regulator also refuted media reports that there could have been hot money inflows of nearly US$167 billion into the country last year.
Most of the reports were based on common methods of calculation and the hot money inflows were arrived at after subtracting the nation's trade surplus and foreign direct investment from the increase in foreign exchange reserves.
"(The method) is not scientific and its conclusions are also misleading," SAFE said yesterday on its website.
"When we analyze the increase in foreign exchange reserves, apart from foreign trade and foreign direct investment, we also need to consider capital flows from services trade, foreign debt, individual and equity investment items as well as the return on the foreign exchange reserves themselves and changes in (foreign currency) valuations," SAFE said.
"The appreciation of non-dollar currencies against the dollar in 2009 has definitely led to growth in outstanding foreign exchange reserves calculated in dollars," it said.
The regulator said it has sufficient information to explain the $167 billion gap of last year.
But it acknowledged that "hot money" was entering China disguised as trade and investment. In addition, low dollar interest rates are also increasing the money flows.
"China needs to retain controls on capital flows," SAFE said, adding it would push forward convertibility of the yuan and give individuals and institutions more opportunities to invest abroad.
"It is foreseeable that 'hot money' will continue to rise in 2010 given China's economic recovery and strong speculation that the central bank will tighten monetary policies in the following months," said Li Jianfeng, an economist with Shanghai Securities.
Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 05:15 am
China will speed up the A/H1N1 influenza vaccine inoculation for students and plan to finish all voluntary injections within the first month of the upcoming spring term, according to the Ministry of Education.
The injection campaign aimed to protect the life and health of teachers and students across the country, according to a notice released Tuesday by the ministry on its website.
Mass activities should be avoided for most occasions while some necessary ones, such as winter camps, should be conducted on the premise of full prevention and control measures against the disease, said the notice.
The ministry also urged schools across the country to assign personnel to monitor flu-related situations around-the-clock and report suspected severe cases as soon as possible.
As of Jan. 17, more than 63 million Chinese people had been inoculated with the A/H1N1 flu vaccine. The disease had killed at least 710 people by Jan. 10.
Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 05:14 am
By now, most of us have seen and heard about the profound devastation and suffering wrought upon Haiti last week after a massive earthquake. So you'd probably think there's no way that cruising tourists could have returned to frolicking on Haiti's beaches mere miles from where people are trapped beneath the rubble of a decimated city. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong.
On Sunday, the Guardian reported that Florida-based Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is docking ships at the "picturesque wooded peninsula" known as Labadee, which it leases on Haiti's northern coast. At Labadee, passengers "enjoy jetski rides, parasailing, and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks." The British paper also reported that passengers can spend their time "shopping for trinkets at a craft market" while armed guards stand at the entry to the complex to guarantee their safety.
Despite the fact that the ships have delivered relief supplies to the island, some passengers on the ships are reportedly "sickened" over the decision to dock there. One passenger took to an Internet message board to protest the idea of vacationing where "tens of thousands of dead people are being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water."
When Royal Caribbean announced its decision to resume stops at Labadee last week, a company executive cited the economic importance of the resort to the local citizens as well as the opportunity to deliver much-needed supplies.
"We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti," said associate vice president John Weis. "Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most."
Still, Royal Caribbean, which recently raised eyebrows when it announced that it's organizing a "cougar cruise" for older single women, has been catching heat from all corners on their decision, prompting company CEO Adam Goldstein to post a defense of the company on their website. Saying that he is "proud of what our people and our ships are doing," Goldstein writes:
The ships going back to Labadee, including Navigator of the Seas today, are obviously making a very valuable contribution to the relief effort by offloading supplies at Labadee. The media understand this and generally have written and spoken about the relief effort in positive terms. But in the last 24 hours, sparked by an article in the Guardian in the UK, a different and more critical view has emerged that questions how our guests can justify having a good time in Labadee when there is such misery less than 100 miles away.
My view is this - it isn't better to replace a visit to Labadee (or for that matter, to stay on the ship while it's docked in Labadee) with a visit to another destination for a vacation. Why? Because being on the island and generating economic activity for the straw market vendors, the hair-braiders and our 230 employees helps with relief while being somewhere else does not help. These 500 people are going to need to support a much larger network of family and friends, including many who are in (or are missing in) the earthquake zone. Also, the north is going to bear a good part of the burden of the agony of the south, and the more economic support there is to the north, the better able the north will be to bear this burden. People enjoying themselves is what we do. People enjoying themselves in Labadee helps with relief. We support our guests who choose to help in this way which is consistent with our nearly 30 year history in Haiti.
Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 05:13 am
The World Wildlife Fund warned on Tuesday that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.
"If there are no urgent measures taken, there is a high risk that the wild tiger will go extinct," Zhu Chunquan, conservation director of biodiversity at WWF China, said ahead of the start of the Year of the Tiger on February 14.
Zhu said that China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) estimated there were only around 50 tigers left in the nation's wilderness.
"Globally, WWF estimates that if poaching and other threats continue, there are around 30 years left until tigers go extinct," he told AFP.
Loss and degradation of the tigers' habitat in China and poaching of the animals as well as their prey -- or source of food -- were behind the rapid disappearance of the animal, he added.
The SFA says around 20 Siberian tigers remain in China's northeast, 20 Bengal tigers in Tibet, and 10 Indochinese tigers in the southwest of the nation.
"As for the South China tiger, after the late 1970s, there has been no concrete evidence to show that there are any left," Zhu said.
In the 1950, about 4,000 of the South China variety roamed China, he said.
The WWF says on its website that the tiger is one of the top 10 species to watch in 2010, pointing out that there may be just 3,200 of the animals left globally in the wild.
China banned international trade in tiger bones and related products in 1993, Zhu said, but preventing all poaching and illegal trade remains a challenge.
Authorities in the Asian nation have in the past meted out heavy punishment to those found guilty of killing the endangered species.
In December, a man who shot dead an Indochinese tiger was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 580,000 yuan (85,000 dollars).
Zhu urged the Chinese government to raise awareness of the issue, by pushing people not to hunt the tiger's typical prey, which include wild boar and deer.
He added that local communities should be encouraged to find alternatives to livelihoods such as timber harvesting, as these activities contributed to the degradation and loss of the tiger's habitat.
Tuesday 19 January 2010 at 02:07 am
The A/H1N1 influenza, which has killed more than 700 people on the Chinese mainland, will continue to spread in the country in 2010, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said here Monday.
In a statement posted on the MOH website, the ministry said people on the Chinese mainland still had limited access to immunization protection against the A/H1N1 flu, and that regional outbreaks of the disease could yet to be rule out.
As of Jan. 17, more than 63 million Chinese people had been inoculated with the A/H1N1 flu vaccine. The disease had killed at least 710 people by Jan. 10.
Risks of mass infection of the influenza might increase due to the upcoming Spring Festival, or traditional Chinese New Year, in February during which a huge number of Chinese people, mostly migrant workers and students, would travel back home for family reunions, the MOH said.
The ministry urged local health authorities to strengthen monitoring and reporting of the A/H1N1 influenza, while making sound efforts to handle other possible public health emergencies.
Public health emergency refers to major epidemics, diseases of unknown origin, serious food poisoning or occupational poisoning cases, and other incidents like bird flu.
A total of 1,004 people on the Chinese mainland were killed by those incidents in 2009, a drastic increase of more than 140 percent compared with the figure in 2008.
The MOH attributed the rise mainly to the wide spread of the A/H1N1 influenza, citing the number of death cases would actually drop by over 14 percent, if death toll from the A/H1N1 flu had not been included in the total count.
Tuesday 19 January 2010 at 02:07 am
The first low-carbon tourism zone in the capital will be created in Miyun county this year, complementing the central government's plan to cut 40 to 45 percent of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.
The zone will be north of the Miyun Reservoir and cover more than 30 sq km of arable land and mountains northwest of urban Beijing, a press release on the county's tourism bureau's website reports.
"The area is the core of ecological preservation in Miyun county and is important for the protection of the Miyun Reservoir, which is the largest reservoir and a crucial water supplier for Beijing," Jia Limei, deputy director of Miyun tourism bureau, told METRO yesterday.
"We are not going to change the natural characteristics of this area, even if we are going to develop it into one of the most popular tourist spots in Beijing."
Jia said Miyun county is eager to echo the central government's plan of cutting carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent - a concept that will protect the existing character of the area and attract tourists from downtown Beijing.
"We have built two tourist routes and will have bicycle rentals in the low carbon zone," she said. "Travelers can enjoy the beautiful view and exercise their bodies. There will be no carbon dioxide emissions. This is good for everyone."
Large modern hotels will not be allowed in the low emissions area. Small country inns will be encouraged and the use of solar energy and marsh gas will be pushed as important energy sources.
The bureau will also encourage tourists to enjoy outdoor activities and discourage the use of televisions and air-conditioners.
Garbage will also be kept to a minimum.
Further details, such as the budget for the project and its timetable, have not been released.
"Miyun county is the greenest place I have visited in the Beijing area, so I cannot see how much difference the low carbon zone will make to emissions in Beijing," said outdoor enthusiast Wang Xudong, manger of the RV fan site 21rv.com, which is the biggest RV online group in Beijing.
Wang said there is a growing trend in tourism to want to get closer to nature and reduce pollution.
Tuesday 19 January 2010 at 02:07 am
Liao Hsin-chung's Our Taiwan in These Years has become a hit after it first appeared as a series of posts on a BBS explaining the lives of ordinary people in Taiwan in the past 30 years. Mu Qian reports
When Liao Hsin-chung, a Taiwanese salesman working in Shanghai, started posting stories about the lives of ordinary Taiwanese more than a year ago he didn't expect himself to become a best-selling author.
But a collection of these posts was published in late November and sold half a million copies, according to Beijing Dook Publishing Company, whose long-term aim for the distribution of the book is 10 million copies.
Our Taiwan in These Years (我们台湾这些年) topped the chart of China's Top 10 Books of last year by www.sina.com, and was among the best 10 books of 2009 selected by a number of media, including China Daily and www.dangdang.com.
Liao's account begins in 1977, when he was born, and goes on till 2009. Through anecdotes and against the backdrop of influential events, he writes the history of Taiwan. The topics range from the election of Taiwan's leaders, to baseball, Michael Jackson's concert in Taipei to mandatory military service.
Before beginning his postings in May 2008, there were a lot of articles and TV programs about the 30 years of reform and opening-up in the mainland and it occurred to Liao that it would make sense to write something about the past 30 years in Taiwan, which is relatively unknown here. "I know, that for most mainlanders, Taiwan is an empty political concept. Most people don't really know what happened in Taiwan in the past 30 years and what kind of lives Taiwanese lead," he wrote. "Actually, the changes in the past 30 years are no less than those in the mainland."
He begins with the stereotyped views that he had of the mainland because of his early education in Taiwan, which included the idea that the Communist Party would "take Taiwan in bloodbath".
Then he tells of his school experiences, the relationships between different groups of people, the booming economy, the media, the process of democratization, and how these have affected him and his family.
Liao's posts soon became one of the hottest forums at www.tianya.cn, a popular hosting website, and many netizens encouraged him to write more, complaining he was not updating quickly enough.
Many mainlanders were surprised to find a lot of things that Liao said about Taiwan had parallels on the mainland, such as pejorative terms to describe the other side of the Straits. There were similarities when it came to medical care and admission to college.
"My knowledge of Taiwan was limited to the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, and books by Li Ao. Thanks to the posts for promoting understanding and communication. I hope there will be more such exchanges," one netizen commented.
Some Taiwan netizens also shared their experiences of the eras that Liao talked about.
Liao says these comments helped him to revise his work when he compiled the posts into a book.
But there were also some negative comments, one of which accused him of being "a spy of the Democratic Progressive Party".
The posts also sparked debates between mainlanders and Taiwanese, and sometimes just between mainlanders.
These comments would often be about sensitive issues that Liao didn't want to talk about, and sometimes he was concerned they would be banned.
Long after Liao finished posting articles, in May 2008, netizens kept commenting, and there are now more than 100,000 comments.
"Many of the comments are better written than my posts," Liao says.
While Liao was still posting, Beijing Dook Publishing Company board director Hua Nan sought out Liao to talk about a publishing deal. They signed a contract in December 2008.
"I knew it would become a bestseller as soon as I read it on the Internet," Hua says. "We used to hear about Taiwan in political discourses, and then we knew Taiwan through entertainment, but we never really got to know much about the lives of ordinary people in Taiwan."
However, it took almost a year for the book to get approval. As a private company, Dook had to publish the book in partnership with an official publishing house, the Chongqing Publishing House in this case. The book was inspected by the Chongqing Publishing House, the Administration of Press and Publication of Chongqing, the General Administration of Press and Publication of China, and the Taiwan Affairs Office of State Council. Dook got final approval in 2009.
"I was not worried too much about approval," Hua says. "First, the government is now advocating exchanges across the Taiwan Straits; second, it is a personal account of what the author has gone through in these years, which does not involve much about politics."
Liao's Internet writing totaled some 250,000 characters, but the published book was about 210,000 characters. Besides necessary deletions for the sake of the book's structure, some parts were deleted because the publisher deemed them improper.
"The more recent the incidents are, the more sensitive they are, and the more of them got deleted," Liao says. "But the core content remains: What people in Taiwan, under the same cultural structure, have gone through in the last three decades."
But he finds it a pity that some parts, such as those detailing how the Taiwan authorities depicted the mainland in the early 1980s were deleted, because they sound funny today.
Our Taiwan in These Years has become so popular that Liao has been contracted to write two sequels: One is a concise version of the book with pictures, and the other one is his answers to 150 questions from mainlanders about Taiwan.
"What I hope the book can achieve is give mainland readers some tangible information about Taiwan so that when they watch TV news about Taiwan they will have some clearer ideas of what is happening," Liao says.
Tuesday 19 January 2010 at 02:06 am
China announced Tuesday that it awarded the eight peace-keeping police killed in the Haiti earthquake the title of "martyr" as their bodies were brought home Tuesday morning Beijing time.
The awards were jointly approved by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the MPS said in a statement on its website.
"The peace-keeping police who tragically died were always devoted to their missions; they respectfully completed many urgent, difficult, dangerous and arduous tasks; they have made a great contribution to safeguarding world peace," read the statement.
It also said that compensation would be handed out, which was standard government procedure in such instances.
Bodies of the seven policemen and a policewoman arrived in Beijing on a chartered China Southern Airlines flight.
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, have expressed their grief and condolences for the dead.
More than 500,000 people are feared dead after the 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean island country Jan.12 local time.
Tuesday 19 January 2010 at 02:06 am
Vendors 'reap huge profits' by selling substandard goods at Maliandao
Vendors at Maliandao, the largest tea market in north China, are reaping huge profits by selling substandard tea, according to claims from a non-governmental organization.
A survey done by a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Xuanwu district showed that almost half of customers believe Maliandao is rife with scams. And 84 percent of tea shop owners would like the government to crack down on the area.
Cai Haijin, a former owner of a tea shop in Fujian who dealt with Maliandao, Xuanwu district, said the tea business is very profitable.
"Tea in Maliandao is generally cheaper than brand stores like Tenfu (a tea shop chain from Taiwan), but it is still twice as expensive as in Fujian province," said Cai, who was born in Anxi, Fujian - home to the renowned tea Tieguanyin.
Cai told METRO yesterday that distributors can purchase tea in Fujian for 120 yuan per 500 g and sell it for 250 yuan or even higher in Maliandao.
Maliandao is home to 11 tea shopping centers and more than 1,200 shops. It has an annual revenue of more than 2 billion yuan, the Beijing Evening News reported.
But the market is known for being a tough place to shop if you don't know your product.
Wang Yinyun, a shopkeeper in Maliandao Tea City who has been in the business for eight years, said most customers are purchasers who buy tea for companies.
She said 70 to 80 percent of the tea city's revenue comes from Tieguanyin, followed by Longjing and Pu'er tea.
The first question a customer is normally asked is: "what class of tea would you like?" This is how tea is classified, Wang noted.
She said experts can determine the quality of tea by looking, touching and tasting it. But amateurs are at the mercy of the sellers.
"There is no 'fake' tea, only substandard tea," Zhang Xi, general manager of Maliandao tea city, was quoted by Beijing's official news website Qianlong.com as saying.
"We are trying our best to stop price scams by doing a monthly check on 30 randomly selected tea shops."
Unusually, there have been no complaints of substandard tea in Maliandao, according to the Xuanwu district industrial and commercial bureau.
"It's hard for a customer to realize they have been deceived," Liu Yingdong, a regular customer to Maliandao told METRO.
"Only experts can tell the class of a tea by sight," a shopkeeper from "Guanyinwang" tea shop told METRO. "When the qualities of different teas are very close, it's hard to tell the difference between one worth 160 yuan, 240 yuan, or 380 yuan."
"From only a quick conversation, the seller can tell if you really know tea or not," warned Wang Gang, a regular customer to the market.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 11:03 pm
Google, the world's most popular search engine, denied over the weekend reports that it has decided to shut its google.cn site and close its China office.
Dismissing reports of a pullout, a Google spokeswoman told Bloomberg Saturday that it is operating business as usual in China, is still censoring search results on google.cn and its employees in China are still going to work.
It said it would hold talks with the Chinese government over the next few weeks, Reuters reported.
Google's chief legal officer threatened last week on the corporate blog to withdraw from the Chinese market after suffering a sophisticated cyber-attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property.
The unexpected statement captured the attention of China's 384 million netizens, the world's largest Internet market by users, with blogs and local media quoting unnamed insiders' "testimonies."
On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry responded that China encourages the development of the Internet and endeavors to create a sound environment for its healthy development and China welcomes international Internet corporations to do business in China in line with the law.
On Friday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that the ministry had received no indication from Google that the company would leave China.
Upon the no-pullout confirmation, Jiang Pingzhong, a veteran industry professional, said on the it168.com website that the "pullout" is a big hype by Google as a respectable operator, citing Google's logo Friday that paralleled "oG" (deemed as a metaphor for Google) with China's four world-known inventions.
An opinion poll at huanqiu.com Sunday showed that about 26 percent of respondents welcomed Google's decision to stay in China, while around 46 percent now have an adverse judgment of Google after the incident. The remainder said they do not care.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 11:03 pm
Yemen's Interior Ministry on Sunday gave Somali refugees an extension of two months to register with the National Commission for Refugees amid fears that al-Qaida infiltrators could be among them.
The ministry said in a statement posted on its website that it will take legal action against those who does not register after the extension period in accordance with Yemeni laws and international conventions.
According to the statement, the ministry acknowledged that Yemen's open-door policy towards illegal immigration is posing serious risks for its security and economic situations, stressing the need to repatriate them.
Also on Sunday, Yemeni security authorities said they arrested 43 illegal African infiltrators last week upon their arrival at Taizziah and Salef districts on Yemen's Red Sea coasts.
Though Yemen has long welcomed Somali refugees fleeing their war-torn country, the Yemeni government is now particularly concerned that al-Qaida infiltrators could be among those new arrivals, local media said.
According to statistics by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the number of Somali refugees in Yemen has reached some 78,000 by the end of 2009, compared with around 49,000 three years ago.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 11:02 pm
China Mobile customers in Shanghai who send dirty text messages, photos or videos to other cell phone users could permanently lose their phone number, according to a report.
A worker at Shanghai Mobile, subsidiary of China Mobile, told the Shanghai Youth Daily that they would use certain key words to automatically check for dirty words in text messages, based on a list provided by the Ministry of Public Security.
"Once the message is wrong, we will first block the user from sending and receiving messages," the unidentified worker told the paper in Sunday's edition. "The police station will then evaluate it."
The employee added that once the police confirm the text included dirty words, the person's number would become invalid forever.
"If the message is not dirty, the user can come to us with the proof given by police and have the text function resumed," the person said.
Local residents disapproved of the policy and said it goes too far.
"The policy is good in intention. But the punishment is too harsh. Besides, mobile phone numbers are limited resources. I don't think it the best solution," Kong Xiangxuan, a Shanghai resident told the Global Times.
Li Wenjun, a junior at Shanda University in Shanghai, told the Global Times that the policy may be easy to entangle innocent people.
"I will say definitely no to the policy," Li said. "Messages are private. How could the company shut down the number if the user sends his friend a blue joke just for fun?"
He said users could use characters that are pronounced similarly to the dirty words and it's hard to determine if they're bad or good words.
A customer service worker at Shanghai Mobile said Sunday they recently started supervising messages, but have not started invalidating phone numbers.
The policy is part of a new nationwide campaign to eradicate pornography from the Internet and mobile phone networks.
A video conference meeting on fighting against pornography, illegal publications and piracy held in the city Friday called for strengthened control for a clean culture ahead of the World Expo 2010 from May 1 to October 31.
In another case, 13 people in Anyang, Central China's Henan Province were given prison terms Thursday of up to 10 years for managing a porn website. The website had about 100,000 members.
According to the latest statistics issued Friday by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by the end of December, the number of Internet users in China reached 384 million, and over one third of them are minors.
The people who log on to networks through mobile phones reached 233 million, 115 million more than in 2008.
In Dongguan, Guangdong Province, the public security department officials could be removed from office if they fail to strictly enforce anti-porn measures.
"The director shall be relived from his post immediately when the region under his control is found with cases involving pornography or gambling," Liu Zhigeng, secretary of Dongguan Party committee, said Friday.
The director of the public security department in Dongkeng township, Ding Shoujun, was removed from office after an underground casino was smashed December 30, in which 95 people were arrested.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 11:02 pm
By Chen Yang
Although Chinese banks saw their assets increase while the ratio and balance of bad loans both sank in 2009, the nation's bank regulator warned over the weekend that banks should pay attention to future risks, especially in the property market.
The total foreign and domestic currency assets of Chinese financial institutions rose 26.3 percent year-on-year to 78.8 trillion yuan ($11.54 trillion) in 2009, and combined liabilities rose 26.8 percent from last year to 74.3 trillion yuan ($10.88 trillion), the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) announced on its website Saturday.
"The rise of total assets was due to increasing mid- and long-term loans, and the rise of liabilities was largely due to deposits from enterprises, which get loans from banks but do not use all of them, as well as increasing residents' deposit," said Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the School of Finance at Renmin University of China.
Zhao expected that banks' total assets and liabilities increase in 2010 would not be as large as in 2009, but the quality of assets and liabilities would become better.
The bad loan ratio among major commercial banks, including State-owned and joint-stock commercial banks, fell to 1.59 percent, down 0.86 percentage points from the beginning of 2009. Bad loans stood at 497.33 billion yuan ($72.86 billion), down 62.98 billion yuan ($9.23 billion) from the beginning of 2009.
"It is good to see the decreasing bad loan ratio and balance in China, as 'toxic assets' in other countries were increased during the financial crisis," Zhao commented. "However, banks still face challenges from their mid- and long-term loans to enterprises."
New lending in December rose to 379.80 billion yuan ($55.64 billion) from November's 294.80 billion yuan ($43.19 billion), and new lending for the whole year in 2009 amounted to 9.59 trillion yuan ($1.40 trillion), almost double the level in 2008, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in an announcement on its website Friday.
Normally bad loan ratios rebound two years after a credit spree, said Li Shanshan, an analyst at BOCOM International Holdings.
The CBRC said at an annual conference Friday that banks should be wary of credit risks despite the decrease in bad loan ratios and balance.
The regulator said banks should ensure that credit enters the real economy, and restrict lending to high-polluting, high-energy consuming industries and those with overcapacity.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 11:02 pm
Beijing wants to see diplomacy given more time to succeed
China is not likely to approve a fourth round of sanctions against Iran while there is still room for negotiations, experts have said, as another round of talks between six key powers ended on Saturday without an agreement.
China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States - the five permanent United Nations Security Council members - and Germany attended the meeting at the European Union Mission to the United Nations in midtown Manhattan, New York City, Xinhua reported.
"We had a very sober assessment," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"It is inconclusive in the sense that we did not make any decisions right away", but there is "still time for meaningful political engagement and efforts to find a solution", AFP and the Washington Post quoted the minister as saying.
Beijing was represented by Kang Yong, a counselor of China's mission to the UN. He was the lowest-level diplomat at the meeting, Bloomberg reported. He did not speak to reporters.
But Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reiterated on Friday that the Iranian issue should be resolved through "peaceful diplomatic negotiations".
Although no deal was reached at Saturday's meeting, participating nations agreed to consider "further measures by the UN Security Council", the New York Times said.
But Chinese analysts said Beijing is unlikely to support further sanctions.
"It will be difficult for sanctions to be pushed forward, as China and Russia are not willing to do so when neither the United States nor Iran has completely abandoned peaceful talks," China's former ambassador to Iran, Hua Liming, told China Daily yesterday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last Monday that the Obama administration believed the best method to pressure Iran to become transparent about its nuclear ambitions is to pass new sanctions that impact its ruling elite.
"The Obama administration hasn't made any actual progress concerning Iran and the Middle East, let alone achieving any goals, since it took office," Hua said.
Hua also said the US might modify the new sanctions to gain support from China and Russia.
Bloomberg reported on Saturday that the sanctions would most likely target Iranian shipping companies that have violated the UN arms embargo. They would also likely bar nations and international lenders, such as the World Bank, from giving Iran any grants, loans or other financial aid, except for humanitarian or development purposes.
The sanctions would also target Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to the Council on Foreign Relations' website, the IRGC has evolved into one of the country's most influential domestic institutions. It controls strategic industries, commercial services and black-market enterprises.
"The Western powers will not get what they want from the six-nation talks," said Yin Gang, a Middle East studies expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Yin said China will, however, support the major powers' demand to halt Iran's enrichment program in Qom.
The uranium enrichment plant hidden inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom was revealed in September.
"Clearly (the program) violates the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while China has always supported the IAEA," Yin said.
The Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran over suspicions that it is hiding nuclear activities. It fears Iran could retool its enrichment program, which makes low-grade uranium to generate nuclear power, to produce weapons-grade uranium used for nuclear warheads. Iran denies the accusation and insists its program is for peaceful purposes, the Washington Post said.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 04:02 am
China is in a rush to build its version of the Global Positioning System (GPS), by planning to launch 10 Beidou navigation satellites between now and 2012, a newly launched official website said.
"The Beidou (Compass) Navigation Satellite System, which will be completed in 2020 with 35 satellites, will enable China to shake off its dependence on GPS and achieve huge economic benefits," Pang Zhihao, a senior researcher with the China Academy of Space Technology, told China Daily.
Navigation systems deliver data from satellites that allow travelers, drivers, and military officials directions on locations and travel advice.
The third Beidou satellite will lift off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province at "an appropriate moment soon", atop a Long March-3C carrier, the center said on Friday in a statement.
Both the rocket and the satellite are now in sound condition and ready for launch, it said.
A new government-run website, www.beidou.gov.cn, was also launched on Friday. The website said that China aims to provide a positioning and navigation service by 2012 with a constellation of 12 Beidou satellites, covering the Asia-Pacific region.
But as only two have been launched so far, this means China has to launch 10 satellites in two to three years.
The system is expected to be completed with a constellation of 35 navigation satellites - five geo-stationary satellites and 30 non-geostationary satellites - and provide global service by 2020, the website said.
The Beidou system will rival the US-developed GPS, the EU's Galileo and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System, experts said.
At present, nearly 200 million people worldwide are using GPS devices for positioning and navigation service, and GPS earns $120 billion a year, earlier reports said.
Meanwhile, an independent navigation satellite system will strengthen information security.
"Modern weapons, including guided missiles and missile defense systems, all need information supported by navigation satellites," said Peng Guangqian, a Beijing-based senior military strategist.
"Relying on other navigation satellite systems for such information is impossible in wartime," he said.
Moreover, multiple navigation systems will benefit users, since a single source could become unstable.
In May 2009, the US issued a warning of a possible GPS interruption because of delays in modernizing and deploying the Air Force satellites that provide the service.
Cao Chong, a leading expert with China's Association of Global Navigating Satellite Systems, urged international cooperation on global navigation satellite systems to avoid widespread problems if one system fails.
"If countries could strengthen cooperation, one system's failure will not have a major impact when there are other systems in place," he said.
The general public can expect to enjoy positioning, speed-measurement and time services by using the Beidou system for free, the website said. The accuracy of positioning is within 10m. A more accurate service will be available to authorized users only, according to the website.
"China welcomes international cooperation so as to better serve global users and increase the system's compatibility," the website said.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 04:02 am
A Chinese man wanted in connection with a 20-million-yuan ($2.9 million) fraud case has been repatriated from Canada where he lived for seven years, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said in an online statement.
Cui Zili is one of the first criminals deported from Canada since the country and China issued a joint statement pledging to strengthen cooperation on repatriating fugitives in line with their respective laws.
Cui is alleged to have worked with Deng Xinzhi and Chen Quanshan in a scam that ran from January to August 2002, by posing as an employee with the China Life Insurance Co, the country's largest insurer.
The trio allegedly used fake seals as well as expired insurance papers and invoices to sign contracts worth 24.5 million yuan, with the fifth research institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the Chinatex grains and oils import and export corporation.
Cui went to Canada in January 2003 and Canadian authorities finally returned him to China on Wednesday, the MPS said.
Deng Xinzhi was repatriated from Canada on Aug 22, 2008, for his role in the same alleged fraud. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court in June last year, according to chinacourt.org, a website affiliated to the Supreme People's Court of China.
Chen Quanshan was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2005 after he surrendered to police in May 2004.
"The Chinese police attach great importance to international cooperation in seizing suspects in criminal cases," the MPS statement said.
Cui's repatriation showcased China and Canada's determination to uphold the law and safeguard justice, the MPS said. The ministry also expressed hope for law enforcement departments of both countries to enhance cooperation.
In a joint statement issued in Beijing in December 2009, China and Canada pledged to strengthen cooperation on combating transnational crimes and repatriating fugitives in accordance with their respective laws.
However, Canada still hosts a number of Chinese people wanted in connection with economic crimes, including Lai Changxing, the lead suspect in China's most notorious smuggling operation valued at $10 billion.
Lai, now living in Vancouver, is accused of masterminding the country's largest smuggling ring. He went to Canada in 1999 and Chinese authorities have been seeking his return to face charges of smuggling, bribery and tax evasion.
"This is another case showing the increasing cooperation between China and other countries in pursuing suspects", said Zhao Yu, a professor from the China People's Public Security University.
Zhao said since 2004, when the United States police deported Yu Zhendong back to China, the country has been strengthening efforts in pursuing fugitives abroad.
Yu Zhendong, a former director of Bank of China, escaped to the US after embezzling $482 million from 1993 to 2000.
"But extradition and deportation of criminal suspects from Western countries, which are favorite destinations for fugitives, are still very difficult due to legal differences between China and other countries, " Zhao said.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 04:01 am
The most important thing for Russia now is to ensure strict adherence to planned budget, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when meeting some government officials.
"In other words, we need to guarantee timely financing in accordance with the plan for all budget items," said the president at a Friday meeting on economic issues, as quoted by the Kremlin website.
It is equally important to place state procurement orders and supervise state contracts' implementation, he added.
Affected by bureaucracy, some state procurement contracts often took much longer to fulfill than they were originally planned over the past year, Medvedev noted, reminding officials to learn from the past experience.
The entire budget system must be stable, sustainable and balanced, he said.
"It (referring to the federal budget) should be a real economic policy tool that has a real influence on the economic processes underway in our country, including the economic modernization efforts that we see as a key part of our national development over the coming years," he said.
Additionally, Medvedev eyed a more optimistic social and economic outlook for Russia this year citing latest statistics, with the estimated growth of gross domestic product raised from 1.6 percent to 3.1 percent.
The Russian economy, heavily depending on the exportation of energy and raw materials, has been hit hard by the global economic downturn. Russian leaders have repeatedly emphasized the need to modernize the economy.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 04:01 am
Yemen said Saturday it arrested three al-Qaida suspects near the borders with Saudi Arabia, as five out of six al-Qaida elements killed in a Friday air strike have been identified, ruling National Congress party's website, al-Motamar, reported.
Yemeni security forces arrested Ahmed Sawaqi al-Razhi, Yasser Deifallah al-Razhi, and Ahmed Saleh al-Himi near the border post of Alb in the northern province of Saada while they were being disguised in military uniforms and carrying weapons, explosives and leaflets, the portal quoted unidentified sources as saying.
The trio had escaped several raids by the Yemeni security forces backed by jetfighters against their hideouts in various areas before being captured, the sources added.
Meanwhile, Yemeni Interior Ministry identified five of six al-Qaida militants who were killed on Friday in an air strike that targeted two cars in al-Ajashir area, between the northern provinces of al-Jawf and Saada, confirming that Kasim al-Raimy, the military leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Amar Ubadah al-Waili, the leader of al-Qaida group in al-Jawf province, were among the fatalities.
Also killed were Saleh al-Tais, Ayed al-Shabwani, Egyptian Ibrahim Mohamed Saleh al-Banna, and an unidentified sixth militant.
A report by a military-run website on Friday said two other members onboard the vehicles managed to escape and efforts are underway to hunt them down. However, it did not give details on how the pair managed to escape or whether they were injured or not.
State-run Saba news agency said Raimy, born in 1977, was arrested eight years ago in connection with a series of explosions in the capital, Sanaa. He was then sentenced to five years in prison on Aug. 24, 2004. Two years later, he was one of 23 men who managed to break out of prison.
The Friday's attack is the second major operation by Yemeni security forces against the country's al-Qaida branch within a week. On Tuesday, Abdullah al-Mihzhar, an al-Qaida local leader, was killed in a raid in Maifa'ah district in the southern province of Shabwa. Four suspected al-Qaida members were also captured during the raid.
Late in December, Sanaa started a crackdown against al-Qaida militants in southern governorates, in which around 45 pro-Qaida members were killed.
Sunday 17 January 2010 at 04:00 am
Property trading in Beijing in the first two weeks of this year slumped, following a string of government moves to curb soaring real estate prices.
Beijing property transaction management authority said on its website Friday that sales of future delivery residential apartments during Jan. 1 to Jan. 13 were down 63.9 percent month on month to 3,031 units, compared with 8,397 units in the first half of December.
Those for second-hand homes also plunged 73.3 percent to 4,800 units, according to data from the website.
The relatively small transaction volume was largely due to a strong wait-and-see mood from the buyers, in response to the government's efforts to deflate property bubbles, said Gao Shan, vice general manager of the Beijing-based Comprehensive Real Estate Service Corporation.
The central government has taken a series of measures, including trimming loans, intensifying land supply and market monitoring, and ending tax rebates on property transaction, to prevent home prices from further soaring since the previous month.
Chinese home prices began to pick up from February last year, and hit a 18-month high in December.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed housing prices in the country's 70 large and medium-sized cities rose 7.8 percent in December 2009 from a year earlier.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 11:45 pm
Shanda Interactive Entertainment, China's second-largest online game company, acquired US online game firm Mochi Media for $80 million on Tuesday.
To expand its global presence, Shanda made its first US acquisition, first for Chinese online games companies.
The $80 million deal consists of $60 million in cash and $20 million in equities, which is to be settled in the first quarter of 2010.
In addition, Mochi adopts advertisements and selling applications as its revenue forms, which is also valued by Shanda.
After the acquisition, both Mochi's brand and operating team will not change. Trough this acquisiton, Shanda can further expand its overseas market, according to Shanda CEO Li Yu.
He explained that the deal can help expand Shanda's services from its high-end online games for serious players to rapid growing fun games for amaterus, of which Shanda can make good use to build an advanced global online games platform.
Jameson was very pleased with the acquisition price and has decided to sell games to many Chinese websites in the future.
He also denied a report last June that Mochi was sold because investors wanted to pull out.
Mochi boasts more than 15,000 online games and they are available in over 45,000 websites with 140 million active users. Its business has already expanded to 48 countries and regions across the globe, including China, said Li.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 11:45 pm
The personal lives and family information of senior officials in China will be put under tighter supervision as the top anti-graft body of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) vowed a harsher fight against corruption.
The move was included in a package of anti-corruption measures unveiled at the end of a three-day plenary meeting of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which closed yesterday.
A communique released by the plenary session warned that the fight against corruption was still a "persistent, complicated and arduous" task.
Last year, at least 15 ministerial or provincial level officials, including heads of State-owned enterprises, were investigated for corruption, nine of whom were referred for prosecution, the commission said.
Among them were former Supreme People's Court vice-president Huang Songyou, who was the first supreme court justice in China removed for grave violations of the law and Party discipline.
The communique spelled out detailed anti-corruption measures, which highlighted the supervision over the personal life of senior officials.
Party organs at all levels should carefully administer the family reporting regulation to prevent officials from abusing power, taking bribes and participating in other illegal activities, according to the communiqu.
The CPC promulgated the family reporting regulation in 2006, by which Party officials are obliged to report information such as employment conditions of their spouses and children, real estate and investment.
The communique issued yesterday added that the disciplinary organs would strengthen their management of those Party and government officials whose spouses and children have emigrated.
"Leading Party officials will be strictly prohibited from making convenience or malfeasance for their spouses and children in getting jobs, investment, or running businesses by violating regulations," the communiqu said.
It also warned officials against accepting cash gifts, securities and payment documents, or holding lavish wedding or funeral services in a bid to acquire money.
Party officials should be strictly prohibited from using public money or accepting invitations from organizations and individuals related to official power to enjoy expensive entertainment or bodybuilding activities," the communiqu said.
The communique served as a clear sign that the CPC was going to tighten supervision over senior officials' lives.
In late December, Chen Xizhao, deputy police chief in Lianjiang county of the southern province of Guangdong, was suspended following allegations that he received money from more than 1,000 guests invited to a party to celebrate his new villa.
Media questioned how Chen could afford to get a five-story villa in a plush urban locale, and Martell Cordon Bleu cognac wine at 3,000 yuan ($480) a bottle, with which he treated the guests at the party.
Lin Yueqin, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new anti-graft move indicates that the CPC has detected the new phenomena or trend of corruption among officials in a timely manner.
Professor Lin Zhe of the Central Party School said she thought the Party has good measures to curb corruption but how to put them into practice is more important.
"I think the most eye-catching thing was in President Hu Jintao's speech at the plenary meeting, in which he emphasized the establishment of a scientific, strict, complete and effective anti-corruption system," she said.
"The current problem is not that we lack policies or slogans, but how to practice them, making them enforceable for every Party member," she said.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 11:45 pm
Bernie Ecclestone wants to introduce "shortcuts" on Formula One race tracks to encourage drivers' overtaking for the sport's promoted entertainment, the F1 supremo said on Wednesday.
The idea would be another radical change to the sport with nothing similar ever having been adopted, but it needs to seek teams' support first.
"I've tried to push the teams with a number of proposals. Imagine a shortcut which a driver can use five times every race. It would stop people getting stuck behind others. It would be good for TV," Ecclestone told reporters at Ferrari's pre-season ski retreat in Madonna Di Campiglio of Italy.
Ecclestone complained that brakes in Formula One cars were too efficient and reduced the amount of overtaking which fans like to watch.
Despite believing the sport can be improved, the Briton reckoned this season would be among the best with Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and the returning Michael Schumacher all on the grid.
Ecclestone confirmed an agreement had been signed to hold a grand prix through the streets of Rome in the coming years, although no date has been set.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 11:44 pm
U.S. automaker Cadillac unveiled the XTS Platinum Concept at the 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on Tuesday, suggesting a new paradigm for the luxury sedan of the future.
The concept showcases Cadillac's emerging top-of-the-line Platinum series of models, emphasizing new expressions of luxury and technological features, including a plug-in hybrid propulsion system.
The XTS Platinum Concept was designed from the inside out, re-imagining the luxury sedan as a personal headquarters, built for efficiency, luxury and connectivity. The concept introduces a new approach to in-car electronics that improves the form and function of the car's entertainment, navigation and information systems.
"The XTS Platinum concept is the next expression of Cadillac's Art and Science execution philosophy, reflecting our drive to deliver the latest innovations in the most artful manner," said Bryan Nesbitt, Cadillac general manager.
The XTS Platinum Concept uses Cadillac's 3.6L V-6 Direct Injection gas engine, paired with a plug-in hybrid system. The plug-in technology enables the battery to fully charge from a standard electrical outlet, enabling pure electric propulsion in many driving situations, especially urban commutes in which fuel efficiency may double that of a conventional hybrid.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 11:43 pm
On-location film, television and commercial production activities in Los Angeles have seen a 19 percent fall over the previous year as recession, runaway production and lingering effect of contract dispute between management and actors took their toll on local productions, the Los Angles Times reported Friday.
Although 2009 has been a bumper year at the box office, the city still saw the steepest year-over-year decline since 1993 when the statistics became available, FilmL.A. Inc. said in a report. The production has been a major employer and key component of the city, home to Hollywood and related entertainment industry.
The sector was buffeted on several fronts. These included the recession, which led to a decline in film, TV and commercial shoots; the ongoing exodus of production from the region; and the long-term effects of a contract dispute with actors, which caused financing for independent features to dwindle, FilmL.A. said.
Hardest hit was feature film production, which had been steadily falling over much of the last decade as L.A. lost jobs to Canada and, increasingly, other states such as New Mexico, Louisiana and Michigan that offer tax credits and rebates to filmmakers.
The uptick wasn't enough to keep features from falling 30 percent for the year, however. Feature films accounted for 4,976 permitted production days (defined as a crew's permission to film a single project at a single location over a 24-hour period), the lowest level since 1993 and less than half what it was a decade ago, according to the daily newspaper.
California's newly adopted film tax credit program helped to blunt the downturn, with production activity increasing by double digits in the second half of the year. About 50 productions qualified to receive about 100 million U.S. dollars in tax credits since the state program began this summer. Among those, 10 were feature films shot locally that would not have otherwise been made in California, according to FilmL.A.
2009 has also been a difficult year for television and commercial productions, FilmL.A. said.
Television, the largest sector of the production industry, saw its production days falling 17 percent to 15,933. Production days for commercial production also dropped 12 percent to 5,292 as advertisers scaled back spending because of the recession. That was the lowest level since 2000, when actors who work in commercials went on strike, FilmL.A said.
Founded in 1995, FilmL.A. is a nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and parts of the county.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 04:32 am
Domestic search firm Baidu Inc could be the biggest beneficiary of a possible pullout from China by Internet major Google, leading industry experts said yesterday.
The NASDAQ-listed Baidu already dominates the Chinese search landscape and it has signaled its intentions to spread wings, even before Google hinted at a pullout.
The California-based Google could see an exodus of advertisers from the Chinese mainland and see them switching to Baidu, something that could strain revenues in the long run for the US firm, experts said.
"Google may get applauses from many for its stance," said Li Zhi, an analyst with research firm Analysys International. "But its advertisers may not be convinced, even if it buries the hatchet with the government."
She said if Google exits China, Baidu would have a near monopoly of the market in the short term.
The world's largest search engine said on Wednesday that it may close its China business if the government does not allow it to provide uncensored results in its Chinese version website Google.cn.
The company said it is still in discussions with the government and may eventually close its Chinese offices.
"We are still waiting for the final decision from Google China," said a top official from an advertisement company. The official, who declined to be named, said many of his clients have expressed concern on the issue and are planning not to advertise on Google.
The US company started to provide Chinese language search services in 2000. It started making significant growth only after it established a China team in 2005 and launched domestic website Google.cn.
According to Analysys International, Google's market share in China rose from 22.8 percent in 2006 to 35.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, while Baidu's share fell from nearly 70 percent to 58 percent.
Google has been planning to rejig its strategy in China after its former head Lee Kaifu quit the company in September to start his own venture.
John Liu, who succeeded Lee, said last month that it was time for Google to resume its role as a multinational firm. "We are not Google China, but Google in China," he said, while speaking to CBN Weekly, a domestic business magazine.
Industry experts said the stringent Internet regulations could be prompting Google to think of pulling out from the country.
Lee could not be reached for comments yesterday. But he posted a message on a domestic Twitter like service saying, "a captain would never run away from his duty if he knew the ship was sinking."
Friday 15 January 2010 at 04:31 am
Kang Rixin, former general manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), has been stripped of his post and his membership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for "serious violations of the law and breaches of discipline," the Party's discipline watchdog announced Friday.
Kang, a member of the CPC Central Committee since October 2007,was also the secretary of the CNNC's leading Party group.
He was found to have abused his authority, enabled profits for others, and taken huge bribes, according to the findings of investigations conducted by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
Kang had been referred for prosecution, his illegal gains confiscated, said a statement from the CCDI to Xinhua.
Born in 1953, Kang became CNNC Party chief and general manager in September 2003. On Aug. 5 last year, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee announced he was being investigated for alleged "grave violations of discipline."
The CNNC, a large state-owned enterprise, comprises more than 100 subsidiary companies and institutes.
As the main investor and the biggest owner of nuclear power plants in China, it carries out research and development as well as construction in fields such as nuclear electricity production, nuclear fuels and nuclear technology application, according to the corporation's website.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 04:31 am
China's tax revenue reported an annual increase of 9.1 percent to 6.31 trillion yuan (928 billion U.S. dollars) last year, said a statement posted Friday on the website of the State Administration of Taxation.
Tax revenue excludes tariffs, tonnage dues, farmland use tax and contract tax, said the statement.
Domestic retail sales tax revenues jumped 85.4 percent to 476.1billion yuan, boosted by measures adopted by the central government to increase the economy's dependence on domestic consumption.
China's auto purchase tax saw a surge of 17.6 percent to 116.4 billion yuan, with 13.64 million cars sold nationwide, up 46.15 percent year on year, putting China ahead of the United States as the world's top auto maker and market.
The value-added tax on producer products rose to 1.88 trillion yuan, up 3.8 percent year on year, accounting for the biggest proportion of tax revenue.
However, the stamp tax of stock transactions dropped 47.9 percent to 51.4 billion yuan, said the statement.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 04:30 am
Americans spent a record $5.53 billion on video games in December, the most money ever in a single month, according to market researcher NPD Group.
But even that wasn't enough to make up for the rest of 2009, and so the year ended with a sales decline. It had been a rough 12 months for the industry, as the recession led people to cut back on discretionary spending and many gamers' attention turned to cheaper — or free — online games.
Even so, there were a few notable bright spots, mainly Nintendo Co. and Activision Blizzard Inc. whose latest "Call of Duty" game set entertainment records when it hit stores in the fall.
NPD said Thursday U.S. retail sales of gaming software, hardware and accessories climbed 4 percent in December when compared with the same month a year earlier.
Much of this increase was due to sales of gaming systems, a signal that price cuts by console makers in August and September helped lure holiday shoppers into buying them as gifts.
Hardware sales jumped 16 percent to $2.19 billion. The Nintendo Wii sold 3.8 million units, more than its rivals, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 did, combined. It set a record for most gaming systems ever sold in a single month.
"Despite all of the dire predictions," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, Nintendo had a "historic" 2009.
"We said all along that our performance would be back-loaded," he added, referring to big game launches in the latter half of the year.
Sony Corp. said the PlayStation 3 saw its sales nearly double every month since October. Until then, however, the console lagged behind its rivals in large part because it came with a bigger price tag.
Spokesman Patrick Seybold said Sony expects high demand for the console to continue into the coming months.
In December, the PS3 sold 1.4 million units. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 came close with 1.3 million.
While gaming systems sold well in December, many games did not. Software sales fell 7 percent from a year earlier, to $2.58 billion.
Nintendo's "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" was the month's top-selling game, followed by "Wii Fit Plus," the exercise game, and "Wii Sports Resort." Activision's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" rounded out the top five, with versions for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 coming in at fourth and fifth place, respectively.
For all of 2009, total game sales dropped 8 percent to $19.66 billion from a record $21.4 billion in 2008. Even so it was the second best year for the industry.
"When we started the last decade, video game industry sales, including PC games, totaled $7.98 (billion) in 2000," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. In the 10 years since, she added, the industry has changed dramatically, and, most importantly, it grew by "more than 250 percent at retail alone."
"Call of Duty" for the Xbox was 2009 best-selling game, but the year's big winner was Nintendo, which was behind seven of the top 10 games sold.
Friday 15 January 2010 at 04:29 am
Millions adored or loathed Maradona as a player. Now comes a new love-hate possibility as one of the world's greatest football players prepares to launch his own cable TV and Internet channel. Maradona's latest venture kicked off Thursday in Mexico City
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 11:06 pm
Some of the nation's leading photographers lambasted the semi-official China Photographers Association (CPA) Tuesday despite it having withdrawn an award presented to a photographer for allegedly plagiarized works, accusing the body of conducting a biased investigation and urging transparency in its awarding of prizes.
The CPA announced on its website Tuesday that it was revoking the 2009 Golden Image Award, six months after the title had been awarded to photographer Sang Yuzhu, whose entry featured a series of landscape photos of Changbai Mountain in northeast Jilin Province.
Sang, who is also the standing deputy chairman of the Jilin Photographers Association, could not be reached Tuesday.
After he received the award, it was revealed that Sang did not take four of the pictures, which are exactly the same as those published by other photographers earlier, according to criticism that had been circulating since November last year.
The CPA award organizing committee said Tuesday the submitted works by Sang "did not meet the criteria of the award" as they "cannot reflect the skills and personal style of a photographer."
The association did not recognize four photos as Sang's individual work based on his written statement, in which Sang denied appropriating the four photographs, and said that they are joint works with Meng Tie and Wen Bo, two local photographers in Jilin.
The three photographers went together to the same places and took the same pictures at the same time and from the same angle, Sang reportedly said.
Meng and Wen echoed Sang in their respective written statements, according to CPA's own investigation.
Questions also linger as to whether Meng and Wen told the truth, since Sang has greater seniority over the two in the Jilin association. It is also claimed that Sang did not go to Changbai Mountain to shoot the photos, according to sources within the local government, sources that were not even contacted by the CPA investigation team.
An article carried by China Youth Daily Tuesday questioned why, if the works were the result of a cooperation, was the award given to Sang instead of all three photographers.
"It's a big mistake that Sang did not explain the situation when he submitted his entry to the competition and the four photos were allowed to join the contest," the CPA said in a statement Tuesday in response to the first such scandal surrounding the award since it was launched in 1989.
The Golden Image Award is handed out every two or three years and is considered the most significant honor for the country's photography professionals with membership of the CPA.
The body now has more than 7,500 photographers registered, its website says.
Xu Lin, a senior member of the China Photojournalist Society (CPS) and a retired graphic reporter with People's Daily, said the result of the CPA's investigation, which he said only started last week, didn't convince him.
"It (the association) can't be a player and a referee at the same time. There should be another investigation with third-party involvement," Xu argued, adding that no informers had been contacted by the CPA for the investigation, resulting in biased findings.
But Xu claimed that some informers faced pressure, saying that photographer Cai Xiaoshan, a subordinate of Sang, was the first person to expose the issue on the Internet. Cai's articles posted online were deleted several times, Xu said.
"A self-claimed CPA member left a message on my Internet blog after I raised questions over the award. This individual said the leaders of the Jilin association had noticed my article, which they thought was a slander on the CPA, and Sang asked me to close the blog immediately," Xu said.
Such a scandal frustrates photographers, Xu said, suggesting all the entered works be published on the Internet for Web users' feedback.
He Yanguang, chief photo editor at China Youth Daily, compared the photography circle in China to a vanity fair.
"The CPA holds all kinds of photography festivals and activities for profit. Some photographers with leadership positions in the association even use others' works under their own names at photo exhibitions," He told the Beijing News.
"Some people with a true passion for photography prefer to stay away from this circle. The CPA should be blamed for the consequences," He said.
Bao Kun, a renowned photographer and CPA member, said in his Web blog that the CPA has become an authority, based on the interests of a small group, that monopolizes the industry.
"It's necessary to identify the functions and powers of the association, instead of indulging it to run without supervision," Bao suggested.
Cheating by manipulating in Photoshop or simply stealing others' photos are not rare practices in China.
People's Daily, a Communist Party newspaper, admitted last year that some pigeons on a picture it published in June were faked.
Fake photographs of a rare tiger published in 2007 also sparked public debate.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 11:05 pm
China's Ministry of Health on Wednesday advised children, old people and other vulnerable groups to stay put for the upcoming Spring Festival in a bid to prevent an A/H1N1 outbreak.
Usually a large number of Chinese people, mostly migrant workers and students, travel back home for family reunions in time of the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 14, resulting in a highpeak of mass transportation.
Pregnant women, children, the elderly, obese people and those with chronic diseases were advised not to frequent crowded places and see doctors as soon as possible if experiencing respiratory symptoms, the ministry said on its official website.
The Chinese mainland reported 51 deaths from the A/H1N1 influenza in the week from Jan. 4 to Jan. 10, with 2,173 new cases confirmed.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 11:05 pm
An explosion took place Wednesday morning in Kfarkila village in south Lebanon, injuring three children waiting for their school bus, the local Naharnet website reported.
A security source told Naharnet that the blast took place at the entrance to a three-storey building in Kfarkila, adding that it is believed to be the result of a bomb.
The source identified one of the tenants in the building as Mohammed Zreiq, who is believed to be a Hezbollah official.
He said two of Zreiq's children, aged 7 and 11, were among the wounded. The third casualty was identified as a 15-year-old student.
However, the country's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that the local residents said the father is just an ordinary person doing business in Africa.
The NNA said that Lebanese troops and police officers later cordoned off the building and an investigation was under way.
Kfarkila has long been a stronghold of Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in 2006.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 11:04 pm
Yemeni tribesmen have demanded two million U.S. dollars for releasing a German family of five and a Briton whom have been held since June 2009, local media reported Wednesday.
The News Yemen website report did not provide more details.
The new information came a day after Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said that the Yemeni government was negotiating with the kidnappers of the six foreigners to secure their release after locating their whereabouts.
The six were among a group of nine foreigners who were kidnapped in the northern region of Saada about six months ago. The other three, two German Bible students and a South Korean, were shot dead during the operation of abducting.
The Yemeni government frequently accused the Houthi rebels of the kidnapping, a charge Houthis always denied while blaming the government for using such propaganda as a pretext to battle the group.
In Yemen, kidnapping foreigners are a common phenomenon as tribesmen in the lawless areas often resort to such act to force the government to meet their demands.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 11:03 pm
The total external debt of Russia stood at 469.7 billion U.S. dollars as of Jan. 1, 2010, decreasing10.2 billion dollars as compared with one year ago, said the Russian Central Bank on Wednesday.
The foreign debt of Russia's general government contracted by 500 million dollars to 30 billion dollars on a year-on-year basis, said the bank website.
Net foreign capital outflow from Russia last year was approximately 52.4 billion dollars. Russia's current account totaled 47.5 billion dollars, and the trade surplus 110.6 billion dollars.
Exports of goods and services were estimated at 303.3 billion dollars and 42.3 billion dollars in 2009, while imports of those stood at 192.7 billion dollars and 62.2 billion dollars respectively.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 11:02 pm
Yemeni Interior Ministry said up to 53 Somali refugees and 11 Ethiopian illegal migrants arrived on Wednesday in southwestern Yemen.
The Somalis, including 15 women, and the Ethiopians arrived early Wednesday in the port town of Dhubab, Taiz province, some 350 km southwest of the capital Sanaa, the Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
The Ministry said security authorities had sent them to Kharaz camp for Somali refugees in the southern province of Lahj.
Though Yemeni government has long welcomed Somali refugees fleeing their war-torn country and sailing to Yemen, the government is now particularly concerned that al-Qaida infiltrators could be among those new arrivals, local media said.
According to UNHCR statistics, the number of Somali refugees in Yemen has reached to some 78,000 by the end of 2009, while three years ago there were around 49,000.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 06:14 am
Google Books halted a scheduled negotiation over alleged copyright violations with China's copyright society in Beijing yesterday, leaving a formal apology hanging in air.
Google Books' top negotiator in China, Erik Hartmann, called his counterpart, Zhang Hongbo, deputy director of China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS), at about 10 am and said Google wanted to postpone the negotiation scheduled for 2 pm that day.
"He (Erik) was friendly, but did not explain the exact reason, and we are discussing when to restart the negotiation," Zhang told China Daily.
Google Books was accused of scanning 18,000 books by 570 Chinese writers without paying or notifying the authors. It plans to set up a digital library.
Google Books supplied a list to the CWWCS of more than 80,000 Chinese works in late December, but Chinese representatives claimed it was incomplete as it did not include books published before 1987.
The Chinese Writers' Association (CWA) published a reply from Google Books last week in which company officials said they are "ready to apologize to Chinese authors."
"Following discussions and communications in recent months, we do believe that our communication with Chinese writers has not been good enough," Google said in the scanned letter posted on the association's website.
"Google is ready to apologize to Chinese writers about this," said the letter, which bore the signature of Hartmann, Asia-Pacific head of Google Books.
Some Chinese media considered the latest occurrence a victory for the Chinese authors, saying this is the first time in the world that Google Books has apologized to any authors.
Yang Chengzhi, a senior official from the CWA, said the communication between CWA and Google so far has been relatively "satisfying."
"We sent Google an announcement in late December, urging them to stop scanning Chinese works, submit a scanned book list and offer a settlement before the end of 2009. It seems Google did as we demanded until now."
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 06:13 am
Some smartphone owners running Windows software said they got messages from the future, according to CNN report Wednesday.
A report on CNN website said since the New Year's day, a small but growing numbe of users have been reporting that the date on the texts they received was 2016.
But there are no other obvious problems with the texts as users appear to be having fun with their supposed glimpses ahead in time.
"I got a text from my girlfriend from the year 2016 ... ," one user wrote on a Sprint message board, "Apparently in the future I still haven't cleaned out the hallway closet."
Microsoft released a statement and said it is aware of the problem and working on it with telephone manufacturers and other partners.
"These reports have not yet resulted in widespread customer inquiries," the statement said, "However, we are working closely with our manufacturing and mobile operator partners to investigate the cause and correct the issue as appropriate."
Most people reporting the problem were using HTC phones and the Sprint network, according to multiple tech blogs and message boards.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 06:13 am
Chinese shares fell in morning session Wednesday, led by banking and property stocks, after the central bank said late Tuesday it would order banks set aside more reserves as a lending boom has aroused inflationary expectations and concern about asset bubbles.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plummeted by 2.32 percent, or 75.96 points, to close at 3,198.01 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index dropped by 2.28 percent, or 305.13points, to close at 13,076.12 points.
Banking shares slumped across the board by 5.01 percent, led by Bank of Beijing which dropped by 6.52 percent. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC),the country's largest commercial bank, sank 3.93 percent to 5.13 yuan, while Bank of China (BOC) lost 3.47 percent to 4.17 yuan.
Shares of property developers declined by 2.49 percent. China Vanke Co., the country's largest property developer by market value, sank 2.72 percent to 10.1 yuan. Poly Real Estate Group Co., the country's second largest developer, lost 3.33 percent to 20.60 yuan.
Zhou Binglin, an analyst with the Guosen Securities, said the reserve ratio increase would surely bring about short-term impact to the stock market but it is not enough to change the market trend, because the overall situation of China's economic recovery is rather optimistic and the liquidity is far from inadequate.
Chinese lenders extended a record 9.21 trillion yuan of loans in the first 11 months of last year, 5.06 trillion yuan more than the corresponding period of 2008 and far exceeding the government target of 5 trillion yuan for the whole 2009.
Reserve requirements will increase by 0.5 percent from Jan. 18 this year, said People's Bank of China (PBOC). The existing ratio is 15.5 percent for big financial institutions and 13.5 percent for small and medium-sized ones.
The increase excludes small financial institutions such as the rural credit cooperatives to support the agriculture sector.
This is the first time that the PBOC raised the ratio since June of 2008. It has cut the reserve requirements for four times in the second half of 2008 to stimulate growth as the global financial crisis started to weigh on the economy.
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced on Tuesday to raise the deposit reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points from Jan. 18 this year.
The ratio at small financial institutions such as the rural credit cooperatives would remain unchanged to support the agriculture sector, the PBOC said in a statement. Full story
BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China, the central bank, reiterated on Wednesday that it would maintain a moderately loose monetary policy in 2010 and improve the focus and flexibility of the policy according to new circumstances.
The monetary policy in 2010 would aim to maintain a stable and relatively rapid rate of economic growth, improve the economic structure and manage inflation expectations, the central bank said in a statement on its website after the conclusion of its annual work conference from Jan. 5-6. Full story
BEIJING, Jan. 7 -- China's central bank Wednesday said it will manage inflation expectations and keep a close watch on the property market through its credit and money supply policies.
In a statement on its website, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it would try to maintain ample liquidity in the financial system, and ask banks to lend more evenly, while strictly implementing credit policies in the property sector.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 06:13 am
Three men arrested after a massive manhunt for a group of escaped convicts in north China last year have been charged with the murder of a prison guard during the jailbreak, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Police arrested Qiao Haiqiang, Dong Jiaji and Li Hongbin 66 hours after the escape from a prison in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in October.
A fourth man, Gao Bo, was shot dead after he resisted arrest.
Prosecution procedures had started at the Intermediate People's Court of Hohhot against the three, all in their twenties.
They are also charged with escaping custody, robbery, kidnap and theft, said a spokesman for Hohhot procurators.
Notices posted on the Ministry of Public Security's website during the manhunt said two of the escapees had been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and the other two were sentenced to life in prison for robbery.
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 06:12 am
A terrorist group named "Iran Royal Association" took responsibility for Tuesday's fatal bombing attack on an Iranian nuclear physicist, local Iran Daily reported Wednesday.
The Iran Royal Association, a group seeking to reestablish the Pahlavi reign in Iran, announced Tuesday in a statement that its " Tondar Commandos" were behind the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a particle physics professor in Tehran University, according to the report.
The website of the group said it had previously threatened Ali-Mohammadi with death.
The Iran Royal Association, headed by Foroud Fouladvand, was also responsible for a deadly bombing in the tourist city of Shiraz in April 2008, during which 13 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
Ali-Mohammadi was killed Tuesday morning when a bomb strapped to a parked motorcycle was triggered by remote control outside his home in the Qeytariyeh neighborhood.
Police sealed off the area and launched an investigation.
Iran's Foreign Ministry responded to the attack by saying that there were traces of U.S. and Israeli involvement in it, according to the state IRIB TV.
Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 03:33 am
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is urging men over 50 years-old to get regular tests for prostate cancer after he was successfully treated for the disease last year and given the all-clear.
Lloyd Webber, 61, said in a health diary published on his website that he noticed the first symptoms of his cancer last summer and underwent an operation to remove his prostate gland after a biopsy came back positive.
He was told the cancer had been caught early and the treatment was successful, but he then battled an underlying e-coli infection that had been there all along.
"If that infection had been found and cured, I could have been blissfully unaware that I had a cancerous tumor that was on the verge of breaking loose around the rest of my body. I could have thought that my frequent peeing was due to a weak bladder. I have been bloody lucky," wrote Lloyd Webber.
"I say to every red-blooded male, if you do begin to have a problem down under, however embarrassing, go to your GP at once. Even if you don't have any symptoms, if you are over 50 get regular PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests."
Lloyd Webber, the composer behind hit musicals including "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Cats" and "Starlight Express," is staging a sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera" called "Love Never Dies" that is due to open in London in March this year.
He has also just kicked off a search for Dorothy to star in his West End production of "The Wizard of Oz" with his search to be the topic of a BBC television talent show.
Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 03:32 am
Touching documentary captures a Mosuo family's wrenching choice between the ways of the old and temptations of the new. Guo Shuhan reports
As workers lift wooden boards from the roof of the cottage, an old man sits inside by the fireplace, calmly chanting from ancient scriptures, oblivious to the falling pieces of wood. Outside, an old woman watches them with deep grief in her eyes, for the room being taken apart was once her bedroom.
For the Mosuo people in Southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, the flames in the family fireplace kept burning around the year in the granny's bedroom (or yimi in the Mosuo language), are believed to bring everlasting prosperity.
At the end of the demolition, the old woman steps up and puts out the fire with water.
"The deity who has been blessing our family will leave," she says, almost choking with tears. "I'm terribly sorry to my parents and ancestors. Money doesn't make sense to me."
The documentary, The Granny House Away from Home, captures the anguish the old woman experienced two years ago in Lijiazui village, Sichuan province.
The documentary is made by Erqing, also a Mosuo, and participant in the village video project sponsored by the EU-China Biodiversity Program. The project aims to show the nation's cultural and biological diversity through the eyes of the locals.
The Mosuo people are known for their matriarchal system, under which the utmost respect is attached to the senior-most woman in the family. It is her bedroom that serves as the family's center of everyday life.
The priest, or Daba, - a role that often falls on the oldest man in the family - makes offerings to the ancestors before every meal over the fireplace, called guozhuang, which is set in front of the altar. The fireplace is where all rituals - from celebrating births to quarantining the diseased - are performed.
In 2007, Dutch artist Mathilde ter Heijne and Tang Qifeng, co-organizer of Heijne's exhibition of Mosuo culture in Beijing, came to the village looking for a genuine yimi and offered 100,000 yuan ($14,600) for it.
Erche Pinchu, 35, and the oldest son of the family, saw it as a wonderful opportunity to turn around the family's fortunes.
A six-hour drive from Lugu Lake, Lijiazui village sits in the mountains and has been slow to develop. Electricity reached it only 7 years ago, but even now is available only in the evening. Telephone connections were not available until 2008. Villagers still make a living raising sheep and growing corn.
Pinchu's father died years ago and the family of seven survived on selling matsutake, or pine mushroom, and some medicinal herbs in the summer. Pinchu remembers that the most he made after toiling in the mountains for half a month, was 140 yuan ($20).
Ter Heijne, who did not answer requests for an interview, has created many works on the role of women. She came up with the idea of the exhibition after reading the book A Society without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China by Chinese anthropologist Cai Hua, according to Erqing and Ter Heijne's website.
Even though Pinchu tried very hard to persuade his family and the villagers that selling the family's yimi was a worthwhile deal, no one backed him up, except for his girlfriend Wong Pakngan. The Hong Kong native toured Lijiazui in 2005 and fell in love with the handsome and honest young man.
Erqing captures well the wrenching emotions triggered by the controversial sale. The documentary has Pinchu expressing the overwhelming pressure he came under.
"My mother was quite heartbroken and her reproach nearly drove me nuts," he says. "But I really hope that if the exhibition and the ones to follow are held abroad as the artist says they will be, it can contribute to our village's development."
But his mother says: "I told the foreigner I will definitely not sell it, yet Pinchu insists on the deal. I'm just fed up with the endless quarrels."
On the day the cottage was taken apart, Pinchu gathered his whole family for one last photograph in front of the 200-year-old wooden structure occupying 26 sq m - the village's smallest. Not one Mosuo villager turned up to help with the dismantling.
Half a year later, Pinchu's mother moved into a new house, decorated with sacred symbols such as antelope antlers and streamers covered with religious texts. The new house cost the family 10,000 yuan more than what they earned from the sale of the old. Pinchu now lives in Hong Kong with his wife. Illiterate and unaccustomed to urban life, he spends most of his time indoors.
Already given the cold shoulder by fellow villagers, he says he has also been cheated by outsiders armed with knowledge and money.
In a phone interview, he reacts with indignation when told that a replica of his family's yimi, smaller and made of polyurethane, had been exhibited in Berlin and Amsterdam last year.
He recollects that Ter Heijne and Tang had promised that whenever his family house was put on display, he would be informed beforehand and invited to be there with his mother and wife.
Erqing's documentary ends with a shot of Pinchu's mother smiling at relatives and friends gathered for a banquet on their first day in the new house.
"But I know, though I never ask, that it's a painful memory," says Erqing.
The documentary will soon be shown on the documentary channel of Yunnan TV.
Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 03:32 am
A newly established economic development zone was unveiled Monday and it's expected to rein in more efficient governance and provide better services for investors in what's described as the largest booming economic zone in northern China.
The new administrative district, Tianjin Binhai New Area, brings together the districts of Tanggu, Hangu and Dagang. It now spans 2,000 square kilometers and has a population of 2 million.
The State Council approved the plan in November.
The structure of management has now been simplified with the number of government departments slashed to just a quarter of what it was. Officials said this will significantly improve efficiency.
Binhai has three administrative districts and nine functional districts like the Tianjin Free Trade Zone.
"Binhai's internal administrative efficiency was low and the planning lacked overall coordination as each district was independent and had its own way," said Zhou Liqun, vice-president of the Binhai Development Institute of Nankai University.
There were seven public security bureaus, five industry and commerce administrations, six national tax bureaus, five local taxation bureaus and five procuratorates.
"The overlap led to redundant construction, inefficient allocation of resources and poor flow of land, capital and talent," said Lu Jun, an urban management expert at Peking University.
It's estimated that Binhai's total output value would increased 23.5 percent to pass 370 billion yuan ($54 billion) in 2009, accounting for about 54 percent of Tianjin's output, the People's Daily reported on its website.
Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 03:32 am
Google Inc's new Nexus One smartphone, which retails for $529 without a service plan, is built from components that cost about $174, according to a research report.
But analysts said the big gap between the components' costs and the phone's price tag did not necessarily mean the Internet giant was making a hefty profit, since the retail price includes expenses such as licensing fees and marketing costs.
"You can't base margins off of costs alone," said Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, noting that a variety of expenses are not reflected in so-called teardown reports, which dissect an electronics device and take inventory of the various parts.
Google began selling the Nexus One, which is made by HTC Corp, on its website last week, its first foray into selling electronics devices directly to consumers. The retail price if $529, but if a buyer agrees to a two-year contract with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, the carrier will subsidize the phone and it costs only $179.
According to the teardown by research firm iSuppli, the cost of the Nexus One's various components, including $30.50 for the 1Ghz Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon processor and $17.50 for the Synaptics Inc touchscreen, totals $174.16.
In a note to investors last week, Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell estimated that the Nexus One's component costs were $300.
The bill of materials cited by iSuppli does not include other costs such as manufacturing, software and royalties -- all of which are factored in when calculating gross profit margin on a product.
Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder said smartphone vendors typically achieve gross margins around 30 percent.
He said the iSuppli report suggested Google would make a "decent" margin on the product, but added that it was impossible to know exactly how much.
Analysts also noted that the component costs are the costs borne by HTC to produce the phone, with Google then likely paying HTC a mark-up to buy and resell the phones.
The Nexus One, which competes with Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry devices, is the first of a variety of smartphones that Google said were in the pipeline as the company seeks to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile world and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement.
During an event unveiling the phone last week, Google Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin said the company had an opportunity for an undisclosed margin selling the Nexus One.
Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 03:31 am
China's largest search engine, Baidu.com, confirmed that its website was paralyzed Tuesday morning after coming under a cyber-attack.
The search engine has now resumed operation.
"The reason why Chinese users could not log on to the website was that our domain name server (DNS) in the United States was illegally attacked," it said in a statement that gave no details of the attack.
The company said it was still investigating the problem, and declined to give further information.
Problems were found at around 8 a.m. The website reopened at 11:30 a.m..
"It is rare for Baidu.com to be down for so long as the company boasts high security protection," said Li Tiejun, an IT security engineer of Beijing Kingsoft.
The search engine, which claims 70 percent of China's Internet search market, had only been down only once previously, for half an hour in December 2006.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 05:23 am
A premier Consumer Electronics Show (CES) ended after rebounding from a global economic drubbing and wowing attendees with gadgets that merge 3-D, software, entertainment, and the Web.
"CES is back," analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said of the annual event at which electronics makers from around the world gather to display their latest creations. The show ended on Sunday.
"Last year when I left I was thinking 'It's the last CES;' it was a morgue."
Device makers who felt the chill the fiscal crisis put on sales of consumer electronics last year poured passion and innovation into proven products and hot trends such at electronic-readers and 3-D television sets.
But "this is one of the most exciting CES events we've had in years," said Scott Steinberg, lead technology analyst for DigitalTrends.com.
"There is innovation in terms of incremental gains instead of revolutionary changes. We are seeing baby steps and hints of giant steps to come."
Two Silicon Valley titans absent from the show floor left giant footprints on the gathering of more than 2,500 exhibitors.
CES was awash in e-reader, tablet, and slate devices that in some cases seemed hurried out to get a jump on an "iSlate" that iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computer maker Apple is expected to unveil later this month.
"I think a lot of the tablet buzz was trying to get upwind of Apple," said Roger Kay, president of Massachusetts-based Endpoint Technologies Associates.
"It's kind of a game of chicken or leapfrog where you're investing or pretending to invest in the tablet area in a bid to try to claim it before someone else gets there."
A host of device makers unveiled smartphones, netbooks, or tablets based on Google's Android software.
A Google team had the Internet star's new Nexus One smartphone available for private meetings and on display one evening at an event in a Las Vegas hotel but not on the CES show floor.
"Google was kind of the stealth company here," Enderle said. "Google Androids were in devices all over the place."
Television makers who have seen prices driven down by competition and the economy enthralled CES attendees by crafting eye-grabbing 3-D and Internet services into high-definition flat-screen models.
"We've seen a pretty dramatic shift from hardware-centric to software-centric," Gartner analyst Van Baker said of televisions unveiled at CES, which ends Sunday.
"Manufacturers are struggling with that. Increasing the value with software implies service, and it's not an easy transition for them."
Internet pioneer Yahoo! added its software "widgets" to some televisions last year at CES and built on that momentum this week with an expanded array of sets and online services.
"It won't be long before every TV is Web-connected in one shape or form, whether it's technology in the TV or through a set-top box," Enderle said.
"They're all pushing this pretty hard."
Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said that 3-D TVs face "an uphill slog" and it is unlikely consumers will rush to buy them after many upgraded to high-definition sets in the past three years.
"I don't think we are going to be wearing those 3-D glasses at home any time soon," Steinberg said.
Growth of 3-D has been slow because of a lack of programming, the need for the special glasses and the higher prices of 3-D sets.
But last month's release of science fiction blockbuster "Avatar," a 3-D film by "Titanic" director James Cameron, has renewed interest in the medium and ESPN, Discovery and others announced plans this week to broadcast 3-D programming.
In another nod to Digital Age tastes, CES abounded with chips, controllers, and other offerings tailored to enhance videogame play as far as making experiences 3-D.
The Consumer Electronics Association that runs CES estimated that more than 120,000 people attended the event in a jump of more than 20 percent from the prior year. Final attendance figures won't be available for several months.
Gartner expects consumer electronics sales to improve along with the economy.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 05:23 am
Cutting-edge technology grabbed the headlines at the premier US gadget show here but the showrooms also featured products better described as useful, useless and downright unusual.
Sharing space in the cavernous halls at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with snazzy new electronic readers, tablet computers and 3-D televisions were scores of other items -- both high- and low-tech.
Here is a glance at some of the most innovative, fun and eye-catching products on display at the Las Vegas Convention Center:
-- Samsung's "All-in-Premium Remote," a TV remote control from the South Korean company, features a built-in screen allowing you to go fix a sandwich or answer a call of nature without missing any action. It will come out later this year with Samsung's new 9000 series high-definition TVs.
-- ZOMM, a wireless leash for a mobile phone from an Oklahoma-based company of the same name. The device about the size of a poker chip attaches to a keychain or clothing and vibrates, flashes a light and emits an alarm when you walk out of Bluetooth range. ZOMM, which retails for 80 dollars, was a winner of a CES 2010 "Best of Innovations" Award.
-- SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector from Microvision, a pocket-size device that can connect to mobile phones, portable media players or computers and uses lasers to project a high-quality wide-screen image on any surface. A winner of the "Last Gadget Standing" competition at CES it will go on sale later this year for 500 dollars.
-- Boxee Box from D-Link, a set-top box that streams content from the Web to a TV without the need of a computer. The Boxee Box, which shared "Last Gadget Standing" honors with the SHOWWX projector, is to be available later this year for around 200 dollars.
-- MicroVision Optical sunglasses described as the first which can also be used to watch 3-D movies or 3-D TV. With more 3-D entertainment coming out, the glasses "should be a permanent addition to your eyewear collection," said David Johnson, president of the San Diego, California-based company. They come in various styles selling for between 32 dollars and 40 dollars.
-- MusicCap from Israeli company Walletex, a baseball cap which features an MP3 player embedded in the bill and dangling earbuds. "It's waterproof so you can surf, ski, run, jog, fish, do any outdoor activity with your cap on your head and music in your ears," said product manager Max Fleischer. It costs between 50 and 60 dollars and comes with up to eight gigabytes of memory.
-- Jelfin, a colorful ball-shaped gel-covered mouse from an Arizona-based company of the same name. "It's funky, it's fun, it's 34.95 dollars," said Pamela North, a Jelfin spokeswoman.
-- Mint, a cleaning robot from California-based Evolution Robotics which uses light sensor feedback to move around obstacles and get into corners. The square-shaped Mint, which costs 250 dollars, dusts or mops hardwood or tile floors and is seen as a complement to iRobot's disk-shaped Roomba carpet vacuum cleaner. "We think people will want both," said Evolution's Teresa Bridwell.
-- Summit Series ski goggles featuring a built-in still and video camera from Liquid Image, a California company which made a splash at CES last year with their camera-equipped scuba diving masks. The goggles debut in June and will cost 150 dollars.
-- Digital Art Frame from Casio. It transforms digital pictures into virtual oil paintings, pastels, or water colors. It will be available by mid-year. The price was not disclosed. Another digital picture frame, the Frame Wizard, from FaceCake Marketing Technologies of Calabasas, California, can animate family photos like images in Harry Potter books. "Your face can be moving, you can be smiling," said FaceCake CEO Linda Smith. "You can have leaves or snow falling." An eight-inch (20-centimeter) frame costs 199 dollars while the 15-inch (30-cm) model sells for 299 dollars.
-- AR.drone, a flying saucer-like drone from French company Parrot which is piloted using an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch through a Wi-Fi connection. The drone also has a camera that streams live video. It's the first product of its kind from Parrot, which specializes in hands-free wireless systems for drivers. No price has been set.
-- Nite Dawg Light-Up dog collars and leashes from Boulder, Colorado-based Nite Ize Innovation feature an LED light sewn into the material. "It's a fun product but manufactured for safety." said Nite Ize's Bill Kuntz. They each sell for 17.50 dollars.
-- the MagicJack, a controversial product from Florida company YMax which uses radio frequencies to make free Internet phone calls from inside the home by acting like a personal cell tower. The problem? The 40-dollar device uses radio spectrum without a bona fide license and the major cellular carriers pay billions of dollars for the privilege. Ymax insists it is not breaking any laws but a fight is looming.
-- Dash, a "personal Internet viewer" from Sony, has a 7-inch (18-cm) screen and sits on a nightstand or table top like a clock radio. It can display films, news, weather, social networks or other online content. The Dash will cost 200 dollars when it launches in the United States in a few months.
-- cellphone accessories, particularly for Apple's iPhone, are ubiquitous at CES. Some of the most notable: crystal-studded "Luxmo" iPhone cases from DreamWireless costing between 350 and 450 dollars. On the other end of the spectrum, iWaveAudio.com offers an "eco-friendly line" of iPhone covers made from wood and hemp for between 20 and 30 dollars.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 05:23 am
New Jersey company says it has developed "the world's first sex robot," a life-size rubber doll that's designed to engage the owner with conversation rather than lifelike movement.
At a demonstration at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas on Saturday, the dark-haired, negligee-clad robot said "I love holding hands with you" when it sensed that its creator touched its hand.
Another action, this one unprintable, elicited a different vocal response from Roxxxy the robot. The level of sophistication demonstrated was not beyond that of a child's talking toy, but Roxxxy has a lot more brains than that — there's a laptop connected to cables coming out of its back. It has touch sensors at strategic locations and can sense when it's being moved. But it can't move on its own, not even to turn its head or move its lips. The sound comes out of an internal loudspeaker.
Douglas Hines, founder of Lincoln Park, N.J.-based True Companion LLC, said Roxxxy can carry on simple conversations. The real aim, he said, is to make the doll someone the owner can talk to and relate to.
"Sex only goes so far — then you want to be able to talk to the person," Hines said.
The phrases that were demonstrated were prerecorded, but the robot will also be able to synthesize phrases out of prerecorded words and sounds, Hines said. The laptop will receive updates over the Internet to expand the robot's capabilities and vocabulary. Since Hines is a soccer fan, it can already discuss Manchester United, he said. It snores, too.
Owners will also be able to select different personalities for Roxxxy, from "Wild Wendy" to "Frigid Farrah," Hines said. He's charging somewhere from $7,000 to $9,000 for the robot, including the laptop, and expects to start shipping in a few months.
A Japanese company, Honey Dolls, makes life-size sex dolls that can play recorded sounds, but Roxxxy's sensors and speech capabilities appear to be more sophisticated. Hines' goals are certainly more far-reaching.
An engineer, Hines said he was inspired to create the robot after a friend died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That got him thinking about preserving his friend's personality, to give his children a chance to interact with him as they're growing up. Looking around for commercial applications for artificial personalities, he initially thought he might create a home health care aide for the elderly.
"But there was tremendous regulatory and bureaucratic paperwork to get through. We were stuck," Hines said. "So I looked at other markets."
The broader goal of the company is still to take artificial personalities into the mainstream, beyond sex toys, Hines said.
"The sex robot thing is marketing — it's really about making a companion," he said.
In a 2007 book, "Love and Sex with Robots," British chess player and artificial intelligence expert David Levy argues that robots will become significant sexual partners for humans, answering needs that other people are unable or unwilling to satisfy.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 05:22 am
With the hit movie "Avatar" creating a buzz around 3-D entertainment, a California company is touting what it believes are the first 3-D glasses which can also double as sunglasses.
"We believe we're the first ones and we have a significant patent portfolio in the lens device so we believe we'll have a good bit of protection in the market," MicroVision Optical president David Johnson said.
The San Diego-based company is displaying the glasses here at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, where leading television manufacturers have been pushing 3-D technology as the next big thing in home theater.
MicroVision Optical said the polarized lenses provide sun protection while also allowing for 3-D viewing of the most widely used 3-D movie theater systems and the latest generation of flat screen television or computer monitors.
"It decodes the content very clearly, very crisply," Johnson said, adding that the 3-D/sunglasses "should be a permanent addition to your eyewear collection."
He said the glasses, which come in a variety of styles, will sell for between 32 dollars and 40 dollars in optical stores.
"We're also working on a prescription program where you can have your own prescription 3-D glasses as well," Johnson said.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 05:22 am
Health officials refocus safe sex awareness strategies to curb worrying rise in HIV among aging Chinese men. Cao Li in Guangzhou and Shan Juan in Beijing report
Cai Weiping, director of the infectious disease department at No 8 People's Hospital, warned that the deadly virus is spreading fast among the country's elderly population.
"I am seeing more elderly patients year by year," he said, adding that seven of the 39 people hospitalized with HIV at his unit last year were aged 58 or above, with the oldest being 73.
"The oldest patient we have tracked is a 94-year-old man. Study of his development has found he was most likely infected by sex," said Xu Huifang, director of HIV and AIDS Control and Prevention under the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control.
The situation in the southern metropolis is being echoed in most other regions of the country, said Hao at the Ministry of Health. However, both Hao and Xu declined to reveal the exact size of the elderly HIV positive population.
Some experts have put the nationwide rise in cases down to the improved blood screening programs introduced since 2006, when hospitals began to give all patients blood tests before surgical procedures, such as cancer and heart operations.
"As older people are more prone to major diseases than youths, they are more likely to receive a HIV test, meaning they have a higher chance of testing positive," said Wang Ning, deputy director of the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Control and Prevention.
The fact that the majority of China's 740,000 HIV and AIDS patients are aged 20 to 49 shows they are "still the biggest hit groups, rather than the elderly", he said.
However, other experts disagree and instead blame the rise in infection among older people on abundant and cheap commercial sex, as well as an increasingly active gay community.
Campaigners have urged health officials to roll out more safe sex awareness programs targeting the elderly. Most programs and events currently only target young adults on college campuses or at nightclubs, they said.
Although illegal prostitution has become increasingly abundant in China since the late 1980s, with the sex industry enjoying boom times from 2000, said Wan Shaoping, a professor at the Sichuan Institute of Dermatology and STD Prevention in Chengdu.
"There is demand. People are getting richer and the price of a prostitute is getting cheaper," he said.
There are between 4 to 10 million female sex workers on the Chinese mainland catering regularly to more than 6 percent of the male population aged 20 to 64, according to a paper published in 2009 by Wan and Professor Joseph T.F. Lau, director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's center for epidemiology and biostatistics.
Some women charge as little as 20 to 50 yuan ($3 to $7) and usually attract elderly men and migrant workers, the paper said.
AIDS specialist Cai said his older patients often told him they paid for sex at cheap venues - usually disguised as saunas, hair salons and massage parlors - because their wives had died or lost their sex drive after the menopause.
"Traditionally, sex is a taboo subject in China. People do not talk openly about it, meaning men often feel ashamed at having to request sex with their wife if she has lost interest," he said.
Elderly widowers and divorcees also turn to prostitutes for sex because their children prevent them from remarrying, usually due to concerns about their inheritance, said Zhang Hongmei, a volunteer at China Red Ribbon, a non-government organization (NGO) advocating AIDS prevention in Guangzhou.
"The sexual needs of the elderly should be fully recognized and respected by society," added Pan Suiming, a professor at Renmin University's institute of sexuality and gender in Beijing and well-known sexologist.
A Beijing man surnamed Huang, 74, who was diagnosed HIV positive in 2004, told China Daily he began paying for sex 10 years ago after the death of his wife. He never once used a condom, he said. "It felt better without it and I never thought HIV would happen to me. I wouldn't say I regret it, or that I am not afraid of dying, but my only concern is if others know about my condition it might lead to my children being discriminated against," he said.
A two-year survey by Wan Shaoping of more than 1,000 clients of female sex workers in three cities in Sichuan province found condom use was at about 40 percent for those offering the industry's "low-end services".
More than 95 percent of the men polled in 2005 and 2006, whose ages ranged from 17 to 80, admitted using a prostitute within six months of the survey. The average number of visits was 11, with the most 90. The average price paid for sex was 36 yuan.
The sex workers with the lowest fees are 30 to 60 years old, and are usually from poor rural areas or unemployed city women; they charge as little as 10 yuan, and more than 90 percent do not insist clients wear condoms, Wan's study discovered.
"They need the money and are the most likely to compromise their health to make it," said the professor, who estimates about 5 percent of low-cost prostitutes are infected with HIV. "The clients of female sex workers may get the virus and then transmit it to general female population."
Peng Xiamin - not his real name - was diagnosed as being in the serious stages of AIDS in early December and was immediately admitted to the Guangzhou No 8 People's Hospital for treatment.
The 59-year-old told China Daily he is still too ashamed to tell his wife about his condition.
"I have been losing weight since last year and now have a cold that cannot be cured. I had a thorough check-up and that's when I found out," he said as he slouched on his bed in the room he shares with two fellow patients. "I still need to tell my wife, tell her how I was infected. Then I must tell her she needs to have a HIV test, too."
Peng said that, in the early 2000s, he used to pick up prostitutes at entertainment venues and take them to hotels.
"I went there out of curiosity and found myself interested in the young women there. They were more sexually active. Sometimes I used a condom, sometimes I didn't. I remember sleeping with seven or eight girls, but I don't know who I caught the virus from," he said.
In heterosexual relationships, it is far more likely for a man to pass HIV to a woman than vice versa, said Cai, meaning the virus is often spread to wives and girlfriends, as well as other prostitutes.
Discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS is still a major issue in China and experts warn this could be preventing high-risk groups - gay men, prostitutes and their clients - from accessing prevention and intervention services.
"People will not go to get help if they think they are going to be made ashamed, or even shunned by society," said Guangzhou AIDS control chief, Xu Huifang.
Of the 1,000-plus men surveyed in Sichuan by Wan Shaoping, only about 15 percent had received free condoms, 3 percent had received treatment for a STD and 20 percent had received AIDS awareness material. Just 3 percent had been tested for HIV.
When asked what they would do if they feared they had an STD, 52 percent of the men said they would visit a small private clinic, 28 percent would buy medicine from a pharmacy and 14 percent would go to a public hospital.
"It's no use telling people to stick to one sexual partner these days. More must be done to promote safe sex," said Doctor Cai.
More programs should also be directed at the "low-price" prostitutes, many of whom are also elderly, said Wan, who explained that the attention was currently on high- and middle-end sex workers.
Hao Yang with the Ministry of Health agreed and said: "More activities to spread anti-HIV knowledge will be held in neighborhood communities to show people, particularly the elderly how to protect."
Wan, along with a team of volunteers, has been running a safe sex awareness program targeting low-end prostitutes in Sichuan since 2005. The project is supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international financing project.
"We started by making friends with some of the women and encouraged them to spread the knowledge to their peers. Then we managed to talk to some clients, as well as owners of commercial sex venues," said Wan.
The team holds community lectures for elderly men and promise small gifts for those who come. Wan said they have so far been well attended.
"We tell them not go to prostitutes, but we also give them information on what to do to stay safe if they decide to go, and what they should do if they find a problem or need help," he said. "Men sometimes dial the hotlines for the local disease control offices during the lectures."
Prevention projects are not expensive, require few resources and pay large dividends, said Wan, who revealed that after just a year of lectures, condom use among clients of low-cost prostitutes rose to almost 70 percent.
The government should encourage more NGOs to get involved in helping to promote safe sex to prostitutes, urged Wang Min, director of the AIDS Study Institute affiliated with the First Hospital of Changsha, Hunan province.
"It is difficult for the authorities to help those in the illegal commercial sex at the same as trying to clamp down on them," she said. "The country's disease control departments, who lead most programs, are not able to handle such a huge task."
One solution could be involving neighborhood committees and local women's federations in the nation's war on AIDS.
"Raising awareness among female sex workers and their male clients should be part of their everyday activities," she said.
Sunday 10 January 2010 at 04:00 am
Buddhist monk Shi Daoxin's daily routine is not about chanting scriptures, meditating or temple ceremonies - rather, he spends his time listening to different categories of music, updating his blog, exchanging messages and emails with fans, and granting interviews in addition to working on his music.
A self-claimed "art monk", 28-year-old Shi shot to fame in 2008 for his strong resemblance to Hong Kong actor and singer Nicholas Tse. Then controversy followed for his unconventional way of "disseminating Buddhist wisdom and culture through artistic forms".
On the one hand, he has a huge crowd of growing fans, praising and downloading his songs; and on the other, a substantial number of people who question the true motivation of a monk active in the secular entertainment world.
A monk since 14, Shi said he has always been thinking about how Buddhism could keep up with the times.
According to Shi, he was the deputy abbot of Donglin Temple in Lushan Mountain before setting off for Beijing four years ago. He set up his own Buddhist website and studio, and also helped organize two sessions of Buddhism summer camps in 2007 and 2008, which drew more than 200 students.
Now, he is the first monk to use multimedia to take Buddhism to a wider audience. To date, he has released one album and two singles. A third single is on the way, plus an "inspirational" autobiography and a documentary marking the 130th anniversary of the birth of Master Hong Yi (1880-1942), a Buddhist monk, artist, art teacher and musician. He is also planning a speaking tour of colleges around the country.
Most of his previous songs are what he describes as the "modern and popular version of traditional Buddhist chanting", but now, he is considering a switch in style.
He said he will try something less religious, and easier-to-understand lyrics. He does not think this is a departure from Buddhism; instead, it is a better way to "call forth the busy urban dwellers' reminiscences of childhood and allay their anxiety and restlessness".
But skepticism abounds, especially online. Many accuse him of chasing personal fame in the guise of Buddhism; some even dismiss him as a disgrace to the religion.
A monk at Donglin Temple, who did not want to be named, told China Daily: "If one does this solely in the spirit of promoting Buddhism, I cannot say it is wrong; but we don't advocate it, because after all, a monk is a monk."
Liu Jiawei, a sina.com blogger, has written a series of articles describing Shi's attempts at stardom and the high fees he charges for performances.
In the phone interview with China Daily, Shi did not answer the charges directly. He said: "At least half of my fellow monks approve and even admire my efforts, although they don't publicly admit it, because I have done something they want to do, but dare not."
Shi now lives in modest accommodation in Beijing provided by a friend, and his daily expenses are covered by his secular disciples nationwide.
Given his tight schedule, Shi said he has no time and energy for regular scripture chanting and meditation. Asked whether this will hinder his progress as a Buddhist monk, he answered in the negative.
"I gain even more from the things I'm busy with each day more than merely sitting in meditation.
"I encourage more of my fellow monks to step out of the secluded temples and do more to promote Buddhism by enduring the hardships of travel."
Sunday 10 January 2010 at 04:00 am
On the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth, the Smithsonian Institution is showcasing the King of Rock 'n' Roll's ubiquitous image through exhibits opening Friday in Washington and Los Angeles.
"One Life: Echoes of Elvis" will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington through August. The one-room exhibit is devoted to the evolution and influence of Presley's image after his death.
"Think of all the entertainers you know, and how many of them do you know the names of their homes?" said curator Warren Perry. "Everybody needs to have a moment with Elvis."
The exhibit features portraits, images from Graceland the mansion where Elvis lived, Elvis merchandise and a reminder that Elvis' manager put his face on just about anything that could be marketed. The commercial images include an Elvis-imprinted lunch box, nutcracker, action figure and snow globe.
Original artwork from a 1992 Elvis stamp design competition is on view, along with the 1993 stamp with Presley's likeness that became the most popular U.S. postal stamp of all time, with a printing of 500 million.
A gold bust of Elvis as Julius Caesar by sculptor Robert Arneson anchors another wall. A museum docent recently discovered a surprise in the sculpture that had been in storage at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum: A small heart was carved in the back.
"The people who call themselves Elvis fans, I'm sure there are fanatics, but these people have a loving affection for Elvis," said Perry, who is from Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis lived after his family moved from Mississippi. "It's conversational. It's intimate."
One of Perry's favorite pieces is a scrapbook found in an abandoned Chicago warehouse with newspaper headlines and pictures carefully cut out and pasted in a thick book shortly after Presley's death at age 42 in 1977.
"You can tell it was put together by a fan," Perry said.
Presley sat for only one portrait painter. A painting by Ralph Wolfe Cowan, usually on display in the gallery's entertainment section, is the exhibit's central image. It was completed from sketches Cowan made in 1969 while creating another portrait that hangs at Graceland.
In Los Angeles, the Grammy Museum on Friday is opening the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit, "Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer." The photojournalist was hired to shoot promotional images of the young recording artist just before Elvis became famous. The show features 56 of Wertheimer's images from 1956.
Sunday 10 January 2010 at 03:59 am
Shi Fang spends more than 4,000 yuan (588 U.S. dollars) a month shopping, but she rarely goes to the shopping mall.
"Why need a shopping mall if you have Taobao? I am a Taobaoer," says Shi, 28, a freelance writer in Beijing.
Taobao, China's largest online shopping site has become an indispensable part of Shi Fang' s life. She spends half of her monthly salary to Taobao, logging onto the website every day, even when she doesn't need anything, simply to "stay updated to the latest items".
A growing number of Chinese Internet users like Shi have discovered the joys of online shopping. The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced in December that more than 87million Chinese made purchases on the Internet in the first half year, which means one out of four Chinese netizens have online shopping experience.
Most online shoppers are students or white-collar workers aged18 to 30, with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan (147 dollars) to 3,000 yuan (441 dollars). More women shop online than men. Clothing and home-use products are the most popular goods bought online.
It is estimated that the annual consumption from online shopping will reach more than 250 billion yuan (37 billion dollars) this year, and 80 percent of this is carried out through Taobao.com, China's fast-growing e-commerce hub established in 2003.
Taobao, meaning "hunting for treasure" in Chinese, is owned by Alibaba Group, which is also parent of Alibaba. com, a global e-commerce site for small and medium businesses connecting buyers with sellers.
Shi Fang is only one of the 159 million registered users at Taobao. She could find almost everything she needs from Taobao, from underwear to furniture, from candy to DVD player.
The biggest attraction for Shi Fang is the relative low price for online goods, compared with those in stores in bricks and mortar. Her favorite facial cream costs 1,680 yuan (247 dollars) for a 30ml bottle in the local shop, but a 10ml sample of the same brand only costs 68 yuan (10 dollars) online.
"I bought three samples for 204 yuan (30 dollars) plus a delivery fee of 12 yuan (1.8 dollars). I saved 1,464 yuan (215 dollars) for the same product, same quantity and quality," Shi flashed a grin.
The Taobao instant messenger, a communication channel for buyers and sellers, also facilitates online shopping and ensures the overall experience for both parties. Shi Fang regards it as a platform to foster trust and maintain contact.
"You can check the information easily. It is sweet that the owner will remember you once you have regular chat with him or her through the messenger. You may receive some personalized service such as getting more samples or certain discount," said Shi.
Also a faithful Taobaoer, Yang Fei is not as lucky as Shi Fangin terms of shopping online around the clock. Her company has blocked Taobao during working hours as more and more employees were doing online shopping at work time.
"Now I can only have a glimpse on the website during the one-hour lunch break and quickly make my order," said Yang Fei, 27,frowning.
While some may question the security of online purchases, YangFei gave a thumb-up for Alipay, the Taobao payment method launched by Alibaba Group in 2004 in partnership with leading banks in China. It enabled her to buy more than 200 items online since she registered in 2007.
"It's very safe and convenient. Unless you confirm the arrival and satisfaction about the purchase, the shop owner will not get the money. You can also get the refund if you want to return the purchase," she added.
Thanks to online shoppers like Shi Fang and Yang Fei, Taobao is expected to achieve 200 billion yuan (29 billion dollars) in transaction volume in 2009. The company predicts that the figure will reach 400 billion yuan (58 billion dollars) next year.
"On-line shopping provides a convenient and accessible platform for customers who want to shop for variety. It is especially viable given the current economic downtown," said Prof.Lu Benfu, an expert on Internet economy at the School of Management, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China's growing Internet economy has demonstrated "not only sufficient confidence to withstand the financial crisis, but also promised substantial profits," Lu added.
It is no wonder then that individuals like Shi Fang have taken their virtual shops on Taobao.com as jobs to last.
When Rong Rong opened a Taobao shop in 2004, she did all the packing and delivery herself. Now having her own warehouse packed with four shelves of hair products while employing three assistants, Rong Rong has earned herself a 720, 000-yuan (106, 000dollars) flat and a Honda car that's worth 200, 000 yuan (29, 000 dollars).
"On the busiest day, more than 100 parcels need to be delivered. To date, over 50,000 customers have bought goods from my shop. The transaction volume grows 50 percent each year with a 10-percent increase in profit," said Rong, 37, who used to own a hair salon.
She sold her hair salon last year and turned her part-time Taobao shop into a full-time job after profits from the shop have tripled that from her hair salon.
"Prices for my products are not the lowest, but I sell the most in the hair product category. The key is to understand consumer behavior if you want to cash in on the website. Quality service and professional advice to customers in choosing products that suit their hair condition are also important," she said while arranging her stuff in packing.
"I have to work from 10am till midnight. My only entertainment is walking my dog for half an hour after lunch. But I will continue the business. Nothing can beat the pleasure in seeing your own business grow from scratch," said Rong, adding that under her influence, her father has joined online shopping in his 60s.
The growing purchasing power of China's online shoppers has been noted by traditional brands from home and abroad.
China's biggest Xinhua Book Store has an outlet on Taobao; Japan's casual wear seller UNIQLO also opened a shop in April; China Eastern, an airline company that operates from Shanghai, will soon set up an online ticket store on Taobao.com.
"The strategy next year for Taobao is to facilitate the business to consumer platform. The website will help more companies sell products online," said Ma Yun, CEO of Alibaba Group.
To fight fake products sold on its website, the company has injected 100 million yuan (15 million dollars) in an ad hoc campaign. Hundreds of shops selling fake stuff have been closed while those selling fake products are put on a blacklist.
"A sound Internet economy relies on companies' social responsibility in e-commerce. Credibility, security and services are the driving force for dot-com companies to grow," said Jiang Qiping, secretary-general at the Information Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
As Shi Fang was busy surfing online for Chinese New Year gifts and Rong Rong promoting her online Chinese New Year sale, Ma Yun is quite confident for the prospect of China's e-commerce.
"Among the two billion parcels delivered across China this year, 1.2 billion are goods from Taobao. We're planning to provide online shopping experiences for a billion people around the globe," said Ma, who believes that Taobao won't be replaced in ten years time.
Sunday 10 January 2010 at 03:59 am
Chinese box office revenue surged 44 percent to 6.2 billion yuan ($908 million) in 2009, a movie publicist said Friday.
China also added 600 screens, bringing its total to 4,700, including 1,800 digital and nearly 800 3-D screens, Weng Li, spokesman for the state-run China Film Group, said in a phone interview. He said the figures were from China's Film Bureau.
Chinese box office revenue has grown by an average 30 percent in each of the past six years, Weng said.
Chinese films accounted for 56 percent, or 3.5 billion yuan ($513 million), of the total box office revenue. That's at least partly due to China's annual quota of 20 revenue-sharing film imports. The restriction amounts to a limit on foreign blockbusters that are typically distributed under revenue-sharing deals.
Despite the restrictions, Hollywood movies posted a strong performance in China in 2009, with two setting box office records. In July, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" broke the 11-year-old record held by James Cameron's "Titanic," raking in 450 million yuan. "Titanic" made 360 million yuan in 1998. In December, the disaster movie "2012" shattered the "Transformers" record by earning 460 million yuan.
Another Cameron movie, his 3-D sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar," was released Jan. 4 and is expected to make more than 500 million yuan.
While Chinese box office revenue is still small compared to the U.S. — U.S. revenues totaled $9.79 billion in 2008 — its rapid growth and the popularity of Hollywood products in China are why American studios are eager for Beijing to ease its import restrictions.
The World Trade Organization in December upheld an earlier ruling that China is illegally restricting music, film and book imports from the U.S. The original ruling didn't address the 20-movie limit, but urged Beijing to let foreign companies distribute their entertainment products in China. Currently, China Film Group decides which movies to import.
Sunday 10 January 2010 at 03:46 am
South African World Cup organizers said on Saturday that the fatal bus attack on the Togo team at the African Nations Cup in Angola should not impact on the tournament in South Africa later this year.
At least two people are reported having been died and several more were injured when gunmen opened fire on the Togo team bus on Friday.
Rich Mkhondo, media manager for World Cup 2010 organizers, said the incident would not impact preparations for the 32-team World Cup tournament that begins June 11.
To suggest otherwise, Mkhondo said, would be like saying that such an incident in the Czech Republic, for example, would have an impact on an event in Britain.
South African football authorities have described the attack on the Togo team on the eve of the African Cup of Nations as terrorism.
Several Togolese footballers were injured, some seriously, when their team bus was fired on with machine guns as they traveled through the politically unstable Cabinda region bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday.
Mkondo said the incident was regrettable and it was terrorism.
"To us, football is entertainment and terrorism stinks," Mkondo told South Africa's Talk Radio 702 station on Saturday.
South Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup in June. South African authorities have given repeated assurances about safety during the World Cup.
Saturday 09 January 2010 at 05:35 am
The Icelandic Parliament Althingion Friday passed the bill about a national referendum on the so-called Icesave legislation, according to a report reaching here from Reykjavik.
"All 49 lawmakers voted and they agreed on the referendum bill," said the Althingi on its website, adding that the minister of justice would decide on the date in coordination with the Electoral Commission as soon as possible.
Iceland's government announced on Friday that the referendum should take place no later than March 6. The government suggested that the vote should take place on Feb. 20 or 27, or March 6.
The Althingi convened earlier Friday to debate a government bill regarding the preparation for a national referendum on the Icesave legislation, said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office of Iceland.
This came in the wake of the president of Iceland's decision on Jan. 5 not to sign into law a bill which provides for a state guarantee of loan repayments to the British and Dutch governments, said the statement.
"The draft law is simple and without restrictions. The government will prepare a vote and inform voters carefully, and by that bring the Icesave issue to a close. This is necessary to continue the ongoing economic recovery in Iceland," said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir in the statement.
The government also expressed its intention to honor its international obligations and remains fully committed to implementing the bilateral loan agreements with Britain and the Netherlands and thus the state guarantee provided for by the law.
"Iceland has been in close contact with the governments of the UK and the Netherlands, other partner countries and the EU and the IMF (International Monetary Fund), to inform counterparts about the latest developments and explain the process triggered by the decision announced by the president on Tuesday," the statement added.
Saturday 09 January 2010 at 05:35 am
Norwegian Trade and Industry Minister Trond Giske said here on Friday that he plans to visit Shanghai again in May to take part in the Norwegian Day activities at the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.
"EXPO 2010 is an important event for China and the rest of the World. I am confident that EXPO 2010 will be a great success for China," Giske said in a written interview with Xinhua.
He said he sees the Norwegian participation at the six-month-long event, which begins on May 1 and ends on Oct. 31 in Shanghai, as one of the priorities of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2010. "This is also why EXPO represents an extensive part of my program during my visit to China in a few days," the minister added.
Giske was scheduled to arrive in Shanghai on Jan. 11 for a five-day visit to China, during which he was expected to meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and join the five Nordic ambassadors to China in a seminar organized to promote Nordic participation in the Shanghai World Expo.
"I will also be going to Shanghai in May and be at the Norwegian pavilion for the Norwegian Day at EXPO (2010)," the Norwegian minister said.
"In addition to the promotion already mentioned, we have a variety of pre-EXPO activities going on in China, and not only in Shanghai," he said. In Norway, he added, two pre-EXPO seminars will also be organized to create further awareness about Norway's participation at EXPO 2010.
With a 3,000-square-meter Norway pavilion designed with the theme "Norway, Powered by Nature" and supported by 15 huge model pine trees, Norway hopes to display its breath-taking landscape and its experiences in use of resources and environmentally friendly energy.
The Norwegian Day falls on May 28, according to the official website of the EXPO 2010.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, when interviewed by a group of Chinese reporters last November, described the EXPO 2010 as "an opportunity for Norway to show to the rest of the world the excellence and advances of Norwegian industry and companies."
Saturday 09 January 2010 at 05:35 am
Alabama becomes the only U.S. state that still was reporting widespread cases of A/H1N1 flu during the week of Dec. 27, 2009-Jan. 2, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.
"One state (Alabama) reported geographically widespread influenza activity, 12 states reported regional influenza activity, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and 17 states reported local influenza activity, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 19 states reported sporadic influenza activity, and one state reported no influenza activity," the CDC said on its website.
In late October, 48 U.S. states were reporting widespread cases of A/H1N1 flu activity. But since then, there has been a decline across the country. Last Friday, the CDC said that only four states had widespread cases by the end of 2009.
As the current wave of A/H1N1 flu continues to wane, U.S. health officials on Thursday warned the public that the A/H1N1 virus is still circulating in the United States, and that experts expect it to continue to circulate for some time.
With 136 million doses of the A/H1N1 vaccine available in the country, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, advised Americans who have not yet been vaccinated to get the vaccine as soon as possible.
"The illness is down. There's plenty of vaccine. It's a key window of opportunity," she said, adding that "having as many people vaccinated as possible is our best course of action."
Saturday 09 January 2010 at 05:34 am
The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) in the United States was again below the epidemic threshold during the week of Dec. 27, 2009-Jan.2, 2010, the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.
"During week 52 (ending on Jan. 2), 7.4 percent of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. This percentage was below the epidemic threshold of 7.5 percent for week 52," the CDC said on its website.
Since last October, when the A/H1N1 pandemic peaked and as many as 48 states had widespread activity of the new virus, the proportion of deaths attributed to P&I based on the 122 Cities Report had been above the epidemic threshold for 11 weeks running.
As A/H1N1 flu continues to wane, the proportion of deaths linked to P&I based on the 122 Cities Report was dipping below the epidemic threshold in week 50, but bouncing back in week 51.
The epidemic threshold is the point at which the observed proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia or influenza is significantly higher than would be expected at that time of the year in the absence of substantial influenza-related mortality.
The latest statistics released by the CDC show that, from Aug. 30, 2009 to Jan. 2, 2010, there were 37,778 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations and 1,735 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated deaths, including 229 of young patients under age 18, that have been reported to the federal agency.
But health officials believe that the actual death toll has been much higher than the figures of laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated deaths.
CDC officials had estimated that A/H1N1 flu has sickened nearly50 million Americans, sent more than 200,000 people to the hospital and killed nearly 10,000 -- more than 8,000 of them children and young adults.
"The estimates are actually much more accurate than the confirmed numbers," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said. "The number of confirmed deaths is really just a small proportion of the number of total deaths," he explained.
On the whole, the CDC reported on Friday that the A/H1N1 flu infections continue to be on the wane nationally, saying that "most key indicators declined compared to the previous week."
The first wave of the A/H1N1 pandemic began in April, when the strain was discovered. A larger wave started in late summer. Though the second wave has peaked, health experts stressed that it's too soon to say it's over.
"The H1N1 virus is still circulating, and it's still causing disease, hospitalizations and deaths," Anne Schuchat, head of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on Thursday at a press conference.
"I am concerned that people may be complacent, that people may think this is all over. I would hate for people to make decisions thinking there is no risk and then get sick or severely ill," she explained.
With 136 million doses of the A/H1N1 flu vaccine now available, Dr. Schuchat advised Americans who have not yet been vaccinated to get the vaccine as soon as possible.
Saturday 09 January 2010 at 05:33 am
Although the second wave of A/H1N1 flu pandemic has peaked, visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) in the United States in the week ending Saturday remained above the national baseline, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.
"Nationwide during week 52, 2.4 percent of patient visits reported through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) were due to ILI. This percentage is above the national baseline of 2.3 percent," the CDC said on its website.
Since last October, when the A/H1N1 pandemic peaked, most key indicators of the new virus have been declining week by week, but visits to doctors have never been below the national baseline.
The CDC said that one possible reason for the big number of ILIvisits in the past two weeks is a reduction in routine health care visits during the holiday season.
On the whole, the CDC said on Friday that the A/H1N1 flu infections continue to be on the wane nationally. The latest report shows that only one U.S. state, Alabama, is now reporting widespread flu activity, down from four in the previous week.
Meanwhile, the supply of A/H1N1 vaccines continues to grow. There are now at least 136 million doses of vaccine available to order for the states.
Health officials on Thursday called on the average American to seize this opportunity and get vaccinated. "The illness is down. There's plenty of vaccine. It's a key window of opportunity," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The first wave of the A/H1N1 pandemic began in April last year, when the strain was discovered. A larger wave started in late summer. Though the second wave has peaked, health experts stressed that it's too soon to say it's over.
Friday 08 January 2010 at 12:34 am
China's online-video industry may require a facelift as domestic technology giants and government-backed media groups enter the fragmented but potentially lucrative market.
Market entry by these mammoths casts a dark cloud over the future of domestic Youtube-like websites, such as Youku.com and Tudou.com, which are funded heavily by foreign venture-capital firms.
"We are dancing with a group of elephants," said Gary Wang, chief executive of Tudou.com, one of China's largest video-sharing websites. "If we don't dance carefully, we could easily get crushed."
Wang's so-called "elephants" include most of China's technology giants and video copyright owners, which recently identified the online-video sector as the perfect location to expand influence.
On Wednesday, Chinese search engine Baidu Inc announced plans to form a new company to provide copyrighted content to users. The news came shortly after China Central Television, Shanghai Media Group and Hunan Television, one of China's most popular providers of entertainment programs, announced plans to post their videos online.
"The success of Hulu in the US has emboldened Chinese companies and media groups of this business model's huge potential," said Edward Yu, CEO of domestic research firm Analysys International.
Yu said websites like Youku.com and Tudou.com, which have long been accused of offering pirated content uploaded by their users, and therefore they may need to shift their focus to specific market sectors like entertainment programming or user-generated content.
Hulu is jointly owned by NBC Universal, News Corp and Walt Disney Co and allows viewers to stream TV shows over the net for free in the US. The website has won over users as well as advertisers from Youtube since its debut in 2007.
Tudou.com's CEO admitted while they are under new competitive pressure, they have no plans to change their strategy.
Unlike in the US, there are no mega-media groups that control the majority of domestic films or TV programs in China, and it is that reality that increases the chances of survival for firms like Youku.com and Tudou.com.
Victor Koo, founder and CEO of Youku.com, told China Daily in an earlier interview the impact of government-based media groups on his firm may not be as gloomy as predicted.
And although these groups may hold a substantial advantage in news and sports programming, Youku.com has the advantage in entertainment programming.
Koo contends that his company, with revenue of about 200 million yuan ($29.29 million) last year, will greatly expand its library of authorized video content this year.
Liu Ning, an analyst at research firm BDA China, said compared with video sharing websites such as Youku.com and Tudou.com, Chinese video streaming websites such as PPStream, PPLive and Xunlei may be the first to feel the heat.
Friday 08 January 2010 at 12:34 am
China yesterday urged the United States to cancel a massive arms deal to Taiwan, warning of severe consequences if it does not heed the call.
The US defense department announced the contract late on Wednesday, allowing US company Lockheed Martin Corp to sell an unspecified number of Patriot air defense missiles to the island.
The hardware, some of the best in its class, could shoot down the Chinese mainland's short-range and mid-range missiles, Reuters quoted defense analysts as saying.
"This is the last piece that Taiwan has been waiting on," Wendell Minnick, Asia bureau chief of Defense Weekly, said.
The sale rounds out a broad $6.5-billion arms package approved under former US president George W. Bush in late 2008, he said.
The deal is currently pending notification to the US Congress.
The Foreign Ministry yesterday urged the US "to clearly recognize the severe consequences of arms sales to Taiwan" and protested to Washington, spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news briefing.
The Ministry of National Defense told China Daily last night it was checking the information with the US.
Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the International Studies School at Renmin University of China, said Beijing is almost certain to retaliate against Washington if the deal is consummated.
"It is likely to freeze military exchanges. It will make the US very uncomfortable because of all the world's strategic military powers, the US is most eager to learn about the PLA."
Rear-Admiral Yang Yi, an expert at the Institute of Strategic Studies of the National Defense University, said it was time for China to sanction the US arms firms behind the deal.
"When it comes to a question of principles, we should never make concessions," he said.
Some US companies which sell weapons to Taiwan also want to sell aircraft and other goods to China, added Yang, without naming any firms.
"Why don't we take defensive countermeasures against them? Apart from just protesting to the US government, why don't we impose sanctions on these troublemakers?"
Sooner or later, Washington will recognize the arms sales "hurt both itself and others" as it will suffer from strained relations with China, Yang said.
He also rebuffed claims that the arms sales will not stop as they are stipulated in US law. "There is nothing in the world that can never be changed We should make continuous efforts to reshape the policy choices of the US".
However, Niu Jun, a professor on US studies at Peking University, questioned the feasibility of sanctions as the US will, in turn, penalize Chinese companies.
But Chinese netizens have spontaneously called for a boycott of US companies behind the arms deal.
They launched a massive boycott of French retail chain Carrefour and luxury brand Louis Vuitton after the Beijing Olympics torch relay was interrupted in Paris in 2008. Since then, Internet users have become a powerful factor holding sway in diplomacy.
In a public letter last month targeting United Technologies, producer of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters supplied to Taiwan, a Chinese netizen named Dai Jianfen called for the boycott of all the firm's products and deals. United Technologies is reported to be one of the largest foreign investors on the Chinese mainland.
A survey by a major Chinese website showed nearly 96 percent of the voters were supportive of such a boycott.
Business relations between Lockheed Martin and the Chinese mainland are unclear.
Wu Nengyuan, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, said the arms sale is casting a shadow over improving relations across the Taiwan Straits.
"To eradicate the problem, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan should reach a peace agreement," he said.
Friday 08 January 2010 at 12:34 am
Poll finds 95 percent of people believe Web has adverse impact
The majority of people think the authorities should implement an Internet content rating system, with 95 percent of them believing the Internet has adverse impacts on children, the latest online survey shows.
As many as 72 percent of the 1,718 people polled support Internet content ratings, while 11 percent oppose the idea, as China Youth Daily yesterday released the results of the survey jointly conducted by the newspaper and sohu.com.
Merely 0.9 percent of people think the Internet has no adverse impact on children.
China has the world's largest online population, with 338 million people as of last June, and 33 percent are under 20 years old, according to the official China Internet Network Information Center.
A growing number of Chinese parents fear their children who spend more time in the cyber world will become addicted to the Internet. Thousands of children and young adults are undergoing treatment for Internet addiction at more than 300 rehabilitation schools, camps and clinics nationwide.
Since last year, more people have urged the central government to take steps to protect young Internet users against undesirable online content. The authorities have since launched a crackdown on Internet and mobile phone porn.
Internet content ratings came under the spotlight after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began to solicit public ideas on a draft regulation for communication network security last August. The draft stipulated websites should be classified into five categories according to their significance to national and social development.
"I hope the government could establish a rating system to help children like my nine-year-old daughter use the Internet properly," Hu Xinhe, a citizen from Qianjiang, Hubei province, was quoted by China Youth Daily.
Hu allowed his daughter to spend one hour online every week since the little girl began to use the Internet last year, but he felt anxious because he cannot watch her around the clock as the girl's curiosity increases as she grows.
Like Hu, 44 percent of respondents think Internet content ratings can effectively protect children, but 16 percent do not think so, the survey found.
"If the undesirable content online cannot be controlled, it will harm both minors and adults," Shao Dehai, project director of the China Youth Association for Network Development, was quoted as saying in the report
Despite the strong support, a rating system has not yet come into being, for which 57 percent of those polled think "technical difficulties" is the main reason, the survey showed.
"It's very difficult to define a standard for the ratings because website managers are unable to know what content their hundreds of millions of users will upload to their websites," the report quoted Hu Yong, a professor of communication at Peking University.
Meanwhile, as many as 44 percent of people surveyed are concerned Internet ratings will restrict freedom of speech, with 59 percent hoping that authorities can ensure children be kept far from undesirable online content.
Friday 08 January 2010 at 12:34 am
Israeli foreign affairs officials and UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) finished a new round of talks on the al-Ghajar issue Thursday, with no agreement announced regarding the Israeli withdrawal from the northern part of the border village.
The talks between Israeli negotiation team, headed by Israeli Foreign Ministry's Director General Yossi Gal, and UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano were held "in a pleasant atmosphere," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on its official website.
"Israel clarified that it is committed to continuing its attempts to reach an agreement concerning Ghajar village within the framework of UN Security Council resolution 1701," added the statement.
UNIFIL has said it is holding a clear position that Israel is obliged to withdraw from north of al-Ghajar and its neighboring region, north of the Blue Line, in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah.
The Blue Line, which is the line for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, now serves as the borderline of the two countries and runs through the middle of the al-Ghajar village.
Local daily The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli negotiation team as saying during Thursday's talks that Israel was concerned about the safety of the residents in the northern part of al-Ghajar with Israeli citizenship if Israel Defense Forces withdraw from the village.
"The talks will continue within the next few weeks," said the Israeli Foreign Ministry's statement.
Al-Ghajar was considered part of Syria before the six-day war in 1967 when Israel captured the Golan Heights, which have borders with Lebanon, from Syria in 1967.
Over the years, the village expanded northward into Lebanese territory. In 2000 when the UN drew the Blue Line, the northern half of the village came under Lebanese control and the southern part remained in Israel. Israeli troops returned to the northern half of al-Ghajar in the 2006 war against Hezbollah.
Friday 08 January 2010 at 12:33 am
Residents in the Gaoming district of Foshan of Guangdong province are opposing the construction of a waste incineration plant in the neighboring district of Nanhai over concerns about their health and the environment.
The industrial waste plant, which will help generate electricity for the existing Jiangnan power plant in Nanhai, will be built about 2km across the Xijiang River, a tributary of the Pearl River.
"Air pollution will flow towards us if the project is put into operation," said Xie Junfeng, who works at a Gaoming telecom company.
"The burning of industrial waste produces pollutants like dioxins that can cause lung cancer and environmental damage," Xie said.
The plant was planned early last year but will be approved only after the completion of an environmental assessment.
Lin Jianbo from Nanhai authorities said the plant is yet to be approved by the higher Foshan and Guangdong provincial environmental protection authorities.
"We'll take a cautious approach to the construction of the plant. All the decision making processes will be made public," he said.
A completed environmental assessment of the project by the South China Institute of Environmental Sciences is yet to be submitted to local environmental authorities.
"We are inviting environmental protection officials from both Foshan and Gaoming authorities to inspect the project," said Lin.
According to the assessment, the plant would produce pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, smoke dust and solid waste.
"But we'll introduce state-of-the-art technology and facilities to minimize pollution," Lin said.
"Pollutants, even just a small amount, will damage our health and environment," a netizen named jiyi wrote on a local website.
The Gaoming environmental protection bureau has submitted a report to its counterpart in Nanhai and the higher Foshan authority, saying most pollutants generated from burning industrial waste would bring negative effects to the district.
Thursday 07 January 2010 at 05:49 am
Animals in Beijing Zoo will receive conditioned reflex training this year to enable physical checks without the need for anesthetic injections.
Ye Mingxia, director of Beijing Zoo's press department, said animals will learn to sit, raise limbs, open mouths and another 20 skills required for health checks.
Conditioned reflex training was invented by Russia psychologist Ivan Pavlov to avoid the need for anesthetic injections.
Daily training takes between 15 and 30 minutes. In most cases, animals grasp the skills after only four months of training.
visitors to the zoo are allowed to watch the training in the daytime, Ye said.
"It is a humane and scientific way to treat the animals," she said.
Ye also said that prior to the training program, animals were prohibited from eating or drinking for one day, forced into a cage, and then anesthetized.
Most would then show symptoms like vomiting and fever, and in some cases, there would be psychological damage.
The practice was believed to be cruel and inhumane to animals and got some complaints from the animal rights groups and public.
One animal expert however is concerned about the overall safety of the new technique.
Zheng Shijun, a professor from the animal medicine school of China Agricultural University, told METRO yesterday that even when zoo animals get accustomed to the conditioned reflex program, their wild behavior is too unstable to ensure the vet's safety.
"The conditioned reflex practice could benefit the animals and be good entertainment for visitors, but my advice is still to use an anesthetic injection," he said.
In addition, Beijing Zoo will inject funds to bring back the wild nature of zoo animals.
The zoo will decorate cages to imitate the natural surroundings of the wild animals.
Zhang Ran, a Beijing resident who lives across the street from the zoo, said she loves to visit the animals.
"I think any way to conduct a physical check without anesthesia would be a very kind way to treat animals. I also really look forward to seeing the training," she said.
Thursday 07 January 2010 at 05:49 am
China's plan to build its southernmost Hainan island into an international tourism site would not have adverse impact on other countries and regions, Hainan's Communist Party chief Wei Liucheng said Wednesday.
"We are developing tourism, economy and society only on our own territory and territorial sea, and I don't think that will have adverse impact on others," Wei said.
BEIJING, Jan. 6 -- The government recently unveiled measures to build South China's Hainan Province into a top international tourism destination by 2020, including opening the gaming industry.
According to a proposal released by the State Council on Monday, the country will introduce international sports and entertainment activities and explore ways to promote local lottery and gaming industries. Full story
BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government said on Monday that it aims to build the southern island of Hainan into a top international tourism destination by 2020.
The country also plans to develop the only tropical island province to be a platform for international economic cooperation and cultural exchanges, according to a statement of the State Council, or the Cabinet, released on Gov.cn, the official web portal of the Chinese government.
Thursday 07 January 2010 at 05:48 am
Chinese technology giant Lenovo Wednesday revealed the industry's first hybrid PC for consumers, the IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook, featuring a groundbreaking detachable screen.
The IdeaPad U1's unique design provides consumers in one device with two PCs, which work together with their own processor and operating system and work independently as either a clamshell laptop or a multi touch slate tablet, according to Lenovo officials.
"The IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook is a game-changing technology in the PC industry that lets user switch their PC experience within a single device to match their dynamic lifestyle," said LiuJun, senior vice president of Idea Product Group, Lenovo.
"By fusing the functionality of a notebook with the slate tablet's rich multi touch entertainment and mobile Internet experience, U1 provides consumers the freedom to choose the device they prefer for any activity," he said.
When the IdeaPad U1 is in its traditional clamshell form, the system boasts an 11.6 inch HD LED screen and runs Windows 7. When the 1.6 pound, multitouch screen is removed, it becomes an independent slate tablet with a powerful ARM processor, running Lenovo's customized Skylight operating system.
The IdeaPad U1's fashionable scarlet exterior has a footprint just smaller than a piece of notebook paper and is paired with an equally impressive 3.8 pound thin and light design.
Thursday 07 January 2010 at 05:48 am
CW looks ahead at the changes the capital faces in 2010. Here are our top picks for the stories that will change Beijing in the new year.
By Matt Schrader
1. Peace-a-palooza
What do you get when you invite Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Page and dozens of other pop, rock, rap, Chinese and Latin music stars together for an International Show of Peace Concert in the Bird’s Nest? If you answered "pipe dream,” you’d have Beijing’s checkered record with major international acts standing solidly behind you. But ISoP Executive Producer Rick Garson, whose producing credits include the Billboard Music Awards and the World Music Awards, begs to differ.
Garson paints a convincing portrait of an event set to deliver a message of peace and environmental stewardship on the biggest stage imaginable, with a TV audience of billions—all in time for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 17.
Garson and his collaborators boast enthusiastic backing from CCTV and the influential Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, as well as major international organizations like the Captain Planet Foundation and the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy.
If Garson and his team—veterans of productions like Live Aid and Live 8—manage to make this peace-a-palooza happen, ISoP will stake its claim as the biggest thing in music on Planet Earth in 2010. And the price of entry to this planet-spanning musical extravaganza?
“It’s a public benefit concert, tickets are free,” says Garson.
Hard to beat free, but no word yet on how to snag a coveted pass. If Garson and Co. bring this off, you’d best start spinning your guanxi generators to see the event that puts Beijing on the international music map. Check www.showofpeace.com for the entire mind-boggling list of artists invited.
2. The Good Fight
If artists for peace isn’t your thing, 2010 will also bring the goods in a more primal art form. The SportsAccord Combat Games sees competitors from 13 different martial arts alighting in Beijing during the last week of August for a first-of-its-kind event.
Local organizer Laura Yan calls it the “premier competition event” in martial arts outside of the Olympics. Plans at the moment are to hold the Games quadrennially. Mainstays like karate, boxing and wrestling will all be represented, as well as less well known martial arts, such as muaythai, sambo and jiujitsu. Even sumo will be making a rare appearance outside Japan.
Locals in the martial arts community who have heard about the competition are intrigued. Joe Qiaobao of local martial arts training hotspot Club Hero enthuses about its potential to jumpstart participation in Beijing, “especially in those non-mainstream sports like sambo and jiujitsu."
3. Get Transported
The new year is bringing big changes for subway and electric bike riders.
David Feng, City Weekend’s Beijingologist and in-house subway guru, proclaims 2010 as the year Beijing sees a “major explosion” in new subway lines.
The good guru speaks metaphorically, of course. No fewer than five new subway lines are set to open this year, upping the system’s total mileage by more than 50 percent.
The one to keep an eye on is the first phase of Line 15, linking Wangjing’s big box stores with the villas and fairways of Shunyi.
The other four lines will at last bring the far-flung reaches of Beijing suburban districts—places with seldom-uttered names like Changping, Fangshan, Yizhuang and Daxing—into connubial transport bliss with its urban districts.
The star pupil of this bunch is phase one of the Changping line, whose terminal stop at Nanshao will plunk the intrepid subway-goer down just a stone’s throw away from the Badaling Great Wall, the Ming Tombs and the abundance of hot spring resorts around the Ming Tombs Reservoir. Expect that one to open sometime around Dec. 2010.
4. Art Ventures South
While art has flourished at Beijing’s perimeter for a decade, 2010 finally pulls the contemporary art scene to the heart of the capital. As more galleries open inside the Third Ring, the locus of development lies in the Central Business District at the Today Art Museum and the neighboring 22 International Art Plaza.
The Today Art Museum, opened in 2006, seeded this growing art district, which saw more than 20 new galleries and art spaces open in the second half of 2009. In 2010, Today continues its program of lectures, forums and exhibitions with “Super Generation @ Taiwan” on January 17, "Wang Jianwei: Time, Theater, Exhibition" in March and a highly anticipated show by David LaChappelle in June .
2010 also brings swift expansion of the 22 International Art Plaza, which now hosts seven galleries, including Dialogue Space (www.dialoguespace.com), as well as a sculpture garden-pedestrian walk. The shining smiles of Yue Minjun’s steel sculptures stand at the entrance. This year, 22 International Art Plaza expects to open as many as 80 new galleries, some of which are already under construction.
The development has helped attract artists, musicians and other creatives to the Pingod Apartments next door and other nearby real estate, establishing one of the capital’s most vibrant communities. Design studios like RedBox (www.redboxstudio.cn) and small galleries like A Space (www.aspace.net.cn) are also close by.
By mid 2010, it will be clear whether Beijing can support such a large community of galleries and art spaces at its center. If even a handful of the incoming galleries can imitate the success and strong curatorial program of the Today Art Museum and the galleries already gathering around it, 22 International Art Plaza will soon reach the critical mass it needs to redefine the landscape of art in the capital.
5. It Takes a Village
Although Sanlitun Village North stands quiet and empty as Beijing rings in the New Year, the months ahead should see it turn into a dining destination to rival its sibling to the south.
Among a crop of strong contenders are a teppanyaki restaurant run by former Hatsune employees and rumblings of an opening by prolific celebrity restaurateur David Laris. The Grill by Chef Billy, proprietor of Chaoyang Park West Gate mainstay Chef Too, looks like one to watch as well. Billy describes his new baby as “a classic grill with modern food touches and a little bit of a California influence,” and his dedication to the culinary philosophy undergirding its food offerings (“it’s all about knowing where your food is coming from”) is downright scary. He’s gone so far as to acquire greenhouse space from local farmers, assemble his own advisory network of young agricultural scientists, import cutting-edge vegetable growing techniques from the United States, and use heirloom seed stocks to grow the kinds of corn, beets and carrots that were common before genetic modification—“all that strange stuff they do,” as Chef Billy puts it—changed the playing field. Combine all that with Enomatic wine machines which pour wine by the glass, a sommelier instead of a bartender behind the bar, a liquid nitrogen-fed trolley that delivers sorbet to your tableside, premium beef and imported seafood, and it sounds like the good chef has the makings of a dining champ on his hands. We’ll all get to judge for ourselves come spring, when The Grill throws open its doors.
6. Top of the Jing
For years now we’ve watched China World Phase 3 stretch ever-higher, and, in 2010, Beijing’s tallest tower finally opens for business.
As of this writing, its headlining act is unquestionably the China World Summit Wing, a Shangri-La hotel perched at a vertigo-inducing 81 stories above street level. The highest of those three floors will play host to a steakhouse, bar and three private bespoke dining rooms, all designed by Adam Tihany, the same gentleman who designed some of the swankiest places in New York, including Per Se and Jean Georges.
Despite the venues’ lofty vantage point, Tihany took a down-to-earth approach to their design, commenting, “This is not a ‘trendy’ place ... This is a sophisticated, world-class food and beverage venue.”
When his creations throw open their doors (no later than the end of March, Shangri-La promises), they’ll snatch the crown for the highest place in Beijing to enjoy your tipples and nibbles.
7. Gulou Showdown
An article last year in China Daily about the city's plans for Nanluoguxiang caused a major kerfuffle among NLGX-watchers. The article included several cryptic comments from one of the administration’s vice-directors on intentions to “play up the cultural aspect of the area” in cooperation with “entertainment companies and performance theaters." Could this mean the end of boho Nanluoguxiang?
A well-spoken official from the Jiaodaokou Sub-District Administration named "Stewart" was eager to clear up one misconception right away: “Some [Chinese media] are saying we want to make a bar street. We’re not going to do a bar street. We want to promote creative and cultural venues.”
When asked what sorts of creative and cultural venues the administration might hold up as a model for future entrepreneurs to aspire to, Stewart’s answer was immediate: “Plastered.”
Our conversation traced a plan to reshape Nanluoguxiang by first limiting—and later reducing—the number of bars and restaurants along the alley, replacing departed venues with places in the sub-district administration's desired mold.
While gradual change seems to be the name of the game on the alley itself, the official painted a portrait of more assertive action for the west and south sides of the alley. An “ancient district reclamation trial project” will develop the eight hutongs arrayed along NLGX’s western flank by widening them and constructing throughways.
Stewart explained that the committee wanted to improve living conditions for hutong residents on NLGX's west side, and that preserving the history of the area would be crucial to the project’s success.
2010 will see the start of major changes for NLGX, but fears that Gulou could morph into Dashilan'r seem unfounded. Still, expect more bars and restaurants to move towards Fangjia and Wudaoying hutongs, while the city upgrades NLGX's infrastructure to lure in more gift shops, boutiques and even greater numbers of shoppers.
Thursday 07 January 2010 at 05:48 am
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will demonstrate a new touch-screen, tablet-style computer from Hewlett-Packard Co. on Wednesday night, the first of several such devices expected to be unveiled this month.
The tablet — also known as a slate, a one-piece portable computer without a physical keyboard — will be one of several new PCs Ballmer will show off as he delivers Microsoft Corp.'s customary keynote speech on the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company told The Associated Press in interviews Wednesday.
Tablet-style computers that run Windows have been available for a decade, but HP's new machine is bound to draw extra attention thanks to expectations that Apple Inc. will launch a similar device later this month.
Apple, notoriously secretive about upcoming products, has not commented on the matter. But given the iPhone's success, which propelled competitors to come out with copycat touch-screen phones and centralized "app" stores to sell add-on software, all eyes are on Apple to define what a slate or tablet-style computer should look like and how it will be used.
Microsoft is also expected to announce that Natal, new technology that lets video game players control the action by moving their whole bodies instead of using a joystick, will go on sale for the Xbox console in time for this year's holiday shopping season.
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, says devices built for touch, gestures and other so-called natural user interfaces will become much more mainstream in the next few years. While Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has for years said the same thing, Bach says computer science and hardware technology are now sophisticated enough to support Gates' and other visionaries' big ideas.
Bach is expected to highlight some of the big-name Xbox 360 video games that will launch in 2010, including the next installment of the popular "Halo" franchise. More than 39 million people now own Xbox 360 consoles.
Microsoft also plans to announce a new search distribution deal with HP that will make the company's Bing search site and MSN.com content portal the default search engine and Web home page on new HP computers sold in 42 countries.
The software maker has signed similar deals in the past, including one with HP in 2008 that made Live Search, Bing's predecessor technology, the default on computers sold in the U.S. and Canada. People who buy such computers can still change their preferred search engine to something else.
The Microsoft executives are also expected to announce a new version of Mediaroom, its technology that delivers TV over the Internet on such services as AT&T Inc.'s U-verse system. The newest version of Mediaroom will let subscribers watch live TV and video-on-demand on Windows computers and phones and through Xbox 360 consoles, in addition to a set-top box. It will work over regular broadband, not just special fiber connections.
Wednesday 06 January 2010 at 07:29 am
When Katy and Elouisa showed up to the Fashionista shoot fresh-faced and in matching Juicy Couture sweat-suit getups, they could have passed as a couple of freshman girls at a Sunday sorority meeting. Usually, Katy is dressed in something tight and black that shows off her hour-glass figure, while Elouisa is perfectly coiffed and teetering on sky-high heels. When it comes to fashion, these girls mean business. "We will often be running around for events during the day but need to be dressed to kill for nighttime shenanigans," says Katie. "Thus we have mastered the 'transitional' approach to style." Her secret? Long vests, leggings and chunky jewelry—perfect for the bridge between professional day wear and playful evening attire. For these, the girls frequent the Zoo Market in Wudaokou and Sanlitun's 3.3. Elouisa is a self-proclaimed slave to the glorious high-heeled shoe and has several pairs in every color, like these royal plum and navy ones purchased at Steve Madden in The Village.
Wednesday 06 January 2010 at 07:28 am
The People's Bank of China, the central bank, reiterated on Wednesday that it would maintain the moderately loose monetary policy in 2010 and improve the focus and flexibility of the policy according to new circumstances.
"China will keep a moderate credit growth in 2010 to back the stable and relatively fast development of the country's economy," the central bank said in a statement on its website after the conclusion of its annual work conference on Jan. 5-6.
The structure of loans would be improved, the statement said.
BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The monetary policy committee of China's central bank has reiterated the government's decision to maintain the moderately easy monetary policy in 2010 and improve the focus and flexibility of the policy according to circumstances.
The committee also agreed at a quarterly meeting that the government would manage the growth of credit increase next year to avoid big fluctuations in lending, according to a report posted on the website of the People's Bank of China Wednesday. Full story
BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has vowed to maintain its macroeconomic policy stance in 2010 despite worries that its stimulus is likely to risk fueling new bubbles and overcapacity.
A meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee agreed Friday that the country will continue the proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy next year. Full story
BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- China will maintain the continuity and stability of its economic policy as its effort in coping with the global financial crisis has scored remarkable achievements, Vice Premier Li Keqiang has said.
"Positive changes have taken place in world economy along with enhanced confidence of the international community and a financial market turning back into normal track, and some emerging economy are in the front rows in the recovery process," Li said Wednesday when he met with some Nobel Laureates and prominent economists who were in Beijing for a forum.
Wednesday 06 January 2010 at 07:28 am
Israel Defense forces (IDF) on Wednesday confirmed that one Palestinian operative was killed and three additional operatives were injured in its airstrike on Gaza strip.
The Israel Air Forces attacked a group of terror operatives planning to fire rockets from the Southern Gaza strip into Israel. Accurate hits were identified, according to a statement issued by IDF on its website.
The IDF will not tolerate rocket fire into Israel by terrorist organizations and will continue to respond to any attempt to disrupt the calm in the communities of southern Israel, the statement added.
In 2009, approximately 790 Qassam rockets, Mortar Shells and Grad Missiles were fired into Israel, the statement said.
An Israeli drone fired a rocket at a group of militants that were monitoring the security fence separating between Israel and Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip late Tuesday, killing one and wounding four, the witnesses said.
The dead and the wounded were transferred to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis where officials identified the dead as Jihad al-Sumiri ,a member of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed faction close to Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The Israeli army stepped up its activities along the border with Gaza over the past weeks, targeting open spaces believed to contain tunnels leading up to the electric fence.
Wednesday 06 January 2010 at 07:27 am
Thousands of spectators descended on Tokyo's Big Sight International Exhibition Center on Wednesday to enjoy a series of spectacular displays presented by the Tokyo Fire Department.
The annual New Year event, known as "Shobo Dezome-shiki" in Japanese, was held on the edge of picturesque Tokyo Bay. The festive event comprised parades of dapper firefighters, emergency medical service personnel, fast-response disaster teams and a host of high-tech vehicles and appliances, including helicopters and boats.
Some 12,000 spectators of all ages were treated to a feast of firefighting spectacles including aerial ladder acrobatics, earthquake rescue demonstrations and a particular thrilling demonstration that involved multiple firefighters abseiling down a40 meter building and expertly extinguishing a raging fire.
Other crowd pleasers included the fire department's helicopters that circled and hovered over the bay, dumped gallons of water to put out a mock fire on a boat and then swooped fast and low over the delighted audience, who showed their appreciation by way of rapturous applause.
As the event reached its climax, with the fire brigade bands providing magnificent music, firefighters being elevated in buckets to dizzying heights by their fire trucks and fire boats on the bay spraying plumes of multicolored water, the spectators were on their feet in delight and amazement.
"The helicopters were so cool," said 14-year old Taiki Yoshiro, a junior high school student, after the event. "I'm glad there are so many people, like firefighters, to help us if anything bad ever happened in Tokyo."
"The displays were truly amazing, the (Tokyo) fire department has some very dedicated and talented individuals," commented Keiko Murakami, a senior citizen, as her husband nodded enthusiastically in agreement. PREPAREDNESS: THE BURNING ISSUE
However the Tokyo Shobo Dezome-shiki, or New Year's Fire review in English, is more than just a high-octane, fun-filled festival.
Such events are held by regional fire departments all across Japan during the New Year period and through the performances and the showcasing of high-technology equipment in action, in numerous prescribed rescue scenarios, comes an important message, one of fire safety, prevention and community awareness and solidarity.
"These performances and the exhibitions on display send a message to the local community and the wider society about the importance of fire safety and prevention," Masashi Imai, a senior officer based at Nogata Fire Station in the Nakano district of Tokyo, told Xinhua.
"We want to promote disaster preparedness to the public and ensure people know what to do in case of an emergency such as an earthquake or fire. Providing this information to the public is the real issue today -- and if the event is exciting then more people will be interested," he said between parades.
Yuji Arai, the 22nd Fire Chief of the Tokyo Fire Department, also points to the importance of disaster preparedness.
"With Japan's economy facing hardships, the Tokyo Fire Department sees many challenges lying ahead. Given the situation, we need to better prepare for major disasters like devastating earthquakes, step up fire and emergency services including (Emergency Medical Services) EMS, push forward fire prevention measures to cope with the new threats surrounding our building environment," the Fire Chief is quoted as saying on the department's website.
"As for our immediate issues, we are promoting home fire safety by encouraging communities to have fire alarms in the home, while continuing our efforts to make Tokyo resilient to all types of disasters, so that residents can feel secure living in the capital. Together with the 18,000 personnel of my department, I will keep on going and carrying out measures to realize people's desire for greater safety," Amai has resolved.
Tokyo itself sits upon two tectonic plates and the land that many of the buildings have been constructed upon is considerably soft, according to seismologists. Approximately 1,500 earthquakes hit Japan on average every year; of varying magnitude, and experts believe that Tokyo is long overdue to be hit by a major quake, experts have said.
Contrary to many beliefs, collapsing buildings and falling debris aren't the major cause of serious injuries or death when earthquakes hit an urban area, it's fire -- and for this reason the effort, skills and techniques seen by the Tokyo Fire Department on Wednesday, and the message they are promoting, is sovery relevant to the megalopolis' inhabitants. EDO ABLAZE
The very first Dezome-shiki took place on Jan. 4 1659 at Ueno Toshogu Shrine in Edo (old Tokyo). Two years earlier a ferocious fire decimated much of Edo, with its wooden buildings and houses turning ashes and tens of thousands of people losing their lives. The iconic Edo Castle Tower was also destroyed in the blaze.
The Dezome parade held by the fire brigade a couple of years later was a source of great encouragement to the people of the town to unite as a community and rebuild their lives, as well as remember those who were taken by the inferno.
This marked the beginning of fire safety and awareness in Japan and the Dezome parades have been an annual event during the New year period across the nation since then.
The ladder acrobatics enjoyed by thousands on Wednesday, which included firefighters in traditional costumes performing hand-stands with their legs spread, at the top of tall bamboo ladders, reveals how the fundamental skills, strength, dexterity and fearlessness of Japanese firefighters, have remained largely unchanged over the centuries.
The application of these fundamentals, by firefighters and emergency services personnel, in today's environment and the evolution of the technology would no doubt make those involved in the first Dezome parade in 1659 very proud indeed.
Tuesday 05 January 2010 at 03:41 am
Tiger Woods is photographed shirtless and pumping iron on the February issue of Vanity Fair.
The menacing shot, by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, was taken in January 2006, long before the world learned the married father of two cheated on his wife with a harem of hotties.
In addition to "raw" and "never-before-seen" photos, the issue features an essay by Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger, who explores the 33-year-old golfer's fall from grace.
While Woods attempted to live a largely private life, Bissinger writes that it was inevitable for the golfer's personal and professional lives to collide. "In the end it was the age-old clash of image versus reality, the compartmentalization of two different lives that inevitably merge at some certain point, whoever you are."
(Agencies)
NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Tiger Woods' marriage is on the brink of breakup as Elin Nordegren, Tiger's wife, will divorce the billionaire golf star following the series of sex scandal, according to local media reports on Wednesday.
ABC News, NBC News and People magazine, all citing unnamed sources close to Nordegren, reported that she will split with Woods following his admission of infidelity and reports that at least 14 women had affairs with the golf icon. Full story
BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Theresa Rodgers of Wellington, Florida, emerges as the fourteenth mistress to Tiger Woods, according to media reports Tuesday.
It is claimed that this 40-something Rodgers might be the oldest alleged mistress, and the five-year affair she carried on with the 33 year-old golfer was the longest. Full story
BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The online adult magazine Playgirl has received nude photos of Tiger Woods but decided not to publish them.
"Playgirl has decided to turn down the alleged Tiger Woods nude photos, reportedly taken by camera phone by Woods himself. They were impossible to one 100 percent verify, hence the unwillingness to go there," Daniel Nardicio, director of marketing for the magazine, told PEOPLE Sunday. Full story
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The scandal-tainted golf superstar Tiger Woods said on Friday that he will take an "indefinite" leave from professional golf to spend more time to save his family.
"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try," Woods said in a statement posted on his website.
Tuesday 05 January 2010 at 03:41 am
A Mexican anarchist group on Monday claimed responsibility for two bank bombings in December.
The group, Conspira 1970 , said on its website that the two bomb attacks in the southern state of Mexico were part of a scheme of nine bombings.
Eight of the attacks were planned in the state of Mexico, targeting a slaughterhouse, a car showroom and foreign-owned banks. The other one was in the central state of San Luis Potosi.
The two simultaneous attacks in December targeted cash machines in Bancomer and Banamex, owned by Spanish banking group BBVA and the U.S. Citigroup respectively.
No casualties were caused in the blasts which only slightly damaged the bank facilities.
The anarchists said they were inspired by Simon Radowitzky, a Ukrainian who led anarchist groups in Argentina and Mexico in the early 20th century.
Mexico City, the country's capital, also suffered a spate of bomb attacks in September, targeting banks and automatic teller machines. Police arrested an engineering student after the incidents.
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) - Two home-made bombs exploded on Thursday in banks of the municipalities of Toluca and Metepec in the State of Mexico, center of the country, causing damages inside and outside the buildings, the police said.
The police of the State of Mexico said that the home-made bombs exploded at 3:18 a.m. local time (0918 GMT), in the banks Banocomer and Banamex, without causing injuries.
Tuesday 05 January 2010 at 03:41 am
Google is expected to land its mobile phone Nexus One in the mobile phone market online, according to news reports on Tuesday.
The Nexus One, which includes a highly-developed touch screen and other enhancements from its previously launched G-phone T-mobile series, is due to be unveiled at Google's headquarters in California and is to be on sale at Google's website on Tuesday.
Nexus One phone is Google's completely new phone. It is not just an advanced version of the previously launched T-mobile series which was also release by Google, mobile specialists pointed out.
The phone, with Google's Android operating system, is reportedly made by the mobile phone maker HTC.
Comparing to Apple's iPhone, which stimulated the global mobile phone market when it was released three years ago in 2007, Google's Nexus One appears to be less competitive, analysts predicted. However, it is still a catching type of mobile phone with Google's newly creative gadgets.
