News & Reports 2010-11-20

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

In This Edition

The Chinese government says it will not agree to any deal linking rich nations' aid to its acceptance of tighter oversight 1 of its efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions 2.

The death toll 3 from the deadly fire in Shanghai has now risen to 58.

Leaders from 28 NATO countries endorse 4 new Strategic Concept at the military bloc's annual summit.

Food prices appear to be dropping in some places in China, after the government promised to adopt a series of measures to reign 5 in price hikes.

Hot Issue Reports

Shanghai High-rise Fire Death Toll Rises to 58, 4 More Detained

The death toll from the deadly fire in Shanghai has now risen to 58.

Meanwhile, officials now say they've detained 4 more people in connection with the blaze, and say they've now positively 6 identified 26 of the victims.

More than 70 injured in the fire are receiving treatment in eight local hospitals in Shanghai.

Xu Jianguang is the Director of the Shanghai Health Bureau.

"Now we have 71 patients, and 16 of them are in critial condition, one more than before."

Xun Jingning is a doctor at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital.

"Now some of the patients have shown symptoms of pneumonia 7, especially senior patients."

The blaze erupted Monday afternoon after sparks from a welding torch set the nylon netting and scaffolding surrounding the building on fire.

A total of 12 people have now been detained in the incident, including the managers of the chief contractor 8 and two sub-contractors of the renovation 9 project.

The State Council has now ordered a new round of fire safety inspections 10 across the country in the wake of the tragedy.

China Rules out Linking Climate Aid to Transparency

The Chinese government now says it will not agree to any deal linking rich nations' aid to its acceptance of tighter oversight of its efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Huang Huikang, China's special representative for climate change talks, made the pronouncement ahead of a high-level climate meeting in Cancun, Mexico later this month.

"In principle, we really don't see increasing transparency as an issue. And mitigation actions by developing countries, with the technological 11 and financial support from developed countries, can be measurable, reportable and verifiable."

Negotiators from some 200 countries are set to meet in Cancun to try to agree on a "green fund" for poor countries and other building blocks for a new agreement to combat global warming.

A meeting in Copenhagen last December ended with a loose, non-binding accord with many gaps.

Cancun is meant to be the stepping stone to a legally-binding deal next year, that would lock governments into reducing the greenhouse gas pollution.

Huang says the key to success in climate negotiations 12 is advanced economies leading the way with big emissions cuts.

"Developed countries have the responsibility to take the lead in making deep emissions reductions and provide adequate financial support and environmentally friendly technologies to help developing countries deal with climate change."

Huang adds China's emissions will keep growing for some time, given that the priority remains 13 developing the economy and eliminating poverty.

China has pledged to reduce its "carbon intensity 14" by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

High-level Forum 15 Seeks Ways to Green Development

Researchers at a high-level forum on green development in Beijing now say China must rely on technological innovation to pursue sustainable economic growth and tackle climate change.

NATO Approves a New Strategic Concept

NATO on Friday approved a new strategic concept that retains its nuclear deterrent 16 and is intended to ensure the military alliance adapts to contemporary security threats.

The new concept is not simply strategic statement but action plan, which set up concrete steps NATO will take, said Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"We face new threats and challenges and this strategic concept will ensure NATO remains as effective as ever in defending our peace and security .It also modernises the way NATO does defence in the 21st century.

As radical 17 changes have occurred on the global scene since the last strategy was adopted in 1999, leaders decided 18 to revise the document to take into account new security threats, such as terrorism and cyber criminality.

New Zealand Miners Missing After Explosion

As many as 30 workers remain unaccounted for after an explosion ripped through a coal mine in New Zealand this afternoon.

Emergency services have been racing 19 to the Pike River Coal Processing Plant near the town of Atarau on the west coast of New Zealand's south island.

"The police have told me that there has been an explosion at Pike river coal mine and that there's between 25 and 30 unaccounted for at the moment.

Local Mayor Tony Kokshoorn.

That's not a 100 percent confirmed but that's what they think at the moment."

Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Wittall says two workers managed to made it out of the mine, but adding it's not exactly clear how many others are still inside.

"We've had our afternoon shift underground and we've had communications with a couple of the employees and we've had two men return to the surface..

They're being interviewed and we're trying to determine ... the full extent of the incident."

Ambulances and helicopters have arrived at the mine, along with some of the families of the missing miners.

It remains unclear at this point what the fate of the missing miners is, or what caused the explosion.

Unattended Suitcases Sparks Another Bomb Scare in Germany

Two unattended suitcases have sparked another bomb scare in Berlin.

Security forces there remain on heightened alert in the wake of the German government's latest terror threat assessment 20.

The owner of the cases at Berlin's train station was quickly found and the cordon 21 lifted, but police remain vigilant 22 at Germany's train stations, airports and borders.

Earlier this week, authorities revealed that an Air Berlin flight from Namibia to Munich was delayed after police found a bag with a fuse in the luggage hall of the airport in the southern African nation's capital.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says the preliminary investigation 23 shows the suspect bag was destined 24 for the German flight.

"A lot speaks for the idea that the piece of luggage was supposed to be transported on a plane that was to fly to Munich. But we'll learn more details in the coming days, and once we have reliable results, we will of course inform the public."

German authorities are suggesting it could have been a fake device meant to test the airport's security measures.

China Pledges Adequate Grain Supplies as Inflation Increases

The People's Bank of China has announced that it's raising the reserve required ratio for banks by another 50 basis points.

This afternoon's move is seen as a way to try to further reign in the excess liquidity 25 in the market, which is widely believed to be one of the main drivers of the rising inflationary pressure in the country.

Meantime, the central authorities now say the government will ensure adequate grain supplies to manage inflation, after consumer prices advanced at the quickest pace in two years.

Nie Zhenbang, director of the State Administration of Grain, says the government will increase packaged grain and cooking oil stockpiles for timely release onto the market.

The government has also confirmed that it will sell soybeans and vegetable oil from its stockpiles from next week to stabilize 26 prices.

The government is pushing to increase its grain supplies and may impose temporary price controls, after inflation gained 4.4 percent last month. Food prices climbed 10 percent.

Chinese corn, sugar and rice futures 27 have reached record highs over the past two weeks on concern that supplies may lag behind demand.

For more on what the government may have to do to deal with inflationary pressures over the longer-term, we spoke 28 earlier with Kevin Lai, a Hong

Kong-based economist 29 with Daiwa Capital Markets.

Kevin Lai, Hong Kong-based economist with Daiwa Capital Markets.

Initial Price Drop Thanks To The Policy

Food prices now appear to be dropping in some places here in China, after the announcement that the central government, along with local authorities, are planning on bringing in a series of measures to reign in rising prices.

Guest Coaches Change Games and Culture

In a somewhat interesting side-bar at the ongoing 30 Asian Games in Guangzhou, observers are noting that a number of teams are pocketing medals in events that they traditionally haven't been that strong in. Some attribute this trend to outside coaches being brought in to guide teams from other countries.

Media Digest

From Xinhua: Chinese and Italian anthropologists have now established an Italian studies center at a leading university in northwest China to determine whether some Western-looking Chinese in the area are the descendants of a lost Roman army from ancient times.

Experts at the Italian Studies Center at Lanzhou University in Gansu are now set to conduct excavations 31 on a section of the ancient Silk Road to see if it can be proved that a legion of lost Roman soldiers eventually settled in China. There is speculation 32 that a group of western-looking people with traces of foreign DNA 33 now living in a village called Liqian on the edge of the Gobi Desert are the descendants of the ancient Roman army headed by general Marcus Crassus.

In 53 B.C.E., Crassus was defeated and beheaded by the Parthians, a tribe occupying what is now Iran, putting an end to Rome's eastward 34 expansion. But a 6,000-strong army led by Crassus's eldest 35 son apparently 36 escaped and were never found again.

From the Shanghai Daily: Officials in Xiaxian County in Shanxi Province are now accusing the county head of tapping people's phones and then ordering police to put the supposed troublemakers 37 in jail.

The allegations are being made after the county's education bureau chief sent out an sms to other officials, suggesting that the county head was taking bribes 38 and abusing his power in other ways. Two days later, the education chief was detained for libel, and had his house searched and a number of personal items seized.

When higher authorities heard about this, they ordered him released.

And while officials say this isn't the first time the county chief has abused his position, it remains unclear if he's facing disciplinary action.

Market Update

Wall Street edged higher Friday although there were expectations that it was on course for losses as markets pulled back from an autumn rally, largely taking cues from overseas.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 percent, to 11,204. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index went up 0.2 percent, to 1,200. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 percent, to 2,517.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.6 percent to 5733, Germany's DAX was up 0.2 percent to 6843, while France's CAC-40 was down 0.3 percent to 3860.