CRI 中国国际广播电台 2010-01-04

Broadcasting Time: 07:00-08:00, GMT+08:00, 2010-01-04

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

In This Edition

Heavy snow hits Beijing, causing the Capital International Airport to cancel 80% of its flights.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai's spokesman says the rejection 1 of the president's Cabinet nominees 2 is "not a pleasant situation for the government".

And with only four months left before the start of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the construction of the event venues 3 is in its final stages.

Hot Issue Reports

Heavy Snow Hits Beijing, Disrupting Traffic

Heavy snow hit Beijing on Sunday, closing expressways, delaying flights and disrupting bus services.

More than 80 percent of flights at Beijing's Capital International Airport, the country's busiest, were cancelled or delayed.

Huang Weihua is an official from the airport's operation center.

"The air traffic controllers are arranging new departure time slots for delayed flights. We will provide blankets and sufficient water to passengers. They will be informed with the flight information in time."

Airports in the nearby cities of Tianjin, Hohhot and Shijiazhuang have been closed completely.

Expressways linking Beijing to neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin were closed because of snow and ice on the roads.

The Beijing Traffic Bureau says 60 bus routes have been affected 5 by the snow, with service suspensions on 47 routes to rural areas.

Wang Zhongyi from the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission says it has motivated extra workers to clear the main roads in the capital.

"We have motivated about 1,500 people to cope with this heavy snow, and dispatched about 400 snow vehicles and equipment. We have also prepared about 2,700 tons of de-icing salt and 1,000 cubic meters of anti-slip material."

Beijing's temperature is forecast to plummet 6 to minus 16 degree Celsius 7 over the next three days, which would be the lowest in 40 years.

The city's meteorological bureau raised its snowstorm alert to yellow, the second highest on Sunday morning.

The bad weather is also affecting large parts of the rest of northern and northeastern China, with snow and plunging 8 temperatures expected to continue into the first full week of the new year.

Flight Operation Come to Standstill Due to Thick Fog in New Delhi

Meanwhile, some other parts of the world are also being affected by bad weathers.

In India, flight operations at the airport in the Indian capital New Delhi have almost come to a standstill due to thick fog.

The airport remained shut for almost nine hours on Sunday morning following dense 9 fog. No flight could take off or land after visibility dropped to less than 50 metres.

Passengers had to face one of the worst fog led flight disruption in many years as more than 200 flights got delayed.

"I had a flight at 8:20 in the evening yesterday. It got cancelled so I bought an Air India ticket of 4 a.m. The flight got delayed too and now there is no information about the flight as yet. No flights are available. We are worried a lot, as we haven't slept all night."

Meanwhile, traffic moved at a slow speed in the capital due to poor visibility. Most of the vehicles inched ahead with the headlights on to avoid mishaps 10.

The fog has also upset the Northern Power Grid 11, causing power cuts and stalling of train services on electrified 12 routes.

Floods Affect Parts of Northern New South Wales

In Australia, rising floodwaters have forced hundreds of people to evacuate 13 their homes in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Around 400 people were told to leave their properties near Coonamble in the north of the state as the Castlereagh River continued to spill out across fields around the town.

Local news agencies reported that people were unable to leave the town because it is cut off by floodwaters.

The water levels were expected to peak at 5.5 metres in the early hours of Monday morning.

Although the region is prone 14 to flooding, one resident said he had never seen such severe conditions.

"I've lived here sixty years and this is as high as I've seen it. I've seen it within a foot of where it is now but it's as high as I've ever seen it here."

Flooding was also expected around the town of Gilgandra.

The area has experienced a week of rain, some of it left over from Cyclone 15 Laurence which battered 16 Australia's west coast in December.

Afghan President's Spokesman Reacts to Rejection of Cabinet Nominees

Afghan president Hamid Karzai's spokesman says the rejection of the president's Cabinet nominees is "not a very pleasant situation for the government," but shows Afghanistan has a pluralistic political system.

Waheed Omar, the president's spokesman, says Karzai was surprised by the rejections 17, but adds that the vote is a sign of democracy in Afghanistan.

"The president is thinking about some kind of restructuring within the government, based on whatever views were expressed in this period, and he will definitely introduce new members to the cabinet at a proper time."

Afghanistan's parliament on Saturday rejected 70 percent of Karzai's nominees for a new cabinet.

The parliament has entrusted 18 the acting 19 ministers of defense 20, interior and finance through the secret balloting 21, but the justice, commerce, energy, economy, public health and communications portfolios 22 were among the posts left vacant.

Iraqi Government to Pursue Blackwater Case

The Iraqi government has pledged to seek justice for 17 people shot dead in Baghdad in 2007, after an American judge's decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings 23.

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, says Iraqi authorities will pursue the case.

"The government will prosecute 25 the Blackwater security firm and chase this company to protect the rights of its citizens and the rights of the innocent victims. For the sake of justice, the Iraqi government will demand that the American judicial 26 authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice reconsider the sentence and adopt all necessary measures to bring them to justice."

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed the charges against the five on Thursday.

Blackwater is a private security contractor 27 hired to protect U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq.

On September 16th, 2007, the Blackwater guards opened fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers on unarmed Iraqi civilians 28 in Baghdad after a car bomb exploded, killing 24 17 and injuring 20 others.

British-flagged Ship Hijacked 29 by Somali Pirates

Somali pirates hijacked a British-flagged vehicle carrier off the Somali coast late on Friday.

The Asian Glory was seized about 600 miles east off the Somali coast before it was due to join a convoy 30 heading for the Gulf 31 of Aden.

Andrew Mwangura is an official of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Association.

"A UK flag car carrier, Asian Glory, has been taken by pirates. She was taken by pirates while underway from Singapore heading to Jedda. On board are 25 crew and this crew are composed of Romanians, Bulgarians, Indians and Ukranians."

The official says it would take the ship two or three days to reach Somalia, and then negotiations 32 for its release would be started.

It's the second British-flagged ship taken by the pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

The chemical tanker 33 St James Park was seized on Monday. It had arrived off the pirate stronghold of Hobyo.

On Wednesday, Somali pirates hijacked a Singapore-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

Five Chinese sailors were among the 24 crew onboard.

Air Berlin Plane Comes off Runway, with No Injuries

An Air Berlin plane has come off the runway at Dortmund airport in western Germany but no one was injured.

The aircraft, with 165 passengers and six crew members on board, was headed for Spain's Canary Islands.

Guido Miletic is a Dortmund Airport spokesman.

"Before taking off, the pilot decided 34 to abort 35 the take-off. Then the aircraft rolled off the runway and now stands behind the runway. No passengers and no crew members have been injured. All could get off the plane by the stairs."

He added despite the snowy conditions the runway was fully 36 operational at the time of the aborted 37 takeoff.

Another airline spokeswoman said the pilot of the Boeing 737-800 had decided to abort the takeoff because of a "technical irregularity" that is still being examined.

She added that the passengers and their luggage were being taken to nearby Paderborn airport, from where another aircraft was to fly them to Las Palmas.

The airport was closed to allow for the aircraft's recovery, and other flights cancelled or diverted, according to its Web site.

Light News

Experts: 2010 is a Year of Hope for China

Chinese people have bathed in the festive 38 atmosphere with the arrival of 2010. But some have begun to wonder what the new year will bring to China's vast population, and what will be achieved along the road of reform and development.

China is Ready for Shanghai 2010 Expo

With only four months left before the start of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the construction of the event venues is in its final stages. In the meantime, the English version of Expo Shanghai Online has gone live.

China Becomes America's Largest Travel Market

The US travel market was hit hard in 2009 due to the influence of the global financial crisis, with the number of international travelers plummeting 39. However, the increasing number of Chinese tourists offers a hope that a recovery could be around the corner.

Touch Screen Computers and 3-D Graphics 40 to Dominate in 2010

Every year thousands of new computers hit the market, all promising 41 to be better, faster and more powerful than previous generations.

2010 is already being tipped as the year for 3-D graphics, flexible computing 42 and touch screens.

Tim Danton, Editor of PC Pro 4 magazine, says touch screens are going to emerge alongside the traditional keyboard and mouse.

"And so one of the things we expect to see is for manufacturers to produce laptops and desktop 43 monitors that support this technology. So, theoretically, you will be able to touch your PC, rather than just control it using their mouse and their keyboard."

What's more, manufacturers promise next year will see a 3-D revolution sweep the computing world.

Whether 3-D will make it in 2011 or not, it looks like this year the bar will be raised once more in computer design and technology.

Dubai to Open World's Tallest Building

Dubai is set to open the world's tallest structure on Monday, despite the city state's shaky financial footing.

But the final height of the Burj Dubai, Arabic for Dubai Tower, remained a closely guarded secret on the eve of its opening. At more than 800 metres, it long ago vanquished 44 its nearest rival, the 508-meter high Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

The building boasts the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world.

Dubai's ruler will open the building with a fireworks display on Monday evening.

But the Burj's opening comes at a tough time for Dubai's economy. Property prices in parts of the sheikdom have collapsed 45 by nearly half over the past year.

Saud Masud is a senior analyst 46 at UBS investment Bank in Dubai.

"Burj Dubai is obviously the ultimate symbol of the real estate boom that they have seen. And I don't see the economic down cycle being over in the next few quarters or in the next year or so. So I think the economic challenges or problems will persist in the face of a pretty awesome 47, I would say, man made structure."

The city-state turned to its richer neighbour Abu Dhabi for a series of bailouts totalling 25 billion US dollars in 2009 to help cover debts amassed 48 by a network of state-linked companies.

Burj developer Emaar is itself partly owned by the government, but is not among the companies known to have received emergency cash.