China :: Commentaries

REFINED: The HP ProBook 4430s features a smudge-resistant, brushed aluminum casing, and a band over the peripherals gives it a much cleaner and professional look. (Joshua Philipp/The Epoch Times) Design is the first thing that stands out with HPs 2011 ProBook s-series notebooks. With a casing of brushed aluminum and magnesium alloy, along with a few other refinements, you could open this notebook at a business meeting with confidence. The HP ProBook 4430s in particular is designed for small to medium-sized businesses. There were a few key upgrades since last years model, including refinement of the design, hardware upgrades, and a few new tricks on the software side. The notebook has a good balance to it. Although it is designed for business use, it also has specs needed to pleasantly stream HD video with good sound quality and enough power to meet the needs of most users. The 4430s is the entry-level PowerBook with each subsequent model offering more power than the last...

New express bus saves time, but motorists say roads affected Passengers who rode the new non-stop bus from Tongzhou district to downtown Beijing shaved 10 minutes off their commute on Tuesday, according to transport managers. Commuters jostle for position before the new express bus leaves Bailiqiao in Tongzhou on Tuesday. Bai Jikai / for China Daily However, car drivers complained that traffic on auxiliary roads was seriously affected on the first day of the express service.Between 7 am and 9 am, Beijing Bus Company dispatched 400 vehicles along the special bus-only lane from Tongzhou to Guomao, said a worker in the publicity department who did not want to be identified.Observers were placed at the departure and arrival points to collect feedback, while a Global Positioning System was used to monitor the progress of buses in the control room. "Our service got people to Guomao 10 minutes faster than usual," he said.Although figures were not available for how many people used t...

CHANGCHUN - China has met its 2006 target of reinforcing 7,356 reservoirs within three years, China's Minister of Water Resources, Chen Lei, said on Tuesday.The investment in the reinforcement of the 7,356 reservoirs totaled 62.48 billion yuan ($9.61 billion) by the end of 2010, Sun Jichang, director of the construction and management department of the Ministry of Water resources, said at a national work conference held in Changchun, capital city of Northeast China's Jilin province.The reservoir consolidation recovered and added 3.62 billion cubic meters of flood control storage capacity, 10.21 billion cubic meters of utilizable storage capacity, protected 155 million people from reservoir breaches, and strengthened the nation's water conservancy capacities in fighting drought and floods, Sun said.Chen noted that the country seeks to reinforce another 5,400 small-sized reservoirs this year while consolidating all large- to medium-sized reservoirs by 2015.China plans to quad...

BEIJING - China on Tuesday again called on Iran to start a new round of nuclear talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (G5+1) at an early date.Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu made the remarks at a regular news briefing.Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is in Beijing on a goodwill visit to China.Jiang said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held talks with Salehi on Monday and the two sides exchanged views on Iran's nuclear issues as well as bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern.Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping also met with Salehi Tuesday afternoon, she added.Salehi's three-day visit came as the European Union adopted tougher sanctions on Iran to block its nuclear program.The EU tightened its sanctions on Iran on Monday, freezing assets of more than 100 more firms, diplomats said.During the meeting with Yang, Salehi asked China to send experts to see its nuclear facilities, in a fresh ...

Central China's Hubei Province's lingering drought has affected 9.89 million people, about one sixth of its population, according to a survey conducted by the provincial civil affairs department. In the more than 200 days since the end of last autumn, the majority of Hubei has received 50 percent less rainfall than in the corresponding period last year. In wake of the bleak situation, Hubei yesterday announced an emergency alert, said an official with the department Despite the rainfall in last weekend, the drought has not abated. As of today, crops have been lost over an area of 390,000 mu (26,000 hectares), and an additional 13.34 million mu of crops lack water and could be lost.Hubei's civil affairs departments have been sending water and pumping more water from reservoirs. China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, which is located in Hubei, began to discharge more water to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to fight the ...

China's Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Tuesday that the country will inject 30 billion yuan (4.6 billion U.S. dollars) this year to fund basic public health services. Qin Huaijin, director of Women/Children Health and the Community Health Department under the MOH, said at a press conference that the funds will be used to upgrade 10 programs and offer more free health services for the public. The new programs will provide basic health care services such as regular physical examinations and vaccinations for all children under age of 6, while the previous services only benefited children under age of 3, Qin said. The programs also offers free services to pregnant women and people over age 65, such as regular and comprehensive physical examinations, according to Qin. He emphasized that the above-basic health care services would benefit all of the public, including migrant workers and their families. Moreover, the funds will also be used to improve the food safety monitoring system of...

Students have fun popping balloons by stepping on them at a high school in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, May 23, 2011. Seniors took part in activities such as popping balloons, tossing paper and flying paper airplanes to relieve some pressure from preparing for Gaokao , the national college entrance examination, which will take place June 7 - 9 this year. [Photo/CFP] Students have fun tossing and throwing paper at a high school in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, to relieve some pressure from preparing for Gaokao , the national college entrance examination, May 23, 2011. [Photo/CFP] Previous Page 1 2 Next Page Previous Page 1 2 Next Page