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• Chinese health minister calls for collaboration on universal coverage of health services
• Xi urges CPC organs to better serve the people
• Bus driver blamed for accident that injured NW China teacher
• CPC willing to enhance bilateral exchange with Bulgaria: senior official
• Contact with Dalai Lama "not helpful" for Austria-China ties: Chinese ambassador
• China, Israel pledge closer military ties
• Details of Wenzhou reform due soon
• Foam in bridge's cracks doesn't lower safety
• Alibaba, Yahoo reach $7b deal
• Iranian president invited to SCO Beijing summit
• China's top legislator stresses tourism cooperation with Croatia
• Yemeni suicide bombing death toll rises to 80
• Wu Ying receives death penalty with reprieve
• Jailed former Taiwan leader faces new charge
• China opposes US sales of F-16 jets to Taiwan
• China opposes U.S. lawmakers' push to sell F-16 jets to Taiwan
• 4 dead, 5 trapped in Liaoning colliery roof collapse
• Wu Ying receives death penalty with reprieve
• Road accident kills 6, injures 13 in SW China
• China to see 14 solar eclipses this century

Chinese health minister calls for collaboration on universal coverage of health services Posted: 21 May 2012 12:57 PM PDT Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu said here on Monday that the international community is obliged to collaborate towards common goals to achieve universal coverage of necessary health services and to overcome present difficulties together.

Xi urges CPC organs to better serve the people Posted: 21 May 2012 10:58 AM PDT Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping has urged the Communist Party of China (CPC) organs at all levels to better serve grassroots people.

Bus driver blamed for accident that injured NW China teacher Posted: 21 May 2012 10:11 AM PDT A bus driver has been blamed for causing the accident that seriously injured a 29-year-old teacher who risked her life to save two students from the oncoming bus in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on May 8, local traffic police said Monday.

CPC willing to enhance bilateral exchange with Bulgaria: senior official Posted: 21 May 2012 10:09 AM PDT A visiting senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Monday said China is willing to enhance bilateral exchange with Bulgaria.

Contact with Dalai Lama "not helpful" for Austria-China ties: Chinese ambassador Posted: 21 May 2012 10:08 AM PDT Shi Mingde, the Chinese ambassador to Austria, said Monday that "all relations" Austrian politicians have with the Dalai Lama are "not helpful for good relations between Austria and China."

China, Israel pledge closer military ties Posted: 21 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Updated: 2012-05-21 22:18 ( Xinhua) BEIJING - China and Israel on Monday pledged to boost ties between their armed forces as their chiefs of staff held talks in Beijing, according to a news release from the Chinese side. Chen Bingde, chief of General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army, hailed political, economic, cultural and people-to-people ties over the past 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Israel, the release said. "Military-to-military ties between the two nations have also grown along with the overall bilateral relationship," Chen told his Israeli counterpart, Benny Gantz. Chen said high-level visits as well as exchanges among technical groups of the two militaries have enriched their cooperation. The Chinese side attaches importance to the ties with the Israeli military, willing to make concerted efforts with the Israeli side to deepen pragmatic cooperation and contribute to the overall bilateral ties, said the Chinese general. Gantz, echoing Chen's remarks, said the Israeli armed forces look forward to more exchanges and closer cooperation with the Chinese side to make contribution to world peace and stability.

Details of Wenzhou reform due soon Posted: 21 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT The central government may officially issue detailed plans for Wenzhou's financial reforms as early as this month, a Wenzhou official has said. The plan, which is expected to guide Wenzhou's ground-breaking financial reforms approved on March 28, will have 18 provisions, and it will be opened to public comment before being enacted, Zhang Zhenyu, head of Wenzhou's financial office, said in a speech to the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance on Sunday. The 12-point blueprint allows residents of the coastal city to, among other things, invest privately and set up loan companies. The reforms are aimed at making sure that the nation's private fund-raising and lending grow soundly after widespread defaults in Wenzhou last year. With a deep tradition of entrepreneurship, Wenzhou is the nation's private capital powerhouse. By bringing private money into the official banking system, Beijing is also hoping that cash-starved small businesses, which play a large role in supporting employment, will be able to obtain financing more easily and cheaply. The central government's move will probably be an endorsement of a course of action proposed by Wenzhou last month, which plans to make financial services the city's chief industry by 2015. Under the plan, Wenzhou is to have at least 30 rural financial institutions by the end of 2013. Those should include village banks, rural financial cooperatives and 100 micro-credit companies with 40 billion yuan ($6.35 billion) in net assets. This year alone, the city is to add 30 micro-credit companies, which extend very small loans. Meanwhile, six private asset management companies are to be set up by the end of this year, and a private equity fund, led by the city government, is to raise 3 billion yuan by 2015. Wu Jinglian, an economist with the People's Bank of China, said at a forum in Shanghai that he is pessimistic about the reforms in Wenzhou. He said it is hard for a single region to change a nationwide financial system, and that the Wenzhou reform plan has a "certain meaning" but won't change the financial system fundamentally. Chen said one of his office's next steps is to guide more private capital into the city's 11 rural financial cooperatives and turn them into regional joint-equity banks. The office is also asking banking regulators to allow the city's private capital to set up financial leasing and trust companies. Wenzhou will also be the first place in China to try out junk bonds, part of a national attempt to let small and medium-sized enterprises issue high-yield bonds through private placements, he said.But he added that requirements for such bonds are "too high".

Foam in bridge's cracks doesn't lower safety Posted: 21 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Updated: 2012-05-21 21:56 ( chinadaily.com.cn) A local government department in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, confirmed that an overpass in the city is safe after cracks in it were found on Sunday to have been filled with foam. "The polystyrene foam was found in the cracks of the bridge's expansion joint," said an announcement released by Qingdao's commission of urban-rural development. "According to national standards, these material should be used in expansion joints." A netizen going by the online name of Misha8988 discovered on May 18 that someone had used foam to fill cracks in an overpass connecting Haier Road and Liaoyang East Road. The person uploaded three pictures of the structure to a micro blog, giving rise huge to concerns about its safety. The commission conducted an inspection of the overpass and later concluded that "the polystyrene foam was exposed because external stainless steel covers were stolen, but that will not affect the bridge's safety." Authorities said the bridge will undergo repairs as soon as possible. Expansion joints are designed to keep bridges structurally strong, even as the materials they are made of expand and contract with variations in temperature.

Alibaba, Yahoo reach $7b deal Posted: 21 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Monday announced it would buy back some 20 percent of its equity from Yahoo Inc for about $7.1 billion, a move seen as paving the way for an initial public offering. Although the group said that it has no timetable for an IPO at the moment, Jack Ma, Alibaba's chairman and chief executive officer, said that the transaction will help the company achieve a balanced ownership structure that will allow it to "take the business to the next level as a public company in the future". Under the agreement, Alibaba Group will pay Yahoo at least $6.3 billion in cash, plus new preferred shares worth up to $800 million, the companies said in a joint statement. The Hangzhou-based group will hold about 51 percent of its equity after the transaction. The voting rights of Yahoo and Softbank in Alibaba Group will be diminished to under 50 percent as a result of the deal. Tokyo-based Softbank Corp owns about 30 percent of Alibaba Group. Alibaba started out as a business-to-business website linking factories in China to buyers around the world. It also operates Taobao.com, the country's version of eBay, and TMall, which brands can use to sell directly to consumers. "Alibaba Group regained control in the boardroom through this deal, and the company will be able to formulate its own business strategies," said Qi Jianzhe, an analyst at research company Analysys International. Ma and Alibaba Group tried several times since last year to buy back the stake. In February, the group privatized its Hong Kong-listed business-to-business arm, Alibaba.com Ltd and signed a $3 billion loan with up to six banks. This year alone, Ma has visited the headquarters of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd at least three times to seek financing, said a manager in charge of ICBC's enterprise credit business, who declined to disclose his name. Analysts said that struggling Yahoo was the winner of this deal. The California-based Web portal said it will return "substantially all of" the after-tax cash proceeds to shareholders following the closing of the transaction. Although the return of capital to shareholders has not yet been finalized, the board of Yahoo has increased the company's share buyback authorization by $5 billion. "Yahoo's shareholders have been asking the company to sell some of its Asian assets to boost returns to shareholders for a long time, and the $7-billion earnings will enable the company to distribute bonuses to its shareholders," said Qi. "We look forward to delivering the proceeds of the near-term transaction to our shareholders, and to the further enhancement of value and the additional monetization in the future that this agreement enables," said Timothy R. Morse, Yahoo's executive vice-president and chief financial officer. Yahoo is likely to use the rest of the proceeds in its own stock repurchase program and the expansion of new businesses, said Qi. The deal, which closes in six months, is good for Yahoo because the company gets a "wad of cash" but still has exposure to fast-growing China, said Napoleon Biggs, head of digital integration at public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard Asia Pacific. "China for them was like a sore tooth," said Biggs, who has worked in the China Internet and media industry since 1997. Yahoo's interim CEO Ross Levinsohn said the stake sale provides clarity for Yahoo shareholders. Levinsohn stepped into the role earlier this month after Yahoo cast aside CEO Scott Thompson because his official biography included a college degree that he never received. Yahoo shares closed at $15.42 on Friday, the last trading day before the deal was released. The price jumped to $16.01 in Monday's pre-market session, up 3.8 percent, data from the US financial website CNNMoney showed. The website was offering 12-month price forecasts for Yahoo at a median target of $17, which is more than 10 percent above last Friday's close. Under the changes, Yahoo will grant Alibaba a license to continue using the Yahoo China brand for up to four years. Alibaba will pay Yahoo $550 million and make royalty payments over that period. Yahoo will no longer be restricted from making other investments in China. Alibaba is in the process of taking Hong Kong-listed unit Alibaba.com private. Shareholders will vote on Friday on whether the company should buy back the 27 percent it doesn't already own.

Iranian president invited to SCO Beijing summit Posted: 21 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Updated: 2012-05-21 21:19 ( Xinhua) BEIJING - China has invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will be held in Beijing on June 6-7. Making the announcement at a regular press briefing on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei added that it is common practice for China to invite the president of Iran, an observer nation to the SCO. President Hu Jintao will chair the meeting, and leaders from SCO member states and observer countries, as well as guests of China and heads of international organizations will attend. The SCO, founded on June 15, 2001, groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

China's top legislator stresses tourism cooperation with Croatia Posted: 21 May 2012 06:21 AM PDT Visiting China's top legislator Wu Bangguo has stressed closer cooperation on tourism between China and Croatia.

Yemeni suicide bombing death toll rises to 80 Posted: 21 May 2012 06:41 AM PDT Several suicide bombers blew themselves up among security soldiers who were practicing for a military parade in Yemen's capital of Sanaa on Monday, killing at least 80 people, police officials said.

Wu Ying receives death penalty with reprieve Posted: 21 May 2012 06:41 AM PDT The Higher People's Court in east China's Zhejiang Province on Monday pronounced death penalty with two year reprieve to businesswoman Wu Ying after retrial.

Jailed former Taiwan leader faces new charge Posted: 21 May 2012 05:54 AM PDT Former Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian faces a new charge of illegal possession of classified documents.

China opposes US sales of F-16 jets to Taiwan Posted: 21 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT China on Monday voiced its opposition to a defense spending bill passed last week by the US House of Representatives that pushed for sales of F-16 jets to Taiwan.

China opposes U.S. lawmakers' push to sell F-16 jets to Taiwan Posted: 21 May 2012 04:55 AM PDT China on Monday voiced its opposition to a defense spending bill passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives that pushed for sales of F-16 jets to Taiwan.

4 dead, 5 trapped in Liaoning colliery roof collapse Posted: 21 May 2012 03:46 AM PDT Four people died and another five were trapped following a roof collapse in a colliery in northeast China's Liaoning province, authorities said Monday.

Wu Ying receives death penalty with reprieve Posted: 21 May 2012 03:19 AM PDT The Higher People's Court in east China's Zhejiang Province on Monday pronounced death penalty with two year reprieve to businesswoman Wu Ying after retrial.

Road accident kills 6, injures 13 in SW China Posted: 21 May 2012 03:50 AM PDT Updated: 2012-05-21 17:05 ( Xinhua) GUIYANG - Six people were killed and 13 injured in a road accident that occurred Monday morning in Southwest China's Guizhou province, local authorities said. At 9:38 am Monday, a bus traveling from Qianxi county to the city of Guiyang crashed into a highway guard rail, tumbling down a 30-meter-deep ditch, according to the emergency office of Guiyang. The injured have been taken to a local hospital for treatment. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

China to see 14 solar eclipses this century Posted: 21 May 2012 03:50 AM PDT Updated: 2012-05-21 17:06 ( Xinhua) TIANJIN - People in eastern Chinese regions saw an annular eclipse of the sun Monday morning, the longest eclipse in terms of duration for the next 1,000 years, according to astronomers' predictions. An annular solar eclipse is captured in Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian province, May 21, 2012. [Photo/CFP] The eclipse lasted for about four minutes in China, moving across the Pacific and ending on the west coast of the United States. Beginning at 6 am, people in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Hainan province were the first to observe the eclipse, followed by the coastal provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian. People in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin were also able to watch a partial solar eclipse in the morning. China will witness another 14 solar eclipses before the year 2100, including total solar eclipses and annular eclipses, according to Su Yi, director of the Chinese Astronomical Society and a professor at Nankai University. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon slides across the sun, blocking all but a blazing halo of light. The next annular solar eclipse is expected to be seen in southwestern and southeastern parts of China on June 21 of 2020, Su said.