chinanews

KATHMANDU, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-five children have died of an unknown disease in Kalikot district over the last two months, according to the Kalikot District Public Health Office (DPHO).

Local leading media group's website THT Online reported on Monday that in Khin of Kalikot district, some 380 km northwest of capital Kathmandu, the children got cough in the beginning followed by fever, chest pain and finally died after profuse discharge of blood, Katak Mahat, a health worker at the DPHO said.

A mobile health team was sent to the region to bring under control the disease, which has gripped over 1,000 children there, he added.

Katak, who returned from the affected area to the district headquarters in connection with controlling the epidemic, said although the epidemic was not brought under full control, the situation was not so serious.

Some health personnel have stayed behind and medicines left there to control the epidemic, he added.

Local newspaper The Kathmandu reported the same case last week as 30 kids in Khin of Kalikot district died of a diarrhea epidemic between May 16 and June 21. Most of the dead belong to dalit communities, belonging to lower caste. The outbreak has also spread into the neighboring villages.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Health Ministry declared the country free of bird flu, the New Straits Times reported on Monday.
There had been no new bird flu cases in the last few days, said Datuk Lee Kah Choon, parliamentary secretary of the Health Ministry.

"Nobody in the country had been infected with the H5N1 virus inthe past two weeks," he said in the northwestern state of Penang on Sunday.

Earlier on June 6, the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus had been detected near Paya Jaras Hilir village in Selangor State, west of Kuala Lumpur.

This was the first bird flu case in Malaysia since bird flu occurred in February and March of last year.
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ABU DHABI, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Dubai Ambulance Services Center will soon introduce new services to streamline the rescue of heart patients in collaboration with Dubai police, UAE's local newspaper Khaleej Times reported on Monday.

Experiments are being conducted on the new services for heart patients on the basis of an initiative to establish an electronic link between the Operation Room of Dubai Police and heart patients in critical condition, said the report.

Under one program, heart patients will be provided with small size alarm devices linked with the police operation room, which will help them call the ambulance by pressing a button.

Officials in the police operation room will be able to determine the location of the patient using the geographic information system and send the ambulance to the patient.

A second system includes programming of the patient's mobile phone, linking it to the police operation room. On pressing the button of their mobile phones or calling 999, a message will go to a family member of the patient, emergency center and ambulance car which will be rushed to the patient's house.

Dubai Ambulance Services Center is also working in collaboration with Dubai police to set up a database, which will include heart patients with crucial cases so that rescue teams could reach the locations of the patients and has full information about the patient's health condition.

Dubai, one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is a financial and shopping center in the Middle East region
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KATHMANDU, June 25 (Xinhua) -- More than 60 persons have fallen ill after they consumed the anti-elephantiasis medicines distributed by the Dhading District Health Office (DHO) in central Nepal, local leading media group's website eKantipur reported Monday.

In Dhading district, some 70 km west of capital Kathmandu, the DHO had distributed medicines to 380,000 people of the district free of cost in the last two days.

Altogether 65 persons fell ill very soon after they consumed the medicines, the health workers said, adding that the patients are undergoing treatment in a primary health post at the village.

Medical personnel informed that the common symptoms seen among individuals after consuming anti-elephantiasis pills are nausea, headache, and vomiting and unconsciousness.

According to World Health Organization website, Elephantiasis is also called Lymphatic Filariasis, which puts at risk more than a billion people in more than 80 countries. Over 120 million have already been affected by it, over 40 million of them are seriously incapacitated and disfigured by the disease. One-third of the people infected with the disease live in India, one third are in Africa and most of the remainder are in South Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.
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BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A new Noregian study, published in the June 22 issue of the journal Science, analyzed the IQs of nearly 250,000 Norwegian 18- and 19-year-old draftees and found that older siblings had higher scores than younger siblings.
Another study by the same authors, but published recently in the journal Intelligence, looked at more than 100,000 Norwegian brothers and found first-borns on average had an IQ 2.3 points higher than their younger brothers (the IQs were all taken when the brothers were 18 or 19, so they compare the older brother's score at that age to the younger brother's score when he reached that same age).

"These are probably the two most important studies on birth order and intelligence in the last 75 years," said psychologist Frank Sulloway of the University of California, Berkeley, who wrote an analysis of the latest study for Science.

Unlike earlier studies that compared the intelligence of first-born children to those born later (and that also found that first-borns have higher IQs), the Science study looked at the social order of the children in a family, which does not always correspond to actual birth order in cases where there is a death in the family.

By comparing children who lost an older sibling, for instance, and so were treated as the eldest child, to those who were actually the first-born of their family, the authors showed the former group had similar IQs to the latter group.

"The second-borns who lost an older sibling are becoming like a first-born" in terms of IQ, Sulloway said. Sulloway says the new research rules out criticisms of earlier studies that argue that the findings were an artifact of other factors in the data, such as family size and parental IQ.

Paradoxically, younger siblings start out in life with higher IQs: Because younger children haven??t yet mastered the skills their older siblings have (for example, language or math skills), they actually degrade the learning environment of their elder brother or sister.
But eventually, around the age of 12, this trend reverses and the older siblings overtake their younger siblings.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhuanet) -- An international research team is expected to leave July 1 from the Arctic archipelago of Svalboard aboard an icebreaker on a 40-day journey see if the Gakkel Ridge -- a hydrothermal vent system near the North Pole --could harbor never-seen-before life forms that have remained isolated for tens of millions of years.

"This is an exciting opportunity to explore and study a portion of Earth's surface that has been largely inaccessible to science," said expedition chief scientist Robert Reves-Sohn, a geophysicist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts.

The Gakkel Ridge is part of the mid-ocean ridge system, which transects the globe like seams on a baseball. Ocean ridges are like underwater mountains and occur between Earth's tectonic plates that slip apart as fiery hot fluid full of minerals spews through the gap. For the organisms that can tolerate the heat, zero sunlight and bizarre diet, it's an oasis.

"The region has been mostly separated from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for millions of years, so whatever lives there has since been evolving in relative isolation ?? much the way animals in Australia did," said expedition scientist Tim Shank, a hydrothermal vent biologist at WHOI. "We are likely to find completely new suites of species with never-before seen adaptations."

The Gakkel Ridge spreads one-third of an inch annually, 20 times slower than other ridges. The slow pace results in a unique vent system, the scientists say, because material deep in Earth's mantle (below the crust) gets exposed on the seafloor.

That means the vent fluid will have a different chemical make-up from other hydrothermal vents, which, when combined with eons of isolation, means the region could support life forms similar to those of primordial Earth or other watery planets.

A trio of robotic underwater vehicles, named Puma, Jaguar and Camper, will be the noses, eyes and hands of the researchers, diving 1.8 to 3 miles beneath the ice cap where the ridge lies. The autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) were developed specifically for the Arctic.

First, the Puma will pinpoint any hydrothermal vents by sniffing out the chemical and temperature signals. Second, the Jaguar will image that portion of the seafloor. Finally, the Camper will scoop up rocks, sediments, and any living creatures.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged Ceres and Vesta, two of the largest known asteroids, revealing craters and other features that will soon be the targets of close-up observations by NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

Ceres, also considered a dwarf planet under the new planet definition, is round and 590 miles (950 kilometers) wide. About the size of Texas, Ceres contains some 30 to 40 percent of all the mass in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Vesta, the other target, is irregularly shaped and about 330 miles (530 kilometers) wide -- about the size of Arizona.

On July 7, NASA plans to launch Dawn on a four-year journey to the asteroid belt. The robotic probe will go into orbit around Vesta in 2011 and Ceres in 2015. The new images will help astronomers fine tune mission plans.

The picture of Vesta enabled astronomers to map the asteroid's southern hemisphere. A crater there, caused by an ancient collision, is 285 miles (456 kilometers) across. Researchers have known the collision created many smaller asteroids that they call vestoids.

Color differences in the image reflect differences in surface chemicals, some of it possibly due to volcanic activity, that Dawn will explore for clues to the asteroid's interior structure. The effects might be similar to dark "seas" and bright highlands on Earth's moon, astronomers said in a prepared statement.

The picture of Ceres reveals bright and dark regions that could be topographic features such as craters, researchers said. Or they could just show areas of different surface material.

Ceres' round shape suggests its interior is layered, like Earth's is, astronomers said. It might have a rocky core, an icy mantle and a thin dusty crust. There also could be water inside.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The space systems arm of European aerospace company EADS announced plans at the Paris air show to build a four-passenger rocket-equipped jet to hurl space tourists 60 miles above Earth for three minutes of weightlessness and a view of Earth's curvature.

Astrium's mock-up of the proposed spacecraft's front section showed specially designed seats that swivel to minimize discomfort for passengers travelling at three times the speed of sound. Astrium is seeking partners and hopes to be able to launch the project work next year, with the first space flights starting in 2012.

"We think there is a market for this, people are willing to pay," said Astrium's designer for the project, Jerome Bertrand.

The passengers, who will pay as much as 268,000 U.S. dollars, can unbuckle to float around and gaze through any of the Astrium jet's 15 windows before the pilot guides the craft back to Earth.

Virgin Galactic, part of billionaire businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will begin taking space tourists into suborbital space for 200,000 dollars per ticket next year if that project remains on schedule.

Astrium's executive jet-sized craft is designed to take off from a normal runway, powered by two turbofan jet engines.

Once it reaches an altitude of 8 miles, it ignites a rocket derived from EADS Astrium's Ariane series burning liquid oxygen and methane to push the craft to 100 km above Earth.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Symantec Corporation, the world's largest security software provider, announced on Monday a compensation package for Chinese users for a faulty update to its Norton anti-virus software, which paralyzed many computers across China last month.
Individuals users who were affected will have the period of validity for the anti-virus software extended by 12 months, plus free data backup and restoration software, according to a statement from Symantec.

Affected enterprise users will get permits to use Ghost Solution Suite, the statement said.

The move came after angry Chinese users demanded compensation and even began legal proceedings against the company.

The updating of the Chinese version of the Norton software, which started on May 18, wrongly identified two critical files of the Microsoft XP operating system as malicious codes and deleted them, causing computers to collapse.

However, Symantec said Monday about 50,000 users were badly affected, "which is different from media reports".

It had been reported that millions of computers in China have been affected by the faulty update, while some users said they suffered great losses from computer collapses.

A Chinese lawyer named Liu Shihui is seeking 1,644 yuan (213 U.S. dollars) in compensation for losses caused when his computer was paralyzed due to the update.

Liu claimed he had to hire technicians to restore his computer system and save data on May 20 after Norton service agencies refused to help him.

A Beijing client also filed a lawsuit seeking compensation of 50,000 yuan for data lost from his laptop.

An on-line survey by www.sina.com.cn, a leading Chinese portal website, showed Monday that about 74 percent of respondents said they would think twice when buying the Norton anti-virus software.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. researchers have found a primitive, shrew-like mammal fossil in Mongolia that reaffirms cousins of modern mammals arrived on the scene just as dinosaurs disappeared about 65 million years ago.

Analysis of the fossil refutes recent molecular studies that hold modern mammals may have lived long before the dinosaurs died out at the end of the Cretaceous period, which began 145 million years ago and ended with the impact of an asteroid 65 million years ago.

"The fossil itself is the least interesting part of the story scientifically," said John Wible of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, whose research appears in the journal Nature.

He said the discovery of a new shrew-like mammal in 1997 ?? Maelestes gobiensis ?? led to an exhaustive analysis of the fossil record that dates the emergence of modern mammals at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago.

Placental mammals ?? like dogs, cats, mice, whales, elephants, horses and humans ?? give birth to live young after a long gestational period. Of the 5,416 species of living mammals, 5,080 are placentals.

"We wanted to test whether there were any Cretaceous placentals," Wible said in a telephone interview.

"If the molecular dates are correct, we should be finding things that look like modern placentals in this time period and we are not."

They found that none of these Cretaceous forms of early mammals are related to any living placental mammals. "They are just extinct dead ends," he said.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

by Huang Yanan
DHAKA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Dhaka Zoo which is situated in the west of Bangladesh's capital has enforced family planning on lions to control the number of the animal.

Dhaka Zoo Curator Fazlul Haque said Monday when being interviewed by Xinhua that they started to enforce family planning on lions last year because they are facing accomodation problem due to rapidly increasing population of lions.

"We have 19 lions, including 12 males and 7 females. But our capacity is only 8," Haque said, adding "we are keeping fertile males and females in separate cages to control birth of new babies."

Dhaka Zoo imported a pair of lions from India in 1988. Since then, the number has increased from 2 to more than a dozen.

The zoo has given 6 lions to different local zoos in the country over the last few years, but the number is still big.

Haque said they have sought help from other countries, like Kuwait and Nepal, but there is no active response yet.

"We are trying to export some lions, but no country has given the interest," he said.

Haque said Indian lions are not as attractive as African lions, that is perhaps the reason why other countries are not seeking for the Indian lions.

He said even though the number of the lions is beyond their capacity, they could not release the lions to forest because the forest in Bangladesh is not suitable for the lions to live.

Each lion in the zoo eats 12 kg of meat per day which cost 1764 taka (about 25 U.S. dollars) and they eat six days a week.

"It is a big burden for us," Haque said.

Dhaka Zoo, run by the government, is under Fishery and Livestock Ministry.

Established in 1974, Dhaka Zoo has about 189 species of animals. It attracts around 10,000 visitors every day.
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BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists are closer to proving a theory is fact after locating a 10-mile-thick layer of magma beneath the Earth's crust that may be part of a fluid band of molten rock circling the globe.

Researchers Daniel Toffelmier and James Tyburczy of Arizona State University found the layer using a technique that measures changes in weak electrical currents flowing through the Earth's mantle rock.

The current is created when the solar wind, a continuous flow of charged atomic particles emitted by the sun, interact with Earth's magnetic field, called the magnetosphere.

The chemical make-up of the rocks affects their conductivity. By measuring changes in the current at different depths, the scientists were able to detect distinct rock layers, including the "invisible" magma layer.

"Rocks are semiconductors," Tyburczy said. "And rocks with more hydrogen embedded in their structure conduct better, as do rocks that are partially molten."

The discovery, detailed in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature, partially confirms a recent hypothesis by two Yale University geoscientists who say a band of molten magma circles the Earth about t 250 miles beneath the planet's crust, near a hypothetical "transition zone" separating the planet's two mantle layers.

The theory is that as the rock rises from the lower mantle to the upper mantle, it expels all the water in its crystal structure and melts. The researchers detected the molten layer beneath Tucson, Arizona. They aren't sure how far the sheet extends, but say there is little chance any of the molten rock will erupt at the surface.

The discovery only partially confirms the Yale scientists??idea, since it reveals a molten magma layer only beneath one spot on the Earth. But "finding that sheet of melt-rock tells us we're on the right track," Tyburczy said.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Following hundreds of small earthquakes Sunday suggested underground magma was shifting, scientists on Tuesday found lava oozing from a new breakout point on Mount Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes.

The small outbreak oozed about 150 feet from a 600-foot-long fissure in a forest about eight miles southeast of Kilauea's summit, the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said on its website.

When a field crew arrived, lava was moving sluggishly and the fissure was emitting heavy smoke and steam. By the time the crew left four hours later, the lava had stopped flowing and the smoke and steam had decreased significantly.

Part of the park on the Big Island remained closed to protect public safety while researchers examined the latest lava breakout.

Kilauea has been erupting continuously since Jan. 3, 1983, sending lava from the Pu'u 'O'o cone through a system of tubes to the ocean where it forms new land over time.

In Hawaiian tradition, Kilauea is home to Pele, the volcano goddess. Lava is said to be her physical representation.

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BEIJING, June 24 -- Chinese mainland actress Vicky Zhao won the Media Award for the most popular actress during the ongoing 10th Shanghai International Film Festival, scheduled from June 16 to 24.

Vicky Zhao won the award for her breakthrough performance as a taxi driver in "The Longest Night in Shanghai." The nationally projected film was hailed for its potential at the box office.

The 31-year-old actress missed the awards ceremony on Friday as she is shooting a new film "The War of the Red Cliff", directed by John Woo. She expressed her thanks for the honor over the phone.

The most popular actor award went to 47-year-old Taiwan actor Winston Chao, for his portrayal of Sun Yat-sen in a revolutionary's love story.

The Media Award held by CCTV-6, the China Central Television's movie channel, focuses on the development of Chinese films.

Cast members attended the premiere of "The Longest Night in Shanghai" in Beijing on June 20, 2007.(Sohu Photo)

Chinese actress Vicky Zhao attended the premiere of "The Longest Night in Shanghai" in Beijing on June 20, 2007.(Sohu Photo)

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BEIJING, June 24 -- "Bliss" from China, directed by Shen Zhiming, is chosen as the best film for its sincerity and artistic integrity. Golam Rabbany Biplob of "On the Wings of Dreams" from Bangladesh is awarded for his clear thoughts and the spirited story-telling. "The Case" is selected as "the College Students' Favorite Asian Film".

As one of the most important parts of Shanghai International Film Festvial (SIFF)'s Jin Jue Forum, the Asian New Talent Award aims to find and support young film makers from Asia, which will help them to contribute for the film art and the industry.

The Asian New Talent Award is the only award with prizes. Under the principle of Innovative, Energetic and multi-cultural, the prize will do help in realizing new talents' new plan and their films' distribution. Zendai Group, who invests in culture industry, sponsors this year's Asian New Talent Award with 150,000 RMB for the producer of the BEST FILM and the best director winner respectively. In addition, the Zhoushan Government provides each winner 300,000 RMB worth of film studio use.

With 101 films from 21 countries and regions signing up for the competition, the Asian New Talent Award shows its Asian impact in its 4th year. Finally, 10 selected films, which reflect the latest change of Asian young film makers, are nominated. Especially with the rising of some once film weakness, it has been a growing focus on what their living and working condition are and how they present their countries and nations and paint for the colorful world film industry.

Winner of the Asian New Talent Award

BEST FEATURE FILM: BLISS

Best Film of Asian New Talent Award of the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival goes to "BLISS" from China. The film is chosen for its sincerity and artistic integrity.

BEST DIRECTOR: Golam Rabbany Biplob ("On the Wings of Dreams" from Bangladesh)

Best Director of Asian New Talent Award of the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival goes to Mr. Golam Rabbany Biplob of "On the Wings of Dreams" from Bangladesh. He is awarded for his clear thoughts and the spirited story-telling.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

LOS ANGELES, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Universal's modern-day Noah comedy "Evan Almighty" swept the box office at North American theaters this weekend by selling about 32.1 million dollars worth of tickets, according to preliminary box office figures released Sunday.

But with the production budget rumored at the ever biggest 175 million dollars for a comedy, the Steve Carrell film fell short of industry expectations, some analysts said.

Meanwhile, the sleeper hit of the weekend may be the horror film "1408," which debuted in second with an estimated 20.18 million dollars. The MGM movie is based on the Stephen King short story about a man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences -- only to discover terror in a creepy New York hotel room.

Speaking of the weekend-opening gross of "Evan Almighty," Paul Dergarabedian, president of the Los Angeles-base box office tracking firm Media By Numbers, said the expectations were definitely higher than what it came in.

However, he said the movie might do well over time as audiences-- especially Christian audiences -- continue to discover it.

The superhero sequel "Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer" fell from first last week to a close third with an estimated 20.15 million dollars over the three-day period.

"Ocean's Thirteen," the third installment in the George Clooney and Co. crime caper, grossed about 11.3 million dollar in fourth in its third week in release, while romance-comedy "Knocked up" came in fifth with an estimated 10.6 million dollars in its fourth week.

Final box office figures for U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend will be released Monday.
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BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Jailed socialite Paris Hilton will give her first post-prison interview on veteran CNN newsman Larry King's show on Wednesday, the cable network has confirmed.

King would interview Hilton in a one-hour special on Wednesday, just 24 hours after the 26-year-old star is released from prison in Los Angeles, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

The show, "Larry King Live," does not pay for interviews.

In a statement released through her publicist, Hilton said she was pleased to be telling her side of the story on King's show.

"I am thrilled that Larry King has asked me to appear on his program to discuss my experience in jail, what I have learned, how I have grown and anything else he wants to talk about," she said.

Hilton, 26, is expected to be released from jail on Tuesday after serving roughly half of her 45-day sentence for violating probation in a drunken-driving case.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Paris Hilton is to be released from jail Tuesday and the big question she and her fans confront is has she changed, is it a change for the good, and will she stay changed?

Hilton, the ultimate let's party and pose for photos girl, says she prayed a lot in jail and found religion, she wants to build a halfway house for women recently released from jail, and she hopes the paparazzi will go away and leave her alone to do good deeds in peace.

"I would like to make a difference," the 26-year-old hotel heiress told Barbara Walters. "God has given me this new chance."

Dorian Traube, a professor of social work at University of Southern California says making a difference is easier said than done.

"If this indeed has changed her, then the transition will be very difficult because she'll have to find a new purpose in life" beyond being queen of the party scene, Traube said. "Her life will have to change drastically, which is going to be tricky because she's going to be in the public eye more than ever."

Constant attention, along with society's "sick fascination with failure," will make Hilton's transition more challenging, Traube said.

"She has almost set herself up to fail because there's been so much talk about how she's a changed person, how she found religion and she prays all the time," she said. "People are bitter for the notoriety she has for having done very little other than party, so they're standing around waiting for her to fail."

Hilton said she is "much more grateful" after spending time in jail.

"I appreciate everything now and I think there was a lot of bad people that I was around," she told E! "I don't want to surround myself with those types of people anymore."

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese national soccer team coach Zhu Guanghu revealed that he had already made preparations for the semi-final match at the upcoming AFC Asian Cup finals in July.

"We have studied our group match rivals and set different tactics to face them," said Zhu after Monday morning's training session.

"We've also studied our possible quarter-final opponents and that of the semi-final. We focus on how to control and contain them to greatest extent under extreme hot and damp weather of Southeast Asia."

Chinese players are training in a harmonious atmosphere, which satisfies the boss.

"You can feel that the team is unprecedentedly united. That's a prerequisite for overcoming troubles in any big tournament."

"There are no big injuries within the team. Only Sun Jihai and Sun Xiang have some old injuries, but they can still play."

China's target is to reach the last four at the Asian Cup. They will meet co-hosts Malaysia in their first group match on July 10.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

LONDON, June 25 (Xinhua) -- European soccer governing body UEFA has announced that European teams will play fewer matches to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

All 53 UEFA members will be drawn into eight groups of six teams, and one group of five. The nine group winners will qualify directly and the best eight runners-up will play home and away playoff matches for the remaining four places.

"It's a good compromise solution, because I wasn't really happy with the format for the last qualifying competition with groups of seven and eight teams," said UEFA President Michel Platini, who is in favour of smaller groups.

The executive committee of European soccer's governing body also discussed the future format of the Champions League and UEFA Cup from 2009 to 2012.
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SOFIA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Emil Koen, manager of Bulgarian basketball club CSKA, and its president Vladimir Fedyaev, have been identified as the two Bulgarian victims in Sunday's heavy crash in western France, the state-run BTA news agency reported.

The tragedy happened in early Sunday morning. The two Bulgarians, who were driving a BMW, crashed into a bus in the opposite direction. The BMW driver and passenger were killed in spot, and about twenty-four of the passengers suffered injuries, but none of them is in danger, BTA said.

Local police believes that the Bulgarian driver fell asleep behind the wheel, lost control over the vehicle, which then rushed into the opposite lanes of the road.

Emil Koen and Vladimir Fedyaev were to meet on Sunday representatives of the break-away union of European leagues ULEB and return to Sofia on Monday.
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HARARE, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Zimsun Leisure Group Limited has said it is set to increase hotel accommodation by 1,000 rooms throughout the country as it seeks to fortify the domestic market while preparing for arrivals ahead of the 2010 World Cup to be hosted by South Africa.

The country's leading hotel group said the expansion program would be executed through the construction and upgrading of existing hotels in the country's major resort areas such as the Eastern Highlands, Harare, Masvingo, Beitbridge and the majestic Victoria Falls.

Group chief executive Shingi Munyeza said within the next five years demand and room occupancy would increase three-fold hence it was essential for the group to keep abreast of such an anticipated increase and be able to cater for it.

In line with the development, the group has already entered into an agreement with an unnamed contractor to expand and operate hotel facilities in the country's resorts including Eastern Highlands and in Kariba.

The planned expansion of the group's room capacity in the local environment has seen it entering into an agreement to expand and operate existing hotels in the Eastern Highlands.

"The development, which is expected to come on stream in 2009, will enhance the group's local product offering and is likely to increase our market share in the popular tourist destination," he said.

Munyeza added that Zimsun was also looking at capitalizing on the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

Apart from the influx in tourist arrivals in the country expected in 2010, Munyeza said the group was also negotiating to accommodate the FIFA delegation in its hotel facilities.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

SOFIA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The general manager of Bulgaria's volleyball club Levski-Sikonko Georgi Zaharinov died in a hellish car crash on Monday, reported BTA news agency.

The tragedy happened near Veliko Tarnovo, central Bulgaria. Zaharinov was driving his Citrone, returning to Sofia. In the opposite lane, an Opel, owned by the Bulgarian Central Bank, appeared suddenly in the lane of Zaharinov, and crashed head-on-head into the Citrone.

Zaharinov and a 47-year-old woman in the Opel died on spot. The chief statistician of Bulgarian national team of volleyball in the Citrone and 4 passengers in the Opel were seriously injured and transported to the nearest hospital. Their lives are in danger.

As the result, the main road linking Sofia and Varna is temporary closed.

Zaharinov was the third sport leader killed in car crashes in the past 48 hours. Emil Koen and Vladimir Fedyaev, manager and president of Bulgarian basketball club CSKA, were killed in another car crash in western France on Sunday morning.
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Donations are made as part of the celebrations to mark the 100-day countdown to Shanghai Special Olympics 2007.(Xinhua Photo)

BEIJING, June 25 -- A total of 23 events have been on display in Shanghai on Sunday as part of the celebrations to mark the 100-day countdown to the Shanghai Special Olympics 2007.

The celebrations were spearheaded by a jogging attended by at least 20,000 citizens, including some mentally handicapped people.

The mini-marathon was augmented by art shows, rummage sale, autograph-signing and some donating ceremonies.

"I came here to give my support to those mentally handicapped people, they are born equal," said Wang Junxia, China's former 5,000-meter Olympic champion, who headed the jogging. "And they can compete and live as everybody else does. I would like to call on the attention from all the corners of the society to those people."

According to Han Zheng, mayor of Shanghai and Chairman of the organizing committee of the Special Olympics, all the preparation has been well underway, with building a harmonious ambiance for the Games and the mentally handicapped people as the priority.

"We don't build new venues, we don't make profits from the Games, all we need to do is make it public and have more people involved to create a civilized and harmonious environment for the mentally handicapped people," Han said at Sunday's Special Olympics 100-day countdown ceremony.

The 12th Special Olympics World Summer Games will be held in Shanghai from Oct. 2 to 11. More than 10,000 athletes and coaches, 20,000 family members from over 160 countries and regions are expected to show up.

A kid poses for photos in front of a sculpture of the mascot of the Shanghai Special Olympics 2007 and a countdown board on Sunday, June 24, 2007. 23 events are on display in Shanghai on the day as part of the celebrations to mark the 100-day countdown to the event. (Xinhua Photo)

Xi Jinping (center), the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanghai Municipal Committee and two representatives of mentally retarded athletes push the button to unveil the 100-day countdown timer, June 24, 2007. (Xinhua Photo)

KATHMANDU, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The UNESCO has removed the ancient temples and monuments of Kathmandu valley from the United Nations World Heritage list of sites in danger, local leading media group's website THT Online reported on Monday.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) committee on World Heritage Sites said on Monday the removal of the sites from the list recognized improvements in conservation and management.

The committee praised Nepal's work in protecting the "outstanding universal value" of the sites in the face of urban development.

The seven Nepali world heritage sites in Kathmandu valley, where capital Kathmandu locates along with Patan and Bhaktapur, were added to the world heritage list since 1979 and onto the danger list in 2003.

Among its eight cultural heritage sites, seven are in Kathmandu valley. These are four groups of Hindu and Buddhist monuments, as well as three ancient royal palaces of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur.

The 10-day 31st World Heritage Committee has been holding annual meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand from Saturday. The committee meetings consider new site nominations, sites in danger, site management and protection. They will also draw up lists for possible future World Heritage sites.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The World Heritage Committee decided here on Monday to keep Dresden Elbe Valley (Germany) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

But it asked Germany to provide an alternative solution to traffic management than the bridge currently planned in the site inscribed on United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s World Heritage List in 2004.

The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Christchurch of New Zealand for its ten-day 31st session, accepted that if present plans for a bridge were replaced by a solution that respected the outstanding universal value of the cultural landscape, the site would remain on the World Heritage List.

Otherwise, the Committee decided, Dresden would be struck off the List.

The Committee last year threatened taking the unprecedented step of delisting Dresden Elbe Valley because of plans to build a four-lane bridge across the river.

This year, the Committee reaffirmed its commitment to preserve the credibility of UNESCO's World Heritage List and gave the German authorities four more months to find an acceptable solution.

The status of the site, which was inscribed as an ensemble that integrates the celebrated baroque setting and suburban garden city into an artistic whole within the river valley, will be re-examined by the Committee next year.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

File Photo (Source: chinadaily.com.cn)

BEIJING, June 25 -- A crowd of thousands, comprising both foreign and Chinese faces, gathered in Tianshui, Gansu Province, yesterday to honor Fuxi, revered as one of the ancestors of the Chinese nation.

Held outside the main gates of the 600-year-old Fuxi Temple, the ceremony was attended by Xu Shousheng, governor of Gansu Province, who personally read the funeral oration. This was the 19th Fuxi public memorial ceremony since their inception in 1988.

Tianshui, the birthplace of Fuxi, is considered a cradle of Chinese culture where such crucial skills as hunting, farming, fishing and the whole of Fuxi culture first blossomed in China.

Based on the wealth of documentary records and archaeological discoveries uncovered, Fuxi culture is estimated to have originated over 8,000 years ago. According to documents dating back to pre-Qin times (before 248 BC) and historical books from the Han dynasty (206 BC-220AD), Fuxi was honored as forming the bloodline of five other emperors (the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu, Ku, Yao and Shun) and the head of three august ones (Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong).

Long admired as a vital region in China, Tianshui has had the good fortune of being the birthplace and dwelling of many forefathers of the Chinese nation represented today by Fuxi. Each year, thousands of Chinese flock to the city to honor the memories of their ancestors and hold ceremonies for Fuxi.

Prior to Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC) who is credited with becoming China's first emperor by after uniting the country in 221 BC, ancient Chinese believed in an even older emperor who lived as much as six millennia before Qin.

Fuxi was respected by tribes from near and far, as he taught them to weave fishing nets, feed animals and farm. The wise forebear also established a rudimentary type of social governance, laid down original marriage laws and composed his community's first music.

But among all of Fuxi's accomplishments, that which Chinese lore holds in the highest esteem is the bagua, or the Eight Trigrams. The bagua is a fundamental ancient Chinese philosophical concept, generally depicted as an octagonal diagram with a trigram dominating each side.

(Source: China Daily)

File Photo(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)

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BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- A new research paper published Friday takes another look at the remains of three people found at Masada (the desert fortress famous as the scene of a mass suicide nearly 2,000 years ago) and given a state burial by Israel as Jewish heroes.

The remains, the study says, could actually be those of the Jews' Roman enemies.

The two male skeletons and a full head of woman's hair were discovered in a bathhouse by archaeologists in the 1960s. They were thought to belong to a family of Zealots, the fanatic Jewish rebels said to have killed themselves rather than fall into Roman slavery in A.D. 73, a story that plays an important role in Israel's national mythology.

The remains, as were other bodies found at Masada, were recognized as those of Jewish heroes by Israel's government in 1969 and given a state burial, complete with Israeli soldiers carrying flag-draped coffins.

But anthropologist Joe Zias and forensics expert Azriel Gorski write in a paper in the June issue of the journal Near Eastern Archaeology that the remains buried with honors may have been Romans, not Jews.

The paper zeroes in on the hair, noting the odd absence of a skeleton to go with it. The researchers' new forensic analysis showed the hair had been cut off the woman's head with a sharp instrument while she was still alive.

Zias' attempt to unravel the mystery led him to the Old Testament's Book of Deuteronomy, where a passage says that foreign women captured in battle by Jews must have all their hair cut off, apparently to make them less attractive to their captors.

The way Zias sees it, the woman was attached to the Roman garrison at Masada in A.D. 66 when the Zealots seized the fortress and killed the soldiers. Jewish fighters threw two Roman bodies into the bathhouse, which they then used as a garbage dump, judging by other debris found inside. The Zealots treated the woman captive according to Jewish law, cutting off her hair, which they threw in with the bodies.

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BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- A skull found in a pile of bones near Lima, Peru, may have belonged to the first gunshot victim in the Western Hemisphere.

The skull was found among a large group of bones of ancient Incas, who had died violently in the early 1500s as the Spanish Conquistadors battled the native empire. The bones were in shallow graves, leading archaeologist Guillermo Cock to speculate the burials were done hurriedly during conflict, perhaps an uprising against the Spanish in 1536.

"We didn't expect it. We saw this skull and saw the almost round hole and thought people must have been shooting around here recently," Cock, who found the remains.

To be sure this was a gunshot wound the skull was studied by forensics expert Tim Palmbach at the University of New Haven, who brought in other experts.

Al Harper, director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science in New Haven, Conn., said the team "tried to rule out all kinds of causes of the hole ?? a rock from a slingshot, spear, sledgehammer." Harper and Palmbach studied the skull with a powerful scanning electronic microscope.

"We all thought it was a million-to-one chance that we would find any traces of metal on a skull that old, but it was worth a try," Harper said in a statement.

What they found were fragments of metal from a musket ball impregnating the area surrounding the hole.

"This conclusively proves that the person was killed by a gunshot, and he is the first identified shooting victim in the Americas," Cock said.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- All three major Chinese stock indices plummeted on Monday amid speculation over the possibility of further interest rate hikes.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended Monday's trading at 3,941.08 points, down 150.36 points, or 3.68 percent, with a daily transaction volume of 143.3 billion yuan (18.9 billion U.S. dollars).

The key stock index, which covers both yuan-denominated A-shares and foreign-currency-denominated B-shares, peaked at 4,131.13 points but slipped to 3,912.42 points.

The Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange slumped 616.46 points, or 4.5 percent, to close at 13,109.26 points with a turnover of 75.56 billion yuan (9.9 billion U.S. dollars).

The governor of the central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said over the weekend that if the consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, continued to rise, he could not "exclude the possibility of raising interest rates again".

The People's Bank of China raised rates twice this year, with the latest coming on May 19 when the benchmark one-year deposit rate was raised 27 basis points to 3.06 percent. Also in May, the CPI rose 3.4 percent, the highest in two years.

Eight hundred and seventy companies recorded losses and only 105 registered gains on the Shanghai stock exchange, while the Shenzhen bourse saw 631 losses and 64 gains.

The major heavyweights slumped, with the exception of China Life, the country's largest life insurer, which rose 2.51 percent to 44.53 yuan.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 1.59 percent to 4.96 yuan, the Bank of China, went down 1.57 percent to 5.01 yuan, and Sinopec, China's biggest oil refiner, down 5.74 percent to 13.47 yuan.

Despite the market gloom, defense-industry-related shares performed well following the recent promulgation of new guidelines to transform military industrial enterprises into joint-stock companies.

Space Sci-tech soared by its daily limit of 10 percent to 10.35yuan, Space Machinery and Electronics went up 1.86 percent to 14.26 yuan, and Chengfa Sci-Tech rose 3.28 percent to 26.79 yuan.

On Monday, the Hushen 300 Index, which tracks 300 companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, closed at 3,877.59 points, down 173.84 points, or 4.29 percent, from the previous close.
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HONG KONG, Jane 25 (Xinhua) -- Strong profit-taking pressure and broad declines throughout Asia sent Hong Kong's benchmark index lower on Monday, breaking a six-session winning streak that resulted in a rise of over 1,400 points, or 7 percent.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 177.56 points, or 0.8 percent, to 21,822.35.

Turnover reached 83.96 billion Hong Kong dollars (10.76 billion U.S. dollars), down from 95.81 billion Hong Kong dollars (12.27 billion U.S. dollars) Friday.

Analysts said they expect the blue-chip index to trade near 22,000 points in the coming days on futures-related demand, though they said a correction will likely follow in July given the spate of initial public offerings that will drain liquidity from the stock market.

For this week, analysts said they expect the blue-chip index to trade near 22,000 points on demand linked to futures trading. In the next few days, "the market is likely in the hands of bulls who have bullets to hold the market strength till the futures expirations on Thursday," ICEA said in a research note Monday.

Among blue chip stocks Monday, 34 out of 39 ended in the red, dragged by a sharp correction in the Chinese mainland stock markets in the afternoon, as well as the broad decline in regional bourses.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both A and B shares, ended down 3.7 percent at 3941.08, extending Friday's 3.3 percent decline on expectations for more tightening measure.

Most of Asia was also down, dragged by weak performance on Wall Street Friday.

Japan's Nikkei Index fell 0.6 percent to 18,087, South Korea's Kospi ended down 0.8 percent at 1758, and Sydney's benchmark S&P/ ASX 200 index fell 0.8 percent to 6,329.8.

China-related shares were the biggest decliners on the local market. The China Enterprises Index, which tracks the movement of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, fell 1.6 percent to 12,040.90.

Among those companies, oil producer Sinopec was down 2.9 percent at 8.79 Hong Kong dollars after the abrupt resignation of Chairman Chen Tonghai, who quit for "personal reasons".

China Construction Bank fell 2.3 percent to 5.20 Hong Kong dollars. Bank of China declined 0.8 percent to 3.91 Hong Kong dollars, and ICBC fell 0.7 percent to 4.34 Hong Kong dollars.

The finance sub-index plunged 342.10 points or 1.01 percent to 33,566.71.

The properties sub-index slid 340.55 points or 1.33 percent at 25,588.10.

The commerce and industry sub-index went down 57.17 points or 0.46 percent to 12,343.38.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of China (BOC), the nation's second largest bank, has said its overall performance and financial results will be unaffected by the cases of irregularities and violations of rules revealed in last year's government audit.

The National Audit Office found some BOC branches had failed to strictly adhere to the government's macro-economic controls and the bank's own credit approval policies, the bank said in a statement on Monday.

The investigation into the bank's 2005 financial status, carried out between April and September last year, also revealed insufficient mortgages were required for some note transactions due to inadequate checks, and some branches failed to work in accordance with the financial assessment norms, according to the BOC statement.

The audit identified risks in a small number of highway construction loans and said the bank's disposal of non-performing loans needed improvement.

The lender said problems uncovered mostly dated back to prior to the bank's shareholding reforms in 2004, adding the majority of loans involving compliance breaches had been recovered, disposed or settled, and preparations had been made in previous years for deduction of the other non-performing loans.

The bank said it had already tightened its control over mortgages in note transactions, and had adjusted its accounting rules by the end of 2006 to better regulate its financial assessments.

The National Audit Office said the report of the BOC audit finding would be publicly available sometime after July.

China's state-owned banks have been repeatedly asked to improve internal controls and risk management before public listing.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

HONG KONG, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Hang Seng China Enterprises Index on Hong Kong Stock Exchange fell 198.81 points, or 1.62 percent, to close the day's trading at 12,040.9 on Monday, snapping the index's streak of six consecutive days of gains.

The H-shares index, initiated in August 1994 and readjusted on March 12, 2007, tracks the overall performance of 41 Chinese mainland state-owned enterprises listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Hang Seng China H-Financials Index lost 115.47 points, or 0.82 percent, to close at 13,926.52.

The H-Financials Index, initiated on Nov. 27, 2006, tracks the performance of eight major banks and insurers of the Chinese mainland.

Hang Seng China-Affiliated Corporations Index dropped 12.79 points, or 0.31 percent, to close at 4,148.34.

The index tracks the performance of 31 locally listed companies with a significant equity interest held by entities in the Chinese mainland.

Hang Seng Mainland Composite Index went down 35.99 points, or 0.93 percent, to close at 3,853.05.

Introduced on Oct. 3, 2001 and readjusted on Sept. 11, 2006, Hang Seng Mainland Composite Index gauges the performance of 103 Hong Kong-listed companies with principal places of business in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 -- Visa Inc, the No. 1 credit-card company, earned 465.1 million U.S. dollars last year according to a regulatory filing that gave investors a first look at the company's books ahead of a proposed initial public offering.

Operating revenue was 3.9 billion dollars and operating expenses were 3.19 billion dollars for the fiscal year ended September 30, according to the filing on Friday, which details a reorganization of the San Francisco-based company. Profit was 525.9 million dollars in the six months ended March 31 as Visa's operating margin almost doubled, Bloomberg News said.

Visa announced in October it would combine most of its global businesses and sell shares sometime next year to become more competitive. Investors have bid up shares of MasterCard Inc, the second-biggest card company, more than 330 percent since their debut in May 2006, and Morgan Stanley is completing a spinoff of the Discover card unit this week.

"The IPO is going to be highly popular among investors after the success of MasterCard," said Craig Maurer, an analyst at Calyon Securities USA Inc. "It's going to generate significantly larger buzz than MasterCard. That's the benefit of coming second, and Visa clearly has the edge in size."

Visa didn't set prices or timing for the share sale. While the filing said the offering will raise 1.54 billion dollars, the figure is used to calculate the registration fee for the company and the actual sum raised may be higher. Maurer said the share sale could ultimately raise more than 25 billion dollars.

Visa is combining its businesses excluding Europe to save money, facilitate the share sale, streamline decision-making and make acquisitions easier, the filing said.

The company's operating margin swelled to 34 percent in the six months ended in March from 18 percent in the fiscal year that ended in September.

Visa and MasterCard, based in Purchase, New York, collect fees from retailers on every transaction that moves through their networks. Merchants have charged both issuers with conspiring to impose inflated rates, leading to federal antitrust lawsuits. In the filing, Visa said it's facing about 50 class-action and individual antitrust suits brought on behalf of merchants.

Some of the proceeds from the share sale will be used to cover settlements or judgments tied to litigation, Visa said.

Visa, MasterCard and banks including Citigroup Inc agreed in July 2006 to pay 336 million dollars to their customers to settle antitrust lawsuits over currency conversion fees charged on foreign transactions. The filing said Visa agreed to pay 100 million dollars to settle federal actions and 20 million dollars for related California cases.

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BEIJING, June 25 -- OAO Gazprom, the world's biggest natural-gas producer, and Eni SpA may build a pipeline from Russia to the European Union.

This will bypass neighbors that have threatened to block supplies on existing routes, Bloomberg News reported.

The 900-kilometer South Stream pipeline could go under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then split in two, Eni Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni told reporters in Rome on Saturday. The project will now go through feasibility studies, and construction may start as early as next year, he said.

It will carry gas equal to as much as a third of German demand.

State-controlled Gazprom, seeking to bolster European sales and cut transit risks, has announced three new pipeline projects in 12 months. Neighbors including Ukraine and Belarus are used as transit countries for Russian gas sales to EU nations and both have threatened to block supplies because of pricing disputes.

"Gas is a political commodity nowadays; economically speaking, this project is not really justifiable," Vladimir Matias, managing partner of Asset Capital Partners, said on Saturday by phone from Vienna.

The new pipeline will provide a direct route into Italy and Austria and mirrors Gazprom's project with E.ON AG and BASF AG to build the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany.

South Stream will avoid the need to send gas through Ukraine and Belarus, while Nord Stream bypasses the Baltic states, which often have tense political relations with Russia.

Gazprom, based in Moscow, already supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs. The company's profitability depends on exports since state-set gas prices in Russia are about a fifth of those in Europe.

Russia is seeking to regain control of energy assets and has pressured foreign investors into relinquishing their projects in the country. Royal Dutch Shell Plc ceded control of its US$22 billion Sakhalin-2 project to Gazprom in December, while a unit of BP Plc on Friday announced the sale of its 63 percent stake in a Siberian gas deposit to Gazprom.

For Eni, Europe's fourth-largest oil company, the pipeline would secure gas supplies for Europe's third-largest gas market behind the United Kingdom and Germany.

Italy buys 86 percent of its gas abroad, mainly from Algeria and Russia. The new pipeline may carry as much as 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

KAMPALA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Heritage Oil Corporation, a company exploring oil in western Uganda, has said the country's new oil discovery in the region shows a multibillion-barrel oil potential estimated at 7 billion U.S. dollars.

State-owned New Vision on Monday quoted an Irish newspaper, The Post, as saying that the oil reserves from the Kingfisher well discovery could be ten times greater than what was previously believed.

Heritage Oil, a Canadian-based international oil company and Tullow Oil, an Irish company jointly own the Kingfisher well on block 3A in Bunyoro, Hoima district.

On March 1, Heritage Oil company said in a statement that final tests from Kingfisher, one of Uganda's oil wells in the western region located on the shores of Albert lake, indicate that a maximum daily output of 13,893 barrels, increasing the country' s potential to begin commercial production.

The Kingfisher discovery is so far the largest finding in Uganda.

A highly-placed source in the Ugandan energy ministry on Sunday said it was possible that the area held oil reserves to that magnitude.

Uganda is planning to begin petroleum production with a mini-refinery as early as 2009, making its first step of shifting from a fuel importer to a self-reliant country, which would save the country millions of dollars annually.
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KAMPALA, June 25 (Xinhua)-- The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has destroyed fake goods worth 300 million U.S. dollars in the past four years.
The products include rice, biscuits, engine oil, generators, electric cables, juices and cosmetics, tooth brushes, batteries, petroleum jelly and skin creams.

Some of the goods were either rejected or re-exported, Deus Mubangizi, head of quality assurance was quoted by state-owned New Vision on Monday. But he was worried that some of the rejected products could still be on the market.

"Members of the public must take serious precautions when buying some of these items especially cosmetic products and body lotions that contain mercury and hydroquinone that are dangerous to our skins," he said in a statement.

"We appeal to suppliers and those in the tendering business to ensure that UNBS inspects the goods before to avoid transporting and re-exporting goods back to their countries of origin," he said.

He said the East African Community was working out modalities for the harmonization of regional standards.

"We want to have the same standards such as goods from Kenya are tested in Uganda using the same standards," he added.
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ABU DHABI, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Dolphin Energy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced here on Monday that it has produced the first gas from its wells in Qatar.

This is a major step of the company's Dolphin Gas Project, which involves the production and processing of natural gas from Qatar's North Field and transportation of the dry gas to the UAE and Oman.

"Raw gas is now being transported by dedicated sealine to Dolphin Energy's brand-new gas processing plant at Ras Laffan Industrial City in northern Qatar," a press release by the Abu Dhabi-based Dolphin Energy said.

"This gas is currently being used in testing all aspects of the plant, as start-up procedures and safety checks are undertaken," the press release added.

Once all procedures are tested and verified, up to 2 billion standard cubic feet of refined methane gas will be compressed each day for transport to the UAE through the company's export pipeline.

Established in March 1999, Dolphin Energy is owned 51 percent by Mubadala Development Company on behalf of the government of Abu Dhabi, and 24.5 percent each by Total of France and Occidental Petroleum of the United States.
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??Hamas armed wing released an audio message for the Israeli captive corporal.
??Earlier, a spokesman for the captors said Shalit was alive and healthy.
??Hamas still stick to their demands to exchange the soldier for Palestinian prisoners.

Gilad Shalit (File Photo)

GAZA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Hamas armed wing, the Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, released on Monday an audio message for the Israeli captive corporal Gilad Shalit to mark the one-year anniversary for his abduction.

The message said, "I'm the soldier Gilad Naom Shalit, held by Martyr Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.

"Dad, Mom... Brothers and sisters... My colleagues in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF); I send you greetings from my jail, and I'm yearning to see all of you.

"I have completed a year in captivity; my health condition is still deteriorated and I need chronical treatment in hospital.

"I'm sorry that the Israeli government and the IDF are not interested in my case and their neglecting of al-Qassam's demands though they should comply with the demands to get me freed from my prison, especially as I am on a military mission with a military order. I am not a drug dealer.

"Thousands of Palestinian prisoners have mothers and fathers as I do and they must reunite with them.

"My hope is big that my government will take care of me and respond to the Mujahedeen's demands." said Shalit in the message, which could be downloaded from the website of the Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.

Earlier, a spokesman for the captors said Shalit was alive and healthy.

It was the first time that Hamas released a recorded message since its armed wing, along with another two armed groups, kidnapped Shalit in an armed attack on an Israeli army base in southeastern Gaza Strip.

Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the Army of Islam still stick to their demands to exchange the soldier for a number of Palestinian prisoners, said Abu Mujahed, the PRC spokesman.

The three groups kidnapped the Israeli Corporal a year ago in across border raid on his military base just a few kilometers behind the security fence between Israel and Gaza.

The factions "insist on their humanitarian demands of freeing female prisoners, children, patients, old, leaders of factions and those who face long sentences," Abu Mujahed said.

He accused the Israeli government of blocking the progress on Shalit's case by not dealing seriously with the offers that the factions sent through Egyptian mediators.

The Israeli government "returned the progress to the zero point," said Abu Mujahed, adding that the factions can keep the soldiers for years.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

HARARE, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government has gazetted the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill which seeks to create an enabling environment for greater participation in the economy by indigenous people, The Herald reported on Monday.
The proposed law provides for the establishment of an Indigenization and Empowerment Fund to finance the acquisition of shares, working capital and other forms of finance, the newspaper said.

The National Investment Trust of Zimbabwe will be constituted as a special account of the envisaged empowerment fund. This will not affect the interests of the unit holders and deed of trust.

According to the official newspaper, the overall goal is to achieve at least a 51 percent shareholding by indigenous people inthe majority of businesses in all sectors of the economy.

The Minister of Indigenization and Empowerment will be mandated to review and approve the indigenization arrangements.

Sufficient time will be given to businesses concerned
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HARARE, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mawampanga Mwanananga has urged the governments around the globe to lower their military budgets in favor of peace operations and development projects.

Mwanananga was quoted by The Herald on Monday as saying that it was high time for armies to shift their attention to train peacekeepers.

He made the remarks when speaking at the graduation of 26 officers from 10 SADC countries and Algeria who underwent a 10-daySADC Peace Support course at the SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Center in Harare last week.

"I think it's high time our armies concentrate on training peacekeepers and stop regarding peacekeeping as too costly, while on the other hand contingents of hundreds, if not millions, of army men and women to war time and again and nobody points a finger," said Mwanananga.

The objectives of the course included developing a thorough knowledge of peace support operational guidelines, examining the multi-dimensional nature of peace support operations and assessing the international human rights law.

Mwanananga said the course sought to prepare participants for the numerous challenges they were likely to face on peace missions.
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CAIRO, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's state security court on Monday sentenced Mohamed Sayyed Saber, a nuclear engineer at Egypt's state-run Atomic Energy Agency, and two others to 25 years in jail for spying for Israel, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported.

Ali Islam, the head of the Egyptian atomic agency, testified that Saber illegally obtained the classified documents from his department, kept them for 10 years in defiance of regulations that prevented him from keeping them in his possession, MENA added.

Saber was accused of stealing confidential reports from the agency and handing them for 17,000 U.S. dollars to Israeli Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) in an act that could harm the national interests.

Prosecutors asked the court to give him maximum penalty for hacking into the agency's computer system, stealing the classified documents and selling them to Israel.

Saber, 35, who was arrested at the beginning of the year, had pleaded not guilty to the espionage charges and looked shocked when the verdict was read out.

During the trial, Saber insisted that any information he had divulged was already in the public domain.

The two others, a Japanese one an Irish one, were tried in absentia and received the same sentence of 25 years in jail.
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GENEVA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The performance of the global economy over the last few years has been extraordinary, and high level growth is expected to continue in 2007, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said on Sunday.

In its annual report, the Basel-based BIS, known as the central bank of central bankers, said the real growth of global economy has been maintained around levels that are among the highest recorded in the postwar period, and many of the world's poorest countries have shared in this growing prosperity.

It noted that underlying inflation levels have generally remained subdued, despite significant upward shocks to most commodity prices.

Record global trade imbalances have been easily financed and exchange rates have been generally stable.

"The combination of developments is so extraordinary that it must raise questions about the source and, closely related, the sustainability of all this good fortune," the report said.

At BIS's annual general meeting on Thursday, BIS General Manager Malcolm Knight highlighted the uncertainties currently facing markets and policymakers.

They include the possible resurgence of global inflation, the evolution of current account imbalances, and potential vulnerabilities in financial markets and financial institutions.

Knight noted that behind each set of concerns lurks the common factor of highly accommodative financial conditions. A further tightening of monetary policy might then be needed, as well as action to reduce still high government deficits and debt in many countries.

Countries that, in principle, have floating exchange rate regimes should allow their currencies to adjust more freely, he said.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

SINGAPORE, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The West should stop the hypocritical blame game and work collectively with developing countries to fix the global warming problems, Asian panellists said Monday at a session on sustainable growth on the second day of the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

Commenting on a recent Dutch government-funded study that showed that China has overtaken the U.S. as the world's biggest polluter producing the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions in 2006, Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Malaysia's Second Minister of Finance, said that singling out China was pointless. "It's wrong, there should not be hypocrisy," he added.

Yakcop pointed out that factories in China contributing to the pollution are mostly owned by American and European multinational companies (MNCs) that are benefiting from China's cheap labor resources.

China and other developing countries have little choice but to continue to welcome foreign investments, he said.

"We can't slow down because we've got plenty of poverty," the Malaysian minister said, adding "The growth momentum has to be kept up; sustainable growth emphasis must be growth."

Also speaking in the panel discussion, Chen Feng, chairman of China Hainan Airlines, recalled watching a television documentary on the destruction of Beijing's imperial garden Yuanmingyuan by fire 146 years ago when Anglo-French forces stormed the building. Denouncing them as "bandits" for their role in the destruction, Chen said he supports the need for collective global action in tackling the serious environmental problem.

Masatoshi Wakabayashi, Minister of the Environment of Japan, said there is a need for a new global mechanism to achieve the G8 objective of reducing greenhouse emissions by half in 2050.

He believed that the initiative of the U.S., announced ahead of the recent Heiligendamm summit, to call a meeting of major gas-emitting countries, was a "very significant" step forward in the global effort on environmental protection.

The two-day forum, under the theme "The Leadership Imperative for an Asian Century", has brought together over 300 business, government and civil society leaders from 26 countries to discuss the current challenges facing East Asia. Through the program pillars Asian Leadership, Risk Management, Sustainable Growth and Competitiveness the participants will identify the leadership opportunities and challenges that will shape an "Asian Century."

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Talks on an international treaty to update broadcast rights taking into account Internet needs fell apart Friday because countries were not able to agree how much technological and legal protection to give broadcasters, a U.S. official said.

The talks, which were held under the auspices of the United Nation's World Intellectual Property Organization, were meant to smooth the way for an intergovernmental meeting in November to approve a treaty.

"It became clear that there was no agreement on any of the fundamental issues of the treaty," Paul Salmon, head of the U.S. delegation, told The Associated Press. "There was no question that countries were negotiating in good faith. It's just that despite our efforts we are nowhere near agreement."

Disagreements over issues such as whether protection against piracy should cover only traditional broadcasting methods, such as cable, antenna and satellite signals, or whether it should include retransmission over the Internet proved to be the deathknell of the talks.

European countries wanted to give broadcasters rights over any content they transmit - even if they did not originally produce the content.

That type of rights-based treaty is opposed by electronics and telecommunication companies such as Intel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., as well as librarian groups and consumer advocates. They say it would stifle technological innovation and could prevent people from playing legal music or films over their home networks.

The groups have lobbied for a narrow treaty protecting only the signal itself from piracy. Salmon said delegations would discuss how to proceed on Friday.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

ANKARA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) countries stressed the importance of cooperation among member countries as well as boosting ties with the European Union (EU) on Monday.

At the opening session of BSEC foreign ministers' meeting held in Istanbul before the BSEC 15th anniversary summit, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called on the members to "turn the BSEC into an effective international organization," according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.

Underlining the importance of energy, Gul said that the international community is getting ever more interested in the Black Sea basin, which is rich in energy, adding that BSEC countries can have significant cooperation in this field.

Gul also highlighted the importance of regional trade, calling on member states to lift obstacles to trade by signing preferential trade and free trade agreements.

For her part, Greek Foreign Minister Theodora Bakoyianni, whose country is also a member state of the European Union (EU), said at the meeting that "joint projects with the European Commission and reforms made by the BSEC would be two achievements of the current summit."

"Greece is working to establish a new EU regional policy and bring a new dimension to the BSEC," noted Bakoyianni.

Bakoyianni stressed that Greece will contribute to the Black Sea coast highway and maritime journeys.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov also called for joint efforts to fight against international crimes and terrorism.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivaylo Kalfin appreciated the relations between the BSEC and the EU, saying it has become closer in the last decade.

Foreign ministers from Moldova, Albania and Armenia pledged their countries' part for strengthening ties among the organization.

Foreign chiefs from Romania and Azerbaijan also called for a dynamic relationship with the EU and the BSEC.

BSEC is comprised of the Black Sea littoral states -- Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine -- as well as Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Moldova and Serbia.

The BSEC turned into a fully-fledged regional economic cooperation organization as the BSEC Charter, signed on June 5, 1998, was put into force on May 1, 1999.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has issued a Class A warrant for the arrest of a 42-year-old man suspected of murdering four villagers.

Ning Yongfeng, a native of Jiuzhou village, of Langfang city in north China's Hebei Province, allegedly killed four of his fellow villagers with a hunting rifle at around 11 p.m. on Saturday, the MPS said.

Anyone who provides information that leads to Ning's arrest will receive a reward of 50,000 yuan (6,580 U.S. dollars), according to the MPS.

Local police said the fugitive was probably armed and have informed citizens via the media that the killer is on the loose.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

SHENYANG, June 25 (Xinhua) -- About 4 million people are fighting a lasting drought that has been affecting almost 2 million people and 65 percent of the farmland in northeast China's Liaoning and Jilin provinces for nearly a month.

In Liaoning, more than 1.6 million people and 733,700 head of livestock are suffering from drinking water shortage, 159 reservoirs have dried up, and 44,507 wells have experienced insufficient water output, according to statistics from the Liaoning Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The drought, the worst to hit Liaoning since records began in 1951, has affected more than 2 million hectares of farmland, or 65percent of the province's total, statistics show.

More than 2 million people have been mobilized to combat the drought in the province.

In Jilin, 333,500 people and 351,500 head of livestock are facing water shortage, and the drought has also affected nearly 2.7 million hectares of farmland, 65 percent of the province's total, according to statistics from the Jilin Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Jilin has spent nearly 300 million yuan (37.5 million U.S. dollars) for disaster relief and dispatched about 2 million people to combat the drought.

High temperatures and inadequate rainfall since the beginning of June are said to be the cause of the drought.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

by Zhang Yashi

HONG KONG, June 25 (Xinhua)-- While people in Hong Kong are fervidly looking forward to seeing the new giant panda pairs presented by the Central government of China as a gift in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the city's return to the motherland, animal keepers at Hong Kong Ocean Park give the utmost attention to the national treasures for their good health.

Starting his career as an animal caretaker at Ocean Park about 27 years ago, Paul Ng Nai Kwong, now the animal behavior and enrichment manager, has his experience of keeping giant pandas piled up from 1999 when Hong Kong got its first pair, "An An" and "Jia Jia," from the Central Government.

"Before that, we didn't have any experience of taking care of giant pandas and we began from zero," Ng told Xinhua in a recent interview. He said that it was a great challenge for the park, yet he felt extremely happy and exciting because "that was the first time Hong Kong has its own pandas permanently."

At that time, Ng and his colleagues were sent to Wolong in southwest China's Sichuan Province, where "An An" and "Jia Jia" came from, to learn panda keeping skills.

In order to get a clear picture of the living habits of "An An"and "Jia Jia", they took turns to observe the pandas in the outdoor even in cold and windy days.

Eight years' experience of panda keeping has made Ocean Park more proficient in taking care of the new cubs. "Having the experience of keeping 'An An' and 'Jia Jia,' we are confident that 'Ying Ying' and 'Le Le' (the new pair) will get use to the new environment soon," said Ng.

Upon their arrival on April 26, the new cubs were transferred straight to the park's panda house which is temporarily closed. After the 30-day quarantine, they have been doing well and are now having another 30 days of accommodating period.

"'Jia Jia' cares about having contact with people, it's not just food alone that can attract her attention, and for 'Le Le', he's a fussy eater having preference for sweet food like apples," Ng was delighted when telling those panda stories which fully revealed his love and care towards the animals.

During the interview, Ng mentioned time and again the importance of maintaining good relationship with animals which he believes is the key to successful training, which will in turn, lead to the healthy growth of the animals.

Giant pandas also gained affection from the public. "Some years ago, a panda mania couple went to the panda house with their digital cameras every morning and stayed until closing," Ng said, the couple kept visiting for about half a year.

At an activity that allowed people chances to learn to take care of animals at the park, Ng met an elderly participant who insisted on laying the bamboo for the giant pandas all by himself even though he had difficulties in walking.

"He wanted very much to taste how it was like to take care of pandas and to express his care to them, it was so touching," Ng said.

The Panda blog set up by the park for "Ying Ying" and "Le Le" is another proof of the pandas' popularity. It attracted tons of visitors to browse through and to leave their words asking about the pandas' latest situation.

It has been 10 years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland. As a member of the public, Ng was happy to see the Central Government showing concern about the city's development and he felt honored to be the keeper of giant pandas.

"I'm in the hope that 'Ying Ying' and 'Le Le' may give birth to baby pandas in the future which implies Hong Kong's prosperity," said Ng.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

HONG KONG, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Three decades ago when Hong Kong was still under the British rule, English and Cantonese were the most popular languages in Hong Kong.
It was during that time that Cheung Dan, a Beijing linguistic scholar established a Mandarin school here, vowed to teach the Hong Kong people how to speak Putonghua (Chinese mandarin).

She set up the Hong Kong Putonghua Vocational School (HKPVS), with the belief that the language would be important in Hong Kong and must be spoken by every Chinese.

At the beginning, the lessons were taught at home because there were only a few students.

Worse still, her efforts in promoting Putonghua aroused suspicion from the Hong Kong government under the British controlled. "I was suspected as a spy from the mainland," said Cheung, who moved to Hong Kong from Beijing in the late 1960s.

After Hong Kong's return to its motherland in 1997, Cheung's school has been enlarging with the increasing number of students. Now HKPVS has 8 teaching centers in Hong Kong, though far from being enough compared to the outnumbered Hong Kong people eager for Putonghua-learning.

"It is a big contrast," Cheung recalled.

New learners, most of whom are "white collar", queue up at the HKPVS to enroll themselves. "The impetus to attract Hong Kong people to learn Putonghua lies in the booming economy of the Chinese mainland and its growing business tie with Hong Kong," Cheung said.

Over the past 30 years, HKPVS has trained over tens of thousand of students including those from enterprises, organizations, primary and secondary school students and teachers.

HKPVS carries out tailor-made Putonghua training to its corporate clients, among which are CLP Power, Jardine Group, PCCW, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Morgan Stanley, major hotels and various HK government bodies, etc.

After Hong Kong's return, with the support of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, schools in Hong Kong began to teach Putonghua lesson, which was listed as a compulsory subject.

Putonghua is becoming more and more popular in Hong Kong. Notices and advertisements for Putonghua lessons can be seen all around the city, including the underground railway stops, trendy magazines, and even on lampposts.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

HONG KONG, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhen Bay Port and the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, which is also known as the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor, will commence operation on July 1, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Monday.

"The Shenzhen Bay Port will be officially opened after a ceremony at noon on July 1, and passenger and cargo clearance facilities will be opened for public use from 6 p.m.," the spokesman said.

"The Shenzhen Bay Port will initially run for 17.5 hours a day, from 6:30 a.m. to midnight. Hong Kong and Shenzhen sides will assess when to provide a 24-hour service after the Port has been in operation for some time," he added.

To allow sufficient time for the clearance of passengers and vehicles before the closure of the Shenzhen Bay Port at midnight, the Shenzhen Bay Bridge will be closed to northbound traffic at 11: 30 p.m. every night, including July 1.

When the Shenzhen Bay Port is commissioned, passengers can cross the boundary through the new crossing by taking cross-boundary coaches, franchised buses, green minibuses or taxis.

Hong Kong's immigration and customs facilities will be co-located with those of the Chinese mainland at the Shenzhen Bay Port under the co-location arrangement, the first of its kind to be implemented at control points.

Hong Kong and its neighboring city Shenzhen are making final preparations for the commissioning of the Shenzhen Bay Port and Shenzhen Bay Bridge.

Various departments and units from Hong Kong and Shenzhen have conducted joint trial runs and drills to familiarize themselves with the operation of this new infrastructure.

The 5.5 kilometer-long Shenzhen Bay Bridge is the fourth vehicular boundary crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It links the new control point at the Shenzhen Bay Port in Shekou with Ngau Hom Shek in the northwest New Territories.

It is expected that two-way daily traffic and passenger flows will be 29,800 vehicles and 30,800 passengers during the initial period of opening. The anticipated traffic and passenger flows will increase to some 60,300 vehicles and 61,300 passengers each day in 2016.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

FOSHAN, Guangdong Province, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Salvage workers have retrieved three more bodies and the last two of the four vehicles which plunged into a river after a road bridge collapsed ten days ago in south China's Guangdong Province.
One body was found in a small white truck salvaged on Monday morning and another two, believed to be brothers Wu Weilin and Wu Weihong from Jiangmen city, were recovered from the cab of a blue truck.

Seven bodies and all the four missing vehicles have now been retrieved after the bridge collapse. Workers are still searching for the remaining two missing people, who are believed to have been traveling in the cab of a truck that was salvaged on Sunday.

Four vehicles carrying seven people and two road workers were thrown into the Xijiang river in Guangdong on June 15 when, in heavy fog, a cargo vessel traveling along the river ploughed into a section of the 1,600-meter-long Jiujiang bridge that spans the river, causing part of it to collapse.

The bodies of a man and a woman were recovered from the river on Friday after workers hauled out a truck with the license number "Yue A KM983" registered in Guangzhou.

Another two bodies, identified as the two missing road workers, were retrieved downstream on June 17 and 18.

Workers salvaged a second truck on Sunday, licensed Shenzhen "Yue B 72420", but no bodies were found inside.

Investigators have said the collapse had nothing to do with the quality of the construction of the bridge which opened to traffic in 1988.

Six crew members of the vessel "Nanguiji 035" have been detained by maritime police.

Preliminary work has begun on repairing the bridge. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the year, local authorities say.
from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Floods have caused 155 deaths and over 10 billion yuan (1.3 billion U.S dollars) of economic losses this year, said an official with the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Monday.

Cheng Dianlong, deputy director of the office of the headquarters, said so far the total area affected by floods has reached 1.641 million hectares and the total affected population stood at 31.77 million.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau has approved an initial group of 13 hospitals to carry out human organ transplants, two months after China's first regulations on transplants came into effect, prohibiting the trade of human organs.

The list includes Beijing Anzhen Hospital for heart and lung transplants, the China-Japan Friendship Hospital for liver, kidney and lung transplants and the Beijing Union Medical College Hospital for liver and kidney transplants.

The bureau had listed the hospitals and the type of transplants they could perform on its website between June 11 and June 24 to solicit public opinions.

"No other medical institutions are allowed to carry out human organ transplants without approval from the local health authorities. If they do, they will be punished according to the law," a bureau statement said.

Other Chinese provinces, municipalities and regions, such as Heilongjiang, Shanghai and Shandong, have also drawn up lists of approved hospital as required by the Ministry of Health.

About 600 hospitals nationwide submitted applications to continue to perform transplant operations but the Ministry of Health announced in April that only an initial group of 160 medical institutions would receive a license.

Experts believe the new approval system will help standardize human organ transplant surgery, help medical institutions improve their services and guarantee benefits for patients.

The country faces a huge gap between the demand and supply. About 1.5 million people need transplants each year, but only 10,000 can find organs, according to the Ministry of Health.

The government had to unify organ transplant standards or the country would be "in a mess," Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu has said..

The country's first set of regulations on human organ transplants, which prohibits organizations and individuals from trading human organs in any form, went into effect on May 1.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- China will set up a national surveillance network to monitor the production, distribution and use of anesthetic and psychotropic drugs, China's drug watchdog announced here Monday.

The network, which has already been piloted in 11 provinces and municipalities, would be fully operational by the end of this year, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said.

The administration said the network would enable drug watchdogs at all levels to detect irregularities in the production and distribution of anesthetic and psychotropic drugs to prevent problems at an early stage.

Psychotropic drugs in China fall into two categories. The first covers 47 types of drugs including caffeine, cathinone and met amphetamine. The second category includes 72 types, such as diazepam and barbital.

The SFDA said the network would only monitor stupefacient and psychotropic drugs under the first category.

The administration said it had also asked local drug safety authorities to intensify checks on key pharmaceutical factories that produced anesthetic and psychotropic drugs.

The SFDA has already set up a national center to monitor drug abuse and asked local drug safety authorities to make emergency response plans for the misuse of anesthetic and psychotropic drugs.

from http://www.cdao.com.cn