News & Reports 2011-01-02

Hello and Welcome to News and Reports on China Radio International.

In This Edition

North Korea welcomes the New Year with a push for better ties with South Korea, warning that further disputes will bring nuclear war.

A Russian passenger jet has exploded at a Siberian airport, killing three people and injuring more than 40 others.

Dilma Rousseff is sworn in as Brazil's first female president.

And the Baltic state of Estonia becomes the 17th European Union member to adopt the joint European currency, the Euro.

And later in the programme, Director-General of China Radio International Wang Gengnian, sends sincere wishes and New Year greetings to our listeners on behalf of the entire CRI staff.

Hot Issue Reports

North Korea Sends "Peace" Message

North Korea has welcomed the New Year with a push for better ties with South Korea, warning that further disputes will bring nuclear war.

In a joint editorial in three newspapers carried out in the official Korean Central News Agency, the North said confrontation between the two Koreas should be quickly defused.

The statement was read by a newscaster for North Korea's state broadcaster, KRT.

"The danger of war should be dismantled and peace should be safeguarded in the Korean peninsula. If a war breaks out on this land, it will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust."

The North also indicated its willingness to solving related issues on the Korean peninsula through talks.

"The North is consistent in its position and will achieve peace in Northeast Asia and denuclearization of the whole of the Korean peninsula. We will make efforts to develop cooperation with countries that treat us as friends under the ideological framework of independence, peace and amity."

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said its officials were analyzing the North's message.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high since the two Koreas exchanged fire on a frontline island in November, 2010.

The peninsula remains technically in a state of war because the Korean War of the 1950s ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.

Revelers Celebrate the Arrival of the New Year

Revelers across Europe celebrated the arrival of the New Year on Saturday with dazzling fireworks displays in their various capital cities.

In the British capital, thousands gathered on the banks of the River Thames near the London Eye Ferris Wheel for the city's fireworks display.

In Germany, hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors from around the world gathered at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the arrival of 2011.

The crowds cheered as a massive fireworks display was staged at midnight, while a live show took place on the stage set in front of Berlin's famous landmark.

A Berlin resident, with no name given, made a New Year resolution.

"Wealth, health, happiness, all the best in this world."

Likewise, tourists and Parisians alike crowded the Champs Elysees to usher in the New Year amid heightened security.

Muscovites have welcomed in the New Year, with many gathering on Red Square to watch fireworks and to listen to an address given by their country's president, Dmitri Medvedev.

"Let's congratulate each other, wish love and happiness, may all our dreams come true."

Hundreds of people watched in Red Square as a fireworks display lit up the sky over St Basil's cathedral to mark the arrival of 2011.

Across the Atlantic, revelers in New York cheered the arrival of 2011 in Times Square.

A crystal ball with 32,000 lights descended at midnight, setting off a wild and noisy confetti-filled New Year's celebration.

Chilean Tourist, Constanza Monsalve said she had never seen anything like the celebration in Times Square.

"It was amazing, I have never seen something like this. In Chile, we can see the fireworks, but here it was spectacular - huge shows - it was amazing."

The Time Square Alliance estimated that nearly a million people crowded into Times Square for the event.

Passenger Plane Blast Kills Three

A Russian passenger jet has exploded at a Siberian airport, killing three people and injuring more than 40 others.

The plane was carrying 124 people when it caught fire as it taxied down a snowy runway.

Most of the passengers and crew were evacuated before the explosion.

Olga Sytnik, one of the passengers, described a chaotic scene as panicked people rushed through flames to escape the burning plane.

"Only one exit was working, we didn't see the middle exit, it seems it was not able to be opened. People were getting out of plane and found themselves on the wing. Some form of ladder was ready there for them and people started to go down it. But before that there were a lot of people on the wing. Some people just jumped down from the wing to the ground and were limping away."

An emergency services spokesman said the fire began in one of the engines as the plane taxied for takeoff.

He added that the fire caused a powerful blast that destroyed the Tu-154 aircraft and spread flames across 1,000 square metres.

The plane, which belonged to the regional Kogalymavia airline, was flying from the western Siberian town of Surgut to Moscow.

The Tu-154 has been the workhorse of the Soviet and post-Soviet civilian aviation industry, first entering service in the 1970s.

Abbas Calls on Middle East Power Brokers to Draft a New Peace Plan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on Middle East power brokers to draft a new peace plan for the region that could help revive failed U.S.-backed negotiations with Israel.

In a televised speech, Abbas said the Palestinians would "demand" that the Quartet, comprising the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations, "draft a peace plan" based on UN Security Council resolutions that call for establishing a Palestinian state on land Israel captured during the 1967 War.

"The interest of the United States, the interest of the peoples of the region, including the people of Israel is to salvage the peace process. We demand that the international quartet committee and various international institutions, on top of which is the Security Council, to draft a peace plan that is in harmony with the international legitimacy (UN Security Council resolutions), instead of continuing a process that in fact has focused on managing the conflict and not solving it."

Abbas, speaking on the eve of the anniversary of the founding of the Palestinians' mainstream Fatah movement, reiterated a demand for Israel to halt settlement building, the issue over which negotiations launched anew in September foundered just several weeks later.

Palestinians have rejected an offer made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to move toward an interim peace deal rather than a final settlement to bypass such sticky conflict issues as the future of Jerusalem, settlements and Palestinian refugees.

Abbas said he expected Washington to do more to confront Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank, part of the territory where the Palestinians want to establish their state.

Brazil President Dilma Sworn in

Dilma Rousseff was sworn in as Brazil's first female president on Saturday.

The 63-year-old, takes the helm of Latin America's largest nation, which has risen both financially and politically on the world stage under outgoing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula leaves office as the nation's most popular president with an approval rating that hit 87 percent in his last week in office.

Rousseff was his hand-chosen successor.

She took the oath of office alongside Vice President Michel Temer in the national Congress.

"The people of Brazil's sovereign decision has allowed the presidential sash to be placed on a woman's shoulders for the first time."

Rousseff takes on the formidable task of maintaining Brazil's momentum.

In the eight years under Lula, Brazil sharply cut poverty while its economy boomed, and it has increased its political clout on the global stage.

Brazil will host the 2014 World Cup and is expected to be the world's fifth-largest economy by the time the 2016 Olympics come to the nation.

Huge challenges also await Rousseff, who served as Lula's energy minister before becoming his chief of staff, where her tough managerial manner earned her the moniker "Iron Lady".

In addition to sweeping improvements Brazil needs in its infrastructure, security and education, she confronts the danger of following the charismatic Lula.

Estonia Becomes 17th Euro Zone Member

The Baltic state of Estonia has become the 17th European Union member to adopt the joint European currency, the euro.

The nation's decision to change from the Estonian kroon to the euro was the final step in a decades-long effort to integrate its economy with Europe after it achieved independence in 1991.

The Finance Ministry said banks and information systems were prepared to cope with the changeover as many citizens are eager to adopt the new currency.

"Euro is our new money and our common money; I think it's ok that we have a new money."

"I think it's a very great day for Estonia. Of course we are a little bit like sad that this kroon is going away but I think euro is better."

Estonia is the first former Soviet republic to join the single currency union.

The small nation will be the poorest member of the euro zone. And many Estonians fear they will have to contribute their scarce resources to help other member countries mired in sovereign debts.

Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia's Baltic neighbors, are enthusiastic supporters of the euro and could become the union's newest members in 2014.

Inmate Riots Break out in the UK

Rioting inmates have caused heavy damage to a low-security prison in the United Kingdom.

Officials say about 40 inmates at Ford Open Prison near Arundel, 95 kilometres south of London, began the disturbance at around midnight New Year's Eve.

The prisoners smashed windows and set fires with several buildings heavily damaged. There were no immediate reports of injuries to staff or inmates.

Mark Freeman, deputy general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said the riot started after some prisoners refused to take breath tests.

"My understanding is that staff on the night suspected that some of the prisoners had been drinking alcohol and wished to, according to the policy here, to breathalise them. The prisoners refused and the other prisoners joined in that act of indiscipline and prison officers were then threatened and they had to remove themselves to a place of safety."

He added that only two prison officers and four support staff were on duty at the time.

The Ministry of Justice said the staff retreated and specialist officers were called in to handle the riot.

The prison houses up to 500 offenders with less than two years remaining on their sentences to prepare them for release.

Six Killed as New Year's Eve Tornadoes Strike Three States

Tornadoes fuelled by unusually warm air pummeled the south and midwest of the United States on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more across the states of Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois.

An eye witness described the situation.

"Sounded like everything you always hear, it sounded like freight train coming. So, we weren't in the direct path of it so it just had a lot of vacuum on the house and you could feel the wind was moving and the shaking. And, more like an earthquake for us."

A 21-year-old woman and her 64-year-old grandmother died on their farm in Lecoma, south-central Missouri.

Another woman was killed north of Rolla, not far from Lecoma, when a tornado destroyed her home.

In Arkansas, three people died when a tornado touched down just before sunrise in a northwestern hamlet of Cincinnati.

Friday's tornado fatalities were the first in the nation since September 16, when a woman hit a falling tree while driving in Queens, New York, and when a man was killed in his home in Belleville, West Virginia.

The deaths pushed this year's count to 42 nationally and to five in Arkansas alone.

The deaths in Missouri were its first of the year.

The storm downed power lines, leaving about eight thousand utility customers left in the dark in Missouri on New Year's Eve.

The Red Cross provided motel vouchers to people who had been displaced as temperatures were expected to dip substantially.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, a tornado may have touched down in Petersburg, northwest of Springfield, where about two dozen homes were damaged.

Northern Ireland Water Supplier Blames Crisis on Customers

Northern Ireland's water supplier has leveled part of the blame for the current water crisis on "householders and business premises."

Padraic White, Interim Chairman of Northern Ireland Water, says much of the leakage was due to private property owners not checking their premises.

"Now, obviously it's up to NI (Northern Ireland) Water to do its bit. But it's so important to stress the responsibility of householders and business premises to actually fix the leakages."

White's remarks came after a last-minute company board meeting as thousands of homes remained without water.

Repair work is continuing on pipes that burst after a sudden thaw following record cold temperatures and the worst snowfall in Northern Ireland in two decades.

The situation has improved in Belfast, but the company said reconnecting rural areas to the water supply could take until early next week.

Officials have branded the company's handling of the crisis "shambolic" and called for accountability from those responsible.

Contender for World's Largest Grand Piano Unveiled in Poland

Weighing close to two tons and more than six meters in length, the contender for world's largest grand piano has been unveiled in Poland.

As the giant instrument was being prepared for its first concert, project director Daniel Czapiewski explained how it was built.

"It is made of wood, but the wood makes only for the shape. We had to engage many (piano-making) masters out of Poland's best, who gladly agreed to help. The piano was built by a few dozen people. It is a team effort, and it was also made against the clock."

Czapiewski says those who questioned the worth of the project were now proved wrong as the piano has generated nationwide interest.

"When we started to talk about the construction everybody laughed at us a little. But today they won't laugh because we are nearing the end of preparations… We are receiving calls from people who would like to have it at a charity concert. A lot of people in Poland would like it to be played at the inauguration of the European (Football) Championships, and it is up to the task."

A committee of local officials was present at the ceremony to confirm all measurements and send the data to the Guinness World Records headquarters.

Contemporary Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer was the first to play the instrument for the officials and a select audience.

Mozdzer said he was awed by the piano.

"This is the first time in my life that I saw a grand piano that big, and I think it was a huge goal for all the constructors because it's made from the very beginning. It's very new, and I think it still needs two or three years to get together and get the right sound."

Some of Czapiewski's previous projects include a house built upside down and the longest wooden board. He owns and manages a factory that manufactures wooden houses and is also an enthusiast of Polish history.

CRI Director-General Wang Gengnian's 2011 New Year Speech

On the eve of the New Year, CRI Director-General Wang Gengnian took the opportunity to send greetings to CRI's audience in a pre-recorded message.

Dear listeners and netizens,

The year 2011 is drawing near. On behalf of the entire China Radio International (CRI) staff and myself, I would like to express best wishes to all of you. May you have peace and happiness and stay safe and healthy!

We have experienced all kinds of setbacks this year. A devastating earthquake, severe snowstorms, violent volcanic eruptions, manmade regional conflicts and the continued fallout from the economic crisis all challenged the Chinese people. But the difficulties and disasters have made us courageous and tenacious. Such conflicts and tensions cannot stop world peace and development. We are overwhelmed by a flood of memories from the Yushu earthquake and Zhouqu mudslide in northwest China, but also the splendid Shanghai World Expo and wonderful Guangzhou Asian Games. With sincerity and solidarity, Chinese people impressed the whole world. Madame Foong Fueng, a listener from Thailand told us in a letter: "From the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo, China has displayed a glorious trilogy with the attention of the whole world."

China Radio International aims to enhance understanding and friendship between the Chinese and people around the world. All our reports on significant events this past year have highlighted our principal tenet that communication can deepen mutual understanding and friendship.

We have demonstrated this effort in the "Hello, China" multimedia program, "Meet in Shanghai and Watch the Expo" knowledge contest, "2010 Chinese City Rankings" event and many other activities. This year, 17 new full frequency FM or AM radio stations were established abroad, a multimedia entity consisting of radio, television, and internet is taking its shape, and a brand new broadcasting building is in the works. Before long, China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN) will be set up. With the help of new media, CRI is ready to offer more timely and accessible information. All our efforts have paid off. We have received a record of more than 3 million letters and e-mails from listeners and netizens around the world.

My dear listeners, your support and care drive us forward. Your needs and expectations power our innovation. On behalf of all of us at CRI, I would like to extend our most sincere appreciation to our friends all over the world.

The coming year marks the 70th anniversary of China Radio International. Along with your support and enthusiasm, we have successfully grown from our memorable old days to our present prosperity. The next year will be a promising start. Embracing this legacy, CRI will usher in a new chapter and a brighter future.

Dear listeners and friends, please accept our heartfelt gratitude and New Year's greetings to all of you.

Thank you!

China Daily: Fundamental Solutions Are Needed to Fight Poverty

The Chinese government has decided to set the nation's poverty line at an annual per capita net income of 1,500 yuan (US$225) in 2011—an increase of 25 percent over the current threshold.

An editorial in "China Daily" praises the government's decision, saying it will benefit more poverty-stricken people in the country. It says the new poverty line requires the government to invest more in helping as many as 100 million impoverished people—more than double the current number.

The editorial also points out that the new figure will put more pressure on the government to move more aggressively to combat poverty.

But the commentary argues that the threshold is still too low and cannot cover some basic needs of impoverished families such as their health care and education.

It notes that the United Nation's global poverty line has been raised from a-dollar-a-day to $1.25. According to this measure, more than 250 million Chinese live in extreme poverty.

Based on this analysis, the editorial says the government needs to introduce more effective policies to help the country's poorest people.

It stresses that the government is obliged to distribute its growing wealth equally and come up with fundamental measures to narrow development gaps among different regions.

Xinhua Daily Telegraph: Social Mobility Needed to Maintain Social Harmony

As the year of 2010 has come to an end, some in the Chinese media are beginning to look back on the events that have had profound influence on the country.

The Xinhua Daily telegraph picked a rather notorious story – the bad behavior and improper remarks by children of officials and the wealthy.

The newspaper recalls that a 22-year-old drunk driver killed a girl on a campus in a hit-and-run in October.

The driver was reported as saying "Sue me if you can … my father is Li Gang." Li Gang was later identified as a police chief in northern China's Hebei province.

The incident and especially the perpetrator's remarks caused an enormous outrage among the public.

Moreover, the newspaper says some children of officials and of the rich rely on their parents to obtain unfair or even illegal benefits, like cheating in the civil servant recruitment process to get a post.

By comparison, Xinhua Daily notes that young people from rural backgrounds are constantly experiencing obstacles in acquiring education, jobs and social respect.

The commentary points out that the situation demonstrates the difficulty of smooth social mobility among different classes.

It explains that some members of the advantaged classes are utilizing all means to maintain holds on their unequal possession of social resources.

The article warns that this phenomenon may harm social justice and fairness and contribute to dissatisfaction and social instability.

In conclusion, it urges the government to take heed of the phenomenon and strengthen efforts to facilitate social mobility and maintain harmony in the society.