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Farmers and blue-collar workers who have experience working in China’s villages and communities will have more chances to be hired in higher-level civil servant positions.

China is putting more emphasis on hiring people with grassroots experience for government jobs, a top human resource official said. In years past, these people have been mostly excluded from these jobs.

“Selecting civil servants from countryside and community to higher positions in the government is on our top agenda,” said Yin Weimin, the minister of Human Resources and Social Security.

Government at all levels should raise the proportion of employees with at least two years’ working experience at the grassroots level, he said.

“We have to further explore methods to recruit civil servants from grassroots people, including excellent workers and farmers,” Yin said.

Fresh college graduates are encouraged to work at community organizations to learn firsthand experiences , Yin said at a conference on Monday.

In 2009, about 120,000 people got on the government payroll. About 60 percent of the new recruits at the provincial level had grassroots experience, and about 70 percent of new hires at the central government had community-level experience.

The policy that favors civil servant applicants with grassroots working experience will help dilute the presence of elitism and blueblood culture among current civil servants, said Liu Junsheng, a researcher with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

“The composition of civil servants, if they continue to be selected through difficult exams or through connections at some local level, is facing the danger of becoming a group of elites or those with affluent family background,” Liu said.

“In a country where the majority of the population are farmers, practical and pro-public policy cannot be made without knowing what is going on in the countryside,” he added.

The move will also provide more sound prospects for college graduates who take the grassroots jobs upon graduation, Liu said.

“It’s a good sign for college graduates who hesitate to take jobs at the village level. The message will encourage more young people to find jobs in the countryside and alleviate the employment pressure at cities.”

Chile registered nine deaths of the rodent-spread hantavirus in 2009, local health authorities said on Monday.

The country reported a total of 31 cases of hantavirus last year, according to the Epidemiology Department of the Chilean Health Ministry. The latest case was reported last Thursday, a 44-year-old peasant in the central Maule Region. He is in stable condition, the ministry said.

Chile launched a campaign last November to eradicate the hantavirus in bus stations across the country. It was believed that tourists who went on vacation in rural areas were the major carriers of the virus, which can cause a rare but potentially fatal flu-like pulmonary syndrome.

People infected with the virus may develop symptoms of fever over 38.3 degrees Celsius, headaches and gastrointestinal dysfunction.

Chile confirmed its first hantavirus case in the Metropolitan Region last November. The patient was a 20-year-old female in Lampa. She is now out of danger.

The Epidemiology Department reported 43 hantavirus cases across Chile in 2008.

The department suggested residents “keep alert” against the disease during the ongoing hantavirus high season.

It also called for timely hospitalization and appropriate medical treatment in the high-risk zones.

One way to prevent infection with the virus is that people who travel to rural areas must open the doors and windows of a house 30 minutes before entering it, the department said in a statement.

The statement gave other tips including keeping the floor clean and keeping rodents from entering a house.

As tourists and shoppers enjoyed the snow Monday in Nanluoguxiang, a popular hutong in central Beijing, Zhu Chuanjin was in his home nearby, desperately trying to stay warm.

“I am wearing three cotton-padded coats but still feel very cold,” said the 83-year-old, who pointed to a small electric heater in the corner, his only source of heat. “It doesn’t work very well.”

Temperatures in North China plummeted at as low as -16 C Monday, including in the capital, which witnessed its biggest chill for half a century, said meteorological experts. But amid the snow-blocked roads, grounded flights and hazardous pavements, however, the greatest concern was for the country’s impoverished urban residents in the face of such extreme weather.

Zhu’s case is not uncommon. He shares his tiny courtyard home in Fuxiang Lane with his wife, two sons and a grandson. He said his daughter-in-law, unable to cope with the cold, moved back to her mother’s home. “Younger people are all fleeing here for warmer places,” he said.

Electric radiators were installed in Zhu’s and 17 neighbors’ homes by the municipal government three years ago. They can be used to heat rooms during the day with energy stored between 10 pm and 6 am, when electricity is half price. However, the heaters are only powerful enough to keep homes at about 11 C, which is 5 C below the municipality’s interior standard.

The elderly man said every night he and his family, who all sleep in the same room, try to stay warm under three quilts and bubble wrap. “I dare not move in the night because I know that if I do the bubble wrap may fall off and it will get much colder,” said Zhu.

His family received a heating subsidy of 950 yuan (140 U.S. dollars) from the authorities in the summer “but it was not enough”, he complained. “Every morning, my first thought is the daily cost. We pay nearly 100 yuan a month for electricity, water supply and gas.”

Many people have installed air conditioners and some burn honeycomb briquettes - flammable blocks of coal - to keep warm but that could potentially double a family’s heating bill, said Zhu’s neighbor, Wang Yongjun.

Zhang Kongjun, 21, shares a 5-sq-m room with three fellow migrant workers in the same courtyard. Inside the room is freezing cold. They have no radiator, only thin electric blankets on each bed, which they turn on at about 8 pm.

“I couldn’t fall asleep last night, I was so cold,” Zhang, a bottled water delivery man from Shandong province, told China Daily on Sunday. “It took five hours to deliver just five bottles of water today. I earn 1 yuan per bottle.”

Across the city, salesman Zhang Kan, another migrant worker, lives with his girlfriend in an 8-sq-m basement room in the Huixinli residential community. Basement rooms are usually the cheapest to rent in any Chinese city, attracting a large number of migrant workers and low-income families.

“I can bear the temperature in our room, which is about 7 or 8 C, but I don’t think kids or the elderly are OK with it,” said the 23-year-old.

His neighbor, Ma Benchun, 9, who lives with his father, older brother and sister in a room with no heating, said he never takes off his coat when he gets home from school because it is too cold.

“We are constantly rubbing our hands and stamping our feet to keep warm,” said the boy, whose family hails from Puyang in Henan province. His father, a cobbler, pays 500 yuan a month in rent for the room, which is just big enough to fit two beds and a square table. The room was littered with rotten apples, while a wet school uniform hung from a high wire.

Gao, a 70-year-old who lives with his wife in a 9-sq-m basement in the Qianhejiayuan residential complex, said they could only huddle together under a quilt on Sunday. The couple pays 500 yuan a month in rent, which gets them a radiator, but Gao said other tenants pay 150 yuan less for rooms without heat.

On top of their pension allowances, the farmers from Heilongjiang province make extra money collecting recyclable garbage from street bins. But they were unable to work in the heavy snow. “My son warned us of the potential dangers, so we didn’t go out today,” he said on Sunday.

Rural residents also suffer during cold snaps, said Liu Hansan, 33, a migrant worker on his way to catch a train home to Henan. He said there was no heating at all in his village.

“We’ve never dreamed of anything like that,” he said, and explained that when the weather is extremely cold villagers build bonfires in their compound and gather around. This happens two or three times a day in extreme conditions, he added.

On a pavement in the capital’s Haidian district, China Daily met Zhao Qing, a 70-year-old beggar. With just a cushion she found in the trash and a stick to help her walk, she sits beside the Fourth Ring Road from 9 am until 6 pm every day.

The farmer moved to Beijing from Heze, Shandong province, several months ago, leaving her husband at home to look after elderly relatives. “I sit here to get some money for food to feed myself, nothing else. Kind people always give me coins and notes of 5 or 10 yuan,” she said as she shivered in the freezing wind.

When she set off for home just before 6 pm, her frozen hands could hardly hold onto her cushion and stick. She dropped both several times as she disappeared into the night.

Most cities offer a range of services to help homeless people and beggars, including relief centers.

Amid the traffic chaos on Sunday, Liu Jinjing, a worker at a State-run aid facility in Dongcheng district, Beijing, was completing her daily trawl for vagrants in need. She tours the area in a six-seater minibus twice a day, offering homeless people blankets, coats, hot water bottles, food and even a bed at her shelter.

On Sunday, when China Daily joined her for the afternoon patrol, no one would take a seat on the bus.

“If a person accepts our help, we take them on the bus to our center where they can stay free for up to 10 days, and perhaps get a train ticket to their hometown,” she said. “If they don’t, we offer them instant noodles and blankets.”

After driving around for more than an hour, Liu eventually spotted an old man covered by layers of stained clothing in a hutong near the upscale Wangfujing shopping area. He refused any help, even after the aid worker warned him he could die in the freezing conditions.

An old woman from the neighborhood, who revealed the old man had been living this way for more than a month, pleaded: “Please take him away. We don’t want to see him die here.”

But Liu was powerless and said: “Under the law, we can’t force the homeless to accept our help. Plus, I am here by myself. I am worried if I try to pull him he might struggle and fall because the sidewalk is so slippery. All I can do is come back later and try again. We can’t just let him die.”

Tang Jun, a researcher for the institute of sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said government-sponsored aid centers are still the most effective way to help homeless people, especially in the extreme weather.

However, the current system, which makes it illegal to force homeless people to go to relief shelters, usually fails to protect those in most need, he said. “An effective social aid system should allow forced sheltering for persons with limited or no capacity for civil conduct.”

Tang said the relief centers in cities should take the initiative in searching for homeless people and offer help in such extreme weathers, instead of waiting for vagrants to come to them.

However, he added that beggars should not be the No 1 priority for government help because other social groups are more vulnerable to the cold.

“The focus should be on the elderly people who end up on the streets because they got lost due to some mental illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, as well as vagrant children or low-income families who don’t have heating in their home,” he said. “As for the beggars, I think 70 to 80 percent of them are professional and their living conditions are actually not that bad. I don’t really worry about them.”

Indonesian former president Abdurrahman Wahid passed away at the age of 69 in the country’s landmark hospital Cipto Mangunkusumo (RSCM) on Wednesday, due to complications of stroke, kidney and heart problems.

Wahid was born on Sept. 7, 1940 in Jombang, East Java, as the eldest child among six siblings. His grandfather is Hasyim Asy’ari, co-founder of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which is one of the largest independent Islamic organizations in the world. And his father Wahid Hasyim was appointed as Indonesia’s first Minister of Religious Affairs.

Wahid began to receive his education in Jakarta since 1949. In 1957, he graduated from the junior high school and went to a Muslim school in Magelang for two years. After that, he went back to his hometown to continue his education while taking his first job as a teacher and later headmaster of a Muslim school. He also got a journalist job for magazines in the period.

In 1963, Wahid received a scholarship from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to study at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, while working for the Indonesian Embassy. He left for Egypt in November 1963 and received another scholarship at the University of Baghdad in 1970. after that, Wahid visited Netherlands, Germany and France before going back to Indonesia in 1971.

When returned to Jakarta, Wahid joined the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education and Information, an organization which consisted of intellectuals with progressive Muslims and social-democratic views. He continued his career as a journalist of magazine Tempo and Kompas newspaper, building up a reputation as a social commentator. thanks to his well-received articles. In 1974, Wahid became a Muslim Legal Studies teacher at a Muslim school in Jombang, and in 1977, he joined the Hasyim Asyari University as Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Beliefs and Practices.

Wahid had his first political experience in 1982, when he campaigned for the United Development Party (PPP) in Legislative Elections. PPP is an Islamist Party which was formed as a result of a merger of 4 Islamist parties including NU. In 1984, Wahid was elected as the new Chairman of NU. He was re-elected to a second term and third term as Chairman of NU at the 1989 National Congress and the 1994 National Congress.

In 1998, Wahid approved of the formation of PKB and became the Chairman of its Advisory Council with Matori Abdul Djalil as Party Chairman. He promoted PKB as a party that is non-sectarian and open to all members of society. On Feb. 7 1999, PKB officially declared Wahid as their Presidential candidate in Indonesia’s 1999elections.

Wahid’s PKB entered the legislative elections in 1999, winning 12 percent of the votes. In July, the Central Axis, a coalition of Muslim parties, was formed, and it officially nominated Wahid as a Presidential Candidate in October. In the same month, Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) convened and began electing for a new President. Wahid was then elected as Indonesia’s 4th President with 373 votes.

Wahid founded his first Cabinet as a coalition which consisted of members of various political parties in 1999. He went on to make two administrative reforms by abolishing the Ministry of Information and disbanding the Ministry of Welfare. He visited China in December.

In March 2000, Wahid’s government began to open negotiations with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). In May, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding to last until the beginning of 2001, by which time both signatories would have breached the agreement.

In January 2001, Wahid made the announcement that Chinese New Year was to become an optional holiday. Wahid followed this up in February by lifting the ban on the display of Chinese characters and the importations of Chinese publication.

On July 23, 2001, the MPR unanimously voted to impeach Wahid and to replace him with Megawati as President.

Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Iran’s newly-disclosed nuclear facility near Qom can withstand regular bombs.

“The facility in Qom is in a bunker and therefore resistant to regular bombs,” local daily Haaretz quoted Barak as speaking to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The site in Qom has been under construction for years, he added.

Iran confirmed in September that it is building a new nuclear fuel enrichment plant near its central city of Qom, arousing concern in international community.

IAEA board of governors last month passed a resolution in Vienna, calling for the “full cooperation” of Iran to clarify all outstanding issues involving its nuclear program and requiring Iran to stop construction on the uranium enrichment facility near Qom.

Israel regards Iran as one of its major security threats, and has joined the United States and some other countries in accusing the Islamic republic of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civil project, a charge Iran firmly denies.

Iran has suggested in the past that the Middle East should be free from all nuclear weapons, referring to Israel which is widely suspected to possess nuclear weapons.

In wake of sensitive and subtle situations between Israel and Iran, military analysts have made some speculation about Israeli-Iranian war scenario.

Noting it as pure speculation, some analysts told Xinhua before that an Israeli attack on Iran would be led by the Israel Air Force, with backing from the Israel Navy and potentially with additional fire power supplied by ground-based intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

But they questioned, concerning such a mission, whether Israel has sufficient strike power, as Israel could not commit all of its aircraft to Iran and Israel also might face a difficulty of refueling its aircraft.

The Bangladeshi central bank has decided to restrict credit facilities for polluting industries in an initiative to protect environment and combat climate change, leading English newspaper The Daily Star reported on Sunday.

“No more credit facilities for the industries which will pollute environment,” Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Raman said while he was speaking for the central bank officials at a seminar on “Climate change management”.

Atiur said action would be taken against those banks which would provide credit facilities to the industries responsible for environment pollution.

He said Bangladesh Bank has created a fund of 2 billion taka (28.6 million U.S. dollars) to address the environmental issues and climate change. Every industry might have 10 million taka (143,000U.S. dollars) loan for setting up Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) from the fund, he said.

The central bank is ready to increase the size of the fund and give up to 50 million taka (715,000 U.S. dollars) if the industrialists agree, he said, urging the commercial banks to come up with more credit facilities for environment-friendly industries.

Atiur also said that a coordinated policy should be put in place considering the affects of climate change and country’s economic development. He asked the bankers to make their best efforts to improve financial system in an attempt to meet the challenges of climate change.

A blustery storm spread snow and ice across the heartland Thursday as Americans rushed to get home for the holidays, grounding flights, stranding drivers on white-knuckle highways and forcing churches to cancel Christmas Eve services.

“I don’t think God wants anyone to get killed or break a hip or break a knee or something,” said the Rev. Joseph Mirowski of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration in Mason City, Iowa, where up to a foot of snow and sleet was expected.

A foot or two of snow was forecast in parts of the Plains and the Midwest by Christmas Day. Blizzard warnings were issued for Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin, and drivers were encouraged to pack emergency kits before setting out during what is normally one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

The storm was also expected to glaze highways in the East with ice on Christmas.

Slippery roads were blamed for at least 14 deaths this week as the slow-moving storm made its way across the country from the Southwest.

The snowstorm also put the brakes on some last-minute Christmas shopping. At the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., some shoppers had entire stores to themselves.

“It doesn’t bother me any,” said Steve Burns, who was browsing for shirts and other gifts with his teenage daughter.

High winds blowing snow across icy roads were a concern elsewhere. Interstates were closed in Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. Texas Gov. Rick Perry activated military personnel to help drivers. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven placed additional state troopers and the National Guard on standby.

The wind gusted to 40 mph in central Kansas, and gusts up to 60 mph were forecast in Oklahoma. Winds gusting at up to 65 mph in Texas drifted the snow as deep as 5 feet in some areas.

“The wind is killer, especially when you’re empty,” trucker Jim Reed said during a stop in Omaha, Neb. “Anything that’s boxed, like a refrigerator trailer like I have, becomes like a giant sail in the wind.”

Tony Glaum of Leavenworth, Kan., was traveling with his wife and daughter to his parents’ home north of Manhattan. He said they were thinking about staying overnight rather than making their usual Christmas Eve trip back home.

Still, he said, he is looking forward to a white Christmas: “I think snow would be pretty nice.”

The storm closed Oklahoma’s biggest airport. Mark Kraneneberg, a spokesman for Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, said there were about 100 stranded passengers and some airport employees were stuck as well.

Robert Smith of Denver was in Oklahoma City visiting family members and friends, and planned to fly home Thursday but had to cancel those plans.

“We are going to wait it out,” he said. “We went to the grocery store to get stuff. We’ve got the generators ready just in case we need to use them.”

Nearly 100 flights from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport were canceled by midday. By late afternoon, though, a spokesman said most flights were getting out. The Oklahoma City airport shut down one of its three runways and canceled nearly 30 flights. Two-hour-plus delays were reported at Houston’s Hobby Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare had hour-long delays and more than 30 cancellations.

The Rev. Roger Claxton canceled Christmas Eve services at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Wabasha, Minn., after the area got at least 8 inches of snow. Claxton feared his congregation’s senior citizens would feel compelled to attend.

“I’d rather have people stay home than do their funerals in a couple weeks,” he said.

The Rev. Mark Kelm told parishioners to stay home if they didn’t feel safe, though he planned to hold services even if he was the only one there at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church in White Bear Lake, a suburb of St. Paul, Minn.

“If I have to make it on cross-country skis, I’ll be here,” Kelm said. “The best way I can explain it is, it’s just like a pregnant woman — if the baby is coming, the baby is coming. For us, the Christ child is going to be celebrated.”

Karen Scholten said her family would conduct a mini-service at home after the Eagle Grove, Iowa, church she has attended since 1965 canceled its Christmas Eve service for the first time she could recall.

“I’m sure we will read the Christmas story and listen to some Christmas hymns,” she said.

Since Tuesday, icy roads have been blamed for accidents that killed at least seven people in Nebraska, four in Kansas, one each in Minnesota and Oklahoma, and one near Albuquerque, N.M.

Ancestor worship is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and burial grounds are selected in strict observation to the rules of feng shui, which promises to bring good luck to the family and the village.

So when 1,200 graves in four villages in rural Shanghai had to move to make way for the proposed Disneyland amusement park project, many villagers were outraged - not so much because of disrespect to their ancestors but rather for what they considered to be inadequate compensation.

The Shanghai municipal government offered 300 yuan ($44) for the relocation of each grave in the villages of Jinjia, Qigan, Xueqiao and Zhaohang, all located in the Huanglou area in Pudong district.

“It’s definitely not enough,” said Wu Zhihua, a resident of Jinjia village, who was asked to relocate his grandparents’ graves.

“The authority is paying me 600 yuan for the job that is going to cost me 26,000 yuan,” Wu said.

Complaints or not, the villagers were told they have until Jan 5 to move their ancestors’ graves.

The Shanghai municipal government said on Nov 4 that the central government had approved the Disneyland project. The proposed theme park is scheduled to open to the public in 2014.

In Jinjia village, there are about 200 to 300 graves that need to be relocated, said the village head, who declined to be named. “Most of them (the villagers) understand and will cooperate with us,” he said.

Compensation for grave relocation 10 years ago was only 200 yuan.

“We are entitled to more compensation,” said Shi Pingjing, a man in his 50s who was supervising the digging of his grandparents’ graves in Jinjia for relocation.

“I don’t know how much they (the town government) will get for the land acquisition. But the amount we received is definitely too little,” he said.

“A new grave costs us more than 20,000 yuan and we need to hire people and rent cars for this work.”

Not all of the villagers are as annoyed.

“I’ve planned for about two years to move the grave of my father’s first wife,” said Zhou Wenguo, a 47-year-old villager of Jinjia village.

“The whole environment in Jinjia Country’s graveyard is not convenient, either for the ancestor or the people who come to pay their respects,” he said, “then we had this opportunity of being acquired by the Disneyland project.”

According to local media reports, at least 4,000 residents in Chuansha town will also be relocated for the Disneyland project.

In efforts to counter the unprecedented global economic downturn in decades and increasing challenges of climate change, China mapped out in 2009 a series of active measures to shoulder responsibility in accordance with its capability, drawing widespread attention from the international community. Its centuries-old culture also won increasing world recognition.

CONSTRUCTIVE ROLE IN GLOBAL ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

The year 2009 has been an extraordinarily busy year for Chinese diplomacy, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Largely due to the international economic and financial crisis, the policies and measures taken by China have particularly caught the world’s attention, said Sha.

The spread of China’s influence is not only a great trend, but an undisputable fact, said Sha, adding the financial crisis is in fact an opportunity for China to participate in the international decision-making process, to elevate its status and broaden its influence.

The world welcomes the presence of Chinese leaders at important international gatherings and highly values China’s standpoints. The emergence of China as a responsible and constructive player that seeks peaceful development is appreciated by more and more countries.

With a package of policies and measures aimed at addressing the impact of the international financial crisis, China’s economic growth has gradually accelerated since the first quarter of 2009.

According to estimates by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) could grow approximately 8.5 percent in 2009, while global economic output is expected to drop 2 percent from 2008.

With its economy taking the lead in stalling the downturn, China is contributing to a full recovery of the world economy as the recovery in China has directly boosted global demand.

The world benefits from a prosperous China, concluded Sha.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, World Bank President Robert Zoellick also said China has played a very constructive role in battling the global economic downturn by taking both fiscal and monetary steps to revitalize its economy.

Zoellick believes that China, as an emerging economic force, can be a responsible stakeholder in the international economic system through its own policies.

Meanwhile, China has also strived to oppose trade protectionism in a bid to promote world trade in a more friendly way.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell, commenting on China’s role in reforming the multilateral trade system, spoke highly of China’s participation in the Doha Round of trade negotiations.

“China has been absolutely central to the negotiations,” said Rockwell, adding China has constructive ideas and proposals to make the Round go forward.

John Hawksworth, chief economist of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), one of the world’s four largest accounting firms, predicted that China’s economic growth would be around 8 percent this year and is expected to rise to around 9-10 percent in 2010.

It is widely believed that the world’s economic power is shifting from the West to the East as emerging economies such as China and India are developing with a rapid and sustainable growth.

He said that the shift is inevitable because the productivity gap between China and the United States, for example, which used to be very large, has been reduced considerably.

“You can’t really manage the world economy without involving countries like China and India and Brazil and so on because they have got an increasingly important role to play,” said the economist.

RESPONSIBLE PROMISE ON TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE

Another eye-catching issue in 2009 on the international stage is how to deal with climate change, which has imposed increasing challenges and threats on the development and even the fate, in the long term, of mankind.

Despite its tremendous need for development, China, a developing country, has taken unprecedented efforts in recent years to address the global issue.

On Nov. 26, China announced that it was going to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent from the 2005 level.

China made the commitment with great courage given the harsh realities it faces. China still has 150 million poor people and its economy needs robust development to improve people’s living standard and promote industrialization.

However, these difficulties will not hinder China’s pursuit to be a responsible member of the international community as China has realized the urgency and significance to contain climate change.

In his address to the opening session of the final summit segment of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen on Friday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said it was with a sense of responsibility to the Chinese people and mankind that the Chinese government had set the target for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is a voluntary action China has taken in light of its national circumstances,” Wen said.

“We have not attached any condition to the target, nor have we linked it to the target of any other country,” the Chinese premier said.

“We will honor our word with real action,” Wen said. “Whatever outcome this conference may produce, we will be fully committed to achieving and even exceeding the target.”

The premier said China faced the arduous task of developing the economy and improving people’s livelihoods.

However, China had always regarded addressing climate change as an important strategic task, he said, adding that, between 1990 and 2005, China’s carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP were reduced by 46 percent.

RISING CHARM OF CHINESE CULTURE

This year marks the 2,560th anniversary of the birth of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. To celebrate the occasion, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution in October to recognize the sage’s “invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought.”

It was the first time for the U.S. House of Representatives to officially honor a Chinese philosopher by passing a legislative measure.

The resolution said Confucius, “who is one of the greatest thinkers, teachers, and social philosophers in history, developed a philosophy that has deeply influenced, and continues to influence, the social and political thought of countries around the world.”

The bill was introduced on Sept. 29, one day after Confucius’ birthday, by Al Green, a Democratic Congressman from Texas, along with 40 other lawmakers.

Green told Xinhua that he hoped the bill could promote Americans’ understanding of Confucius’ philosophy featured by peace and honesty, and help them realize the far-reaching influence of the Asian culture, including the Chinese culture, on the United States.

Liu Quansheng, president of the Confucius Institute in the Maryland University, the first of its kind in the United States, said the resolution showed that Confucius and his philosophy had set up a bridge between Sino-U.S. cultural exchange.

The institute, headquartered in Beijing and sponsored by China’s National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, has not only offered a place for Americans to learn Chinese, but also serves as a platform to help the two peoples better understand each other.

So far, as many as 65 Confucius institutions in the U.S. have been established since 2004, and brought the charm of the Chinese culture to the American public, especially young people.

Worldwide, a total of 282 Confucius institutes have been set up, and there are about 40 million Chinese language learners.

U.S. scholar Joseph Nye, who initiated the concept of “soft power,” said the expansion of Confucius Institute indicates the rise of China’s soft power since it opened to the outside world.

Also in 2009, the Chinese culture made its presence felt in two grand European cultural events: the “Europalia-China” art festival in Belgium and the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

China, being the guest of honor at the two cultural events, actively participated in the activities to introduce traditional Chinese culture and China’s great cultural achievements since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

They provided another opportunity for China to showcase the splendid, subtle power of the Chinese culture following the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said.

The financial system in Britain had become “significantly more stable over the past six months”, the Bank of England, the central bank of Britain, said on Friday.

In its bi-annual Financial Stability Report, the Bank of England said the financial situation had improved thanks to its quantitative easing (QE) program and its holding of its interest rate at a historically low 0.5 percent for the past eight months.

The bank is spending 200 billion pounds (322.66 billion U.S. dollars) under the QE program to boost lending in the banking sector and use new money to buy assets from banks and other companies.

It also said that, in the past six months, British banks had been able to increase their profits, reduce concerns about potential future losses and raise further external capital — thereby reducing their reliance upon short-term funding.

However, it said commercial banks still had to do more to improve their long-term stability and cautioned these banks would need further time to recover from the crisis in the financial system.

Meanwhile, the report stressed British banks “remain vulnerable to the risk of less-than-expected economic recovery”.

The latest edition of the bi-annual report outlined its current assessment of the strength of the British financial sector and ways to improve it in the future.