老年残疾人居家养老的困境

实际利率有望下降

Beijing and Seoul recently signed an agreement to launch a joint program to harness China's eighth-largest desert - the Ulan Buh in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.About 15 million yuan (.99 million) will be spent growing trees and building greenhouses to prevent environmental deterioration in the Ulan Buh region, according to officials involved in the project.The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has promised million for the project, while the local government will come up with the rest, according to Han Yongguang, deputy chief of Dengkou county, of which almost 80 percent is covered by desert."It is the first time that we have launched a joint program with a governmental institution from the Republic of Korea (ROK) on desert control," said Han, adding that the local government welcomes more international participation in the battle against desertification."We have made big progress in driving back the desert in this region since the 1980s; and international cooperation will help speed up the process of ecological balance." The local government has spent about 400 million yuan in recent years to contain the expansion of the desert, said Han."The cooperation also helps dispel any doubts over China's determination in environmental protection," Han added.Kim Kwang-young, chief of KOICA's China office, said: "I feel the Chinese government has fully recognized the importance of environmental protection."KOICA's collaborative programs in China are mainly focused on the environmental sector including afforestation, prevention of desertification, and joint monitoring of sandstorms, according to Kim.

The national workers' union on Wednesday pledged to work closely with authorities to issue a detailed regulation on the Labor Contract Law as soon as possible, to assist its application starting January 1."We'll actively promote and participate in the legislation and relevant legal interpretations to make the law more applicable, especially by making suggestions on some hotly debated issues," Liu Jichen, head of the legal affairs department of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, said at a press briefing.Liu did not elaborate or disclose a timetable, but the Outlook Weekly, a magazine under the official Xinhua News Agency, reported on Monday that an implementation regulation of the Labor Contract Law was expected by the end of the year. It also reported that a judiciary interpretation, drafted by the Supreme People's Court, would also be adopted soon to regulate loophole jumping.The Labor Contract Law, passed in June after 18 months of heated debate and public consultation, is considered the most significant change in the country's labor rules in more than a decade. It targets bosses and officials who exploited workers by establishing standards for labor contracts, use of temporary workers and severance pay.However, business lobbies worry that stricter contract requirements could increase costs and give them less flexibility in hiring and firing.The country's leading telecom equipment-maker Huawei Technologies in October encouraged some 7,000 veteran employees to resign and rehired them immediately afterward.The Labor Contract Law stipulates that an employee who has worked for a company for more than 10 years is entitled to sign an open-ended labor contract.However, the legislative affairs commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, made it clear on Saturday that such sidestepping is useless, because although the contracts end, employment relations still exist.At yesterday's conference, Liu said Huawei's dodge is only one of the three tactics the union discovered violating or circumventing the current Labor Contract Law. Firms would also fire employees and rehire them soon afterward as dispatch workers. The other strategy uses mass layoffs.For example, United States retailing giant Wal-Mart fired about 100 employees at its sourcing center in China last October, claiming the layoff was part of its global restructuring."The cause of these problems is that a small number of enterprises is trying to evade responsibility to optimize profits," Liu said. "We've begun intervening to stop such activities."

GUANGZHOU: Doctors in this city have developed a new birth control surgery for men that could be made available to the public starting next year.The method involves making a small incision along the testicle. Doctors then place a tiny tube, about the size of a match, into the opening.The tube functions as a filter that blocks sperm, Wu Weixiong, the director of Guangzhou Family Planning Technology Center, said.The surgery has already been patented, and the health department will promote it as soon as it is approved by the National Food and Drug Administration, Zhu Jiaming, the vice-president of the Guangzhou Sexology Association, said.He expects approval to be granted by next year."The success rate for this form of birth control is 97 percent," he said.The tube can be removed without negatively affecting a man's sexual health, he said.Wu said the operation takes just 10 minutes. However, it is very difficult and requires highly skilled doctors.He said only a few hospitals have the staff and facilities necessary to carry out the procedure. However, training courses will soon be made available to local doctors.Wu said he believed enough facilities and manpower would be available to handle the demand for such operations by the time the procedure is officially approved."The success rate of the operation is almost 100 percent," Duan Jianhua, an official of Guangzhou population and family planning commission, said.Research on the operation started four years ago in Beijing. It was led by the science and technology institute of the National Population and Family Planning Commission and Guangzhou family planning science and technology institute.Wu said the technique was developed through more than 1,600 clinical trials all over the country. More than 500 men in Qingyuan, a city in Guangdong Province, have already had the operation. All the trials were successful and none of the subjects has experienced any side effects.Zhu Jiaming said the operation costs just a few thousand yuan, which is affordable for most people in China."When the technique is available, couples will have one more option for birth control, and married women do not have to install an intrauterine device (IUD) anymore," Zhu said.The public seems ready."I welcome this technique. It makes me feel women are more respected by society than before," Liu Jun, a woman in Guangzhou, said.A survey by the Guangzhou-based New Express Daily found that about 60 percent of Guangzhou residents welcomed the surgery and supported its promotion.

轻松seo优化排名

New statistics showing a continuous rise in house prices fly in the face of numerous media reports that domestic property prices have already started to decline in some cities.Policymakers should step up efforts to curb surging house prices now to avoid a later rush for homes in fear of further price hikes.Housing prices in 70 large- and medium-sized cities rose 10.5 percent year-on-year in November. The rise, 1 percentage point higher than that of October, hit a new high, undermining the government's efforts to stabilize house prices.As part of its macroeconomic controls to cool economic growth that is bordering on overheating, the government has introduced a host of tightening measures to rein in soaring house prices.For instance, the banking authorities recently made a strict definition of "second home" according to the property owned by the families of mortgage applicants rather than just the applicant.The rule will deal a heavy blow to speculative homebuyers as they will have to make a higher down payment and cannot enjoy preferential interest rates. In some cities, it was such speculative house purchases that considerably fuelled runaway property price hikes.Besides, the government also decided to adopt a tight monetary policy to check credit growth. In the absence of easy access to bank loans, it is believed that some developers may cut prices to promote sales due to liquidity concerns instead of hoarding houses for fatter profits.Under such circumstances, media reports from across show the country that house sales are shrinking and prices are plunging in cities that once boasted jaw-dropping amounts.It is surely not difficult for these reports to find an audience. Rocketing house prices in recent years have made home ownership a heavier than ever burden for most potential buyers.However, the latest house price data has proved it is only too premature to conclude that the property market has reached a turning point. The November figure indicates that the momentum of property price hikes in major cities remains strong.Only when the government substantially increases the supply of affordable homes for low-income groups and provides more land lots for development can the imbalance of demand and supply in the property market be addressed.

XINTAI, Shandong -- Fifty million yuan (US.6 million) has been donated for miners from the two flooded collieries and their families in east China's Shandong Province by Sunday noon, according to local sources.The money shall be used for rescue work, consolation for relatives of the trapped miners, and subsidy for other miners as operation of the mines is suspended.Among the donators, the China National Coal Group Corp. was the first to offer a large amount -- one million yuan (US1,578.9). Following suit was the the adjacent Xinwen Coal mine that donated 3.2 million yuan (US1,052.6).After the accident, governments of Jinan and Qingdao, two big cities in Shandong, each donated three million yuan (US4,736.8); Jining and Laiwu, the neighboring cities of Xintai, provided two million yuan (US3,157.9) and one million yuan respectively.Individuals were also involved in the nationwide effort, among whom was Gao Runze, who donated 20,000 yuan and 10 tons of disinfectors worth about 30,000 yuan. Gao had been trapped in a flooded coal mine 58 years ago and was rescued with 30 fellows.A garbage collector Li Quan who lives in the Huanyuan residential quarter donated 200 yuan. "Many miners and their relatives helped me a lot in the past," he said, "I don't have much money but this is what I can do."Flood water swept through a 65-meter wide breach in the Wenhe River levee on August 17, inundating the Huayuan and Minggong mines, leaving 181 people trapped underground.Chinese water resources specialists have blamed the disaster largely on heavy rain and inadequate flood prevention facilities.Local government publicized a donation phone number +86 539 7837050, and old miners of Huayuan called on for donations to help miners and their families tide over the disaster.Eight pumps are busy working in the mines, piping out 4,129 cubic meters of water per hour.By 6 pm Sunday, water level in the shaft of Huayuan coal mine has dropped to 61.54 meters, 30.46 meters down from the highest level. But rescuers have to lower the water level by another 91.54 meters to reach the 172 trapped miners.In the nearby Minggong coal mine, water level has lowered to 61.92 meters.Apart from the rescue work, consolation work was also underway for the families of the trapped workers. The tragedy had a heavy blow on the company's community, and one out of every 50 families has someone trapped down the pit.Sixty family members had been hospitalized with high blood pressure or heart problems, said Huangpu Tinghua, deputy general manager of Huayuan Mining Co. Ltd.Earlier at this weekend, the families of 172 miners trapped in it had each received 2,000 yuan (US6). And officials said China would not give up on the 181 trapped miners.

Nearly one out of three people in Beijing belongs to the mobile population, according to the capital's population and family planning commission.Workers stand on a temporary dormitory at the Central Business District in Beijing September 2, 2007. China's 120 million migrant workers, the young generation in particular, are demanding higher wages and a better working environment, the Labour Ministry said. [Agencies]The municipality's mobile population reached 5.4 million in October, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total, the commission's deputy director Li Yunli said.More than 80 percent of the capital's mobile population belongs to the China-unique category of rural migrant workers, Li told a conference on population in Beijing on Monday. The remainder is mostly made up of people visiting for less than a month.She added that migrant workers would comprise the vast majority of both the capital's and the nation's mobile population for a long time to come. Currently, the national mobile population stands at 150 million.The most recent influx of migrant workers boosted the capital's population to about 17.4 million by October, signaling Beijing's population would likely exceed its threshold of 18 million earlier than previous forecasts, Li said.The total population would continue to grow in Beijing over the next five or 10 years, Li said, and "that would further strain scarce resources, including land, water and energy".Previous research has suggested that accommodating more than 14 million residents would exceed Beijing's food- and water-supply capacities.More than 130,000 people were born in Beijing in 2007 as of October, and more than one-third of them were born to migrant families, Li said. And according to her, there would be even more births next year.This year, most of the capital's unplanned births were to migrant families, Li said."Family planning among migrant workers is crucial to China's overall family planning, and the construction of a new socialist countryside and a harmonious society," deputy director of the State Population and Family Planning Commission Wang Guoqing was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency earlier.In addition, most of the migrant workers in Beijing work labor-intensive jobs in fields such as manufacturing, home furnishing, catering, cleaning and domestic services.Most migrant workers received little education, with 60 percent of them dropping out after junior middle school mainly because of financial problems, Li explained.More than half of them earn less than 1,200 yuan (0) per month and live in poorly equipped rental rooms, Li added.Researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies Qin Xiaoying said that if migrant workers remain economically and socially marginalized, mental anguish could flourish among the demographic and threaten social stability.The commission urged governments at all levels to improve public services for the migrant population, protect their legal rights and interests, and reduce discrimination against them.

梅州搜索引擎优化排名公司

BEIJING -- As the world marked International Human Rights Day on Monday, a Chinese expert in the field has documented his country's work in the area through a new article chronicling achievements that have been made over the past five years.Dong Yunhu, vice president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, the largest nongovernmental organization in the human rights field in China, listed in his article some major facts outlining the fruits that have been reaped.In the newly-amended constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) adopted at October's 17th Party Congress, one of the landmark changes was that in the paragraph of "promoting socialist democracy", it said the Party "respects and safeguards human rights".It was the first time the CPC considered the development of human rights as an important aspect of national development.In November 1991, the Information Office under the State Council published its first-ever white paper entitled "Human Rights in China", stressing that full access of human rights was socialist China's "sublime goal".In March 2004, parliament adopted an amendment to the constitution that inserted the clause declaring "the state respects and safeguards human rights", putting human rights protection under the legal umbrella of the state.In March 2006, China for the first time wrote "human rights protection" in the country's national economic and social development plan as a part of the modernization drive.In his article Dong wrote: "Over the past five years, the most prominent progress in China's human rights protection is the 'mainstreamlization' and entry of human rights into the country's political life."The public's right to know, right to supervise has been constantly expanded. How state organs operate, how legislators work becomes increasingly transparent, Dong said.He pointed out that as a developing country with 1.3 billion population, China was still confined by historic, economic and social conditions. It had met many obstacles in the development of human rights."The economic, social and legal systems in China are far from mature and unbalanced development occurs between the rural and urban areas and among different regions," Dong said. He noted that "thorny issues in such aspects as employment, social security, income distribution, education, medicine, housing and safe production, had all effected public interests.However, he was confident that "human rights conditions in China would gradually improve along with the modernization process" as long as the country "unswervingly implements human rights protection principles and actively promotes democratic and legal construction".

Rising sea levels and falling river water volumes - as forecast in the latest UN report on climate change - could drastically alter weather patterns and cause huge economic losses in China, a senior meteorological official warned Thursday.Luo Yong, deputy director of the Beijing Climate Center affiliated to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said there will be more typhoons, floods and land subsidence as a result of global warming.The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in Spain last Saturday said "human activities could lead to abrupt or irreversible climate changes and impacts".It said that even if factories were shut down and cars taken off roads, the average sea level will rise up to 140 cm over the next 1,000 years from the pre-industrial period of around 1850.In the next 100 years, it said, sea levels will rise by 18-51 cm.More frequent and heavy floods require China - which has an 18,000-km coastline on the mainland - "to build coastal facilities of higher standard," Luo told a press conference.As coastal regions are economically developed areas, the loss from typhoons and floods will be magnified, Luo said.He also warned that higher sea levels will lead to further land subsidence, which is already being seen in some coastal areas.Another major threat from global warming is water shortage, Luo said.In the past 50 years, the six major rivers in the country have seen their water volumes reduced sharply, especially those in the north, such as the Yellow and Huaihe rivers. Ground water storage has also dropped markedly, he added.The water shortage will take a toll on the farming sector, hurting grain production; and industrial and domestic consumption will be affected, he said.Luo said that China will possibly see more flooding in the north and drought in the south, the reverse of the current weather pattern.Song Dong, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said next month's international talks on global warming in Bali, Indonesia, are expected to focus on greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and the transfer of more clean technology to developing nations.

专业优化排名公司

BEIJING - The National Grid of China said power could be restored partially within the day in the worst-hit region in central China's Hunan Province, ending the eight-day blackout caused by snow.Local residents buy candies for the upcoming Spring Festival in Chenzhou, Central China's Hunan Province, February 1, 2008. Power supply in Chenzhou City has been cut off during the past eight days, leaving thousands of households in dark and coldness. [Xinhua] "Many power facilities in Hunan were damaged due to repeated extreme weather changes," said Yin Jijun, deputy director of the international liaison department of the National Grid. "As the weather deteriorated again, the regional power grid, in particular the southern grid in the province, is facing acute challenges."A new round of snow started to hit central, south and east China regions on Friday, adding to the woes caused by previous snowfalls.Hunan is one of the hardest-hit areas for the past three weeks. Power supply in Chenzhou City has been cut off during the past eight days, leaving thousands of households in dark and coldness. Hengyang and Yongzhou cities also experienced blackouts in some areas.To address the situation, Yin said the National Grid is working all out to ensure security of the main power network in southern Hunan, especially in Chenzhou."We will strive to partially restore electricity supply in Chenzhou on Saturday," Yin said.

The country's campaign to improve product quality and food safety has yielded very good results, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said in Weifang, Shandong Province, October 26, 2007. [Newsphoto]Weifang - The country's campaign to improve product quality and food safety has yielded very good results, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said on Friday.Despite that she urged: "We have to win this special war against poor product quality and supervision, enabling our people to eat without fear."Wu said the government has raised its investment in agriculture, especially in pesticide supervision and fertilizers management and to prevent fake products from entering the sector.Besides, authorities will strengthen supervision and inspection on vegetables and other food products in major cities, bringing all wholesale markets within the authorities' monitoring system.Officials are already monitoring all wholesale markets for agricultural products in 676 medium- and large-sized cities, Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai said.Latest data suggest 94 percent vegetables and 95 percent aquatic products in cities have pesticide residue below the danger level.Also, more than 97.4 per cent of the pigs are slaughtered in registered abattoirs. The authorities closed down 602 illegal and 4,051 slaughterhouses in the first half of this year alone.Concerns over Chinese products safety prompted the government to formed a cabinet-level panel on food safety and quality control under the vice-premier in August.Eight categories of products are under the panel's scanner, including pork, drugs, agricultural products, processed food, toys and electric wires. The "special war" is aimed at improving product quality in four months.At a meeting in Weifang, Shandong Province, Wu lauded the province's advanced practice in product quality and food security management."Shandong's experience in standardized plantation of vegetables, aquatic products and some other agricultural products has been proved effective and worth promoting nationwide," Wu said.It brings irrigation and the condition of cultivable areas, particularly where chemicals are used, under a quality control system, which will be overseen by local officials, Shandong Governor Jiang Daming said.The province has taken the lead in the country to set up internationally recognized systems of quality standards, quality testing, attestation and supervision, securing a high standard of food quality from every link of production, processing and transportation.And more than 400,000 people in the province have attended into food safety education training sessions since August.