TIANJIN, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — More than 1,300 fishermen and seafood farmers have won compensation of more than 6 million yuan (about 850,000 U.S. dollars) after a five-year lawsuit over a major oil spill caused by a Maltese-flagged tanker in the Bohai Bay in northern China.

    The award, to be shared among 1,327 people, against Infinity Shipping Co. Ltd., arises from legal action that began at the end of 2002. A total of 1,512 fishermen and seafood farmers filed 10 cases involving claims of 170 million yuan, the Tianjin Maritime Court said.

    The Tasman Sea tanker, run by a British shipping company and carrying 80,000 tons of crude oil, collided with a Chinese cargo ship in the eastern Dagukou area on Nov. 23, 2002. The collision resulted in a huge oil spill and widespread sea and coastal pollution, causing great losses to more than 2,500 fishing and seafood farming households.

    The affected households demanded compensation of 23 million yuan from the Tasman Sea’s British owner and its insurer, claiming that the polluted spot was the main area where fish laid their eggs in winter.

    The Tianjin Maritime Court ruled that the British company should pay the plaintiffs 42.09 million yuan for the 10 cases in the first trial on Dec. 30, 2004. But the defendant appealed the ruling.

    Verdicts in seven cases were upheld but another one was rejected by the Tianjin Municipal Higher People’s Court in the second trial.

    The other two cases are still awaiting trial.

    However, the plaintiffs did not receive their compensation within the designated time. They said that they had no alternative but to ask the Tianjin Maritime Court last March to enforce the verdicts.

    The Tianjin Maritime Court got a 2 million U.S. dollar guaranty from the shipping company’s insurer before the Spring Festival, which fell on Feb. 7. The money, used for compensation, had reached the plaintiffs.

    Under common practice, compensation would be paid to the remaining plaintiffs after all the cases were resolved, the court said.

    BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — The number of Chinese officially suffering drinking water shortages has more than doubled in less than a week after the government revised its statistics.

    The State Flood and Drought Relief Headquarters on Friday released new figures showing 5.9 million people with drinking water shortages, more than double that figure of 2.43 million published on Feb. 24.

    A headquarters spokesman would not elaborate on the revision, but said the situation was due to a lingering and severe winter drought.

    From Feb. 23 to 28, the number of livestock without sufficient drinking water jumped from 1.89 million to 5.67 million, according to the headquarters.

    To date, the drought has affected 15.8 million hectares of arable land, up 2.93 million hectares from the same period last year, the headquarters said.

    In south and east China, freezing temperatures and heavy snow and sleet hit 11.8 million hectares, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

    More than a fifth of China’s arable land, which stood at 121.8 million hectares in mid-2006, has been affected either by winter weather or drought.

    The northeastern Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces and eastern Inner Mongolia accounted for about 60 percent of the drought-hit area, said the headquarters.

    Precipitation in north China was down by 70 percent this winter, the headquarters said, warning the drought could worsen as forecasts showed precipitation would remain low in most parts of east China.

    BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — A senior Chinese leader is urging more publications to depict and promote the daily lives and contributions of members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

    Jia Qinglin, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, made the remarks at the meeting on the publication of the book A Day in the Life of a CPPCC Member.

    The two-volume book, comprising 79 articles selected from more than 200 contributed by CPPCC members from different social sectors, depicts their achievements and daily lives in economic and social construction in the past five years.

    Chen Kuiyuan, vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, said publications on CPPCC members’ achievements had contributed to the building of a consolidated patriotic united front.

    The publication of the book was a successful attempt to depict the lives of CPPCC members to the public, Chen said.

    Present at the meeting was Wang Zhongyu, vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee.

    BRUSSELS, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — China has made great efforts in searching for a solution to the Darfur crisis in Sudan, Nirj Deva, member of the European Parliament, said Friday.

    ”I know how much China has done in Darfur,” Deva said in an interview with Xinhua.

    Deva, a British, belongs to the Group of the European People’s Party and European Democrats within the European Parliament.

    ”We are pleased that China appointed a special envoy for Darfur,” he said, the “very important” move had shown “the humanitarian and responsible role China has played to end the tragedy in Darfur”.

    He described the visits of Chinese envoy for Darfur Liu Guijin to Sudan as “very positive and very well welcomed.”

    ”China is a very responsible country,” Deva said, adding it did a lot of positive things in Africa and in Sudan such as “building schools, hospitals …” and persuading the Sudanese government to end the fighting in Darfur.

    Deva urged the international community to work together to disarm the fighting factions in Darfur for a quick end to the humanitarian disaster, calling for more shelters to be provided to the region and the refugees to be resettled.

    As for the humanitarian situation in Darfur, Deva listed it as “the No. One humanitarian crisis in the current world” as thousands of refugees are living in tents.

    The Darfur crisis, which has drawn international attention, has been lasting five years as rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government and accused it of marginalizing the arid region. A humanitarian crisis emerged in the Sudanese western region after years of conflicts and fighting.

    Deva said the internationalization of the matter was, one the hand, positive because the world has become conscious of it, thus, international organizations could intervene and help work out a solution, but on the other hand, negative since it had across-border impact.

    China has made tremendous efforts in pushing for a political solution to the Darfur crisis and appointed Liu as the Chinese government’s envoy for Darfur last May.

    The Asian nation initiated a dual-track strategy, which was designed to push forward political negotiations and the peacekeeping mission in Darfur in a balanced manner, but western powers, particularly the Unites States, have been ratcheting up pressures and imposed sanctions on Khartoum over the Darfur issue.

    Liu has recently ended his four-day visit to Sudan, the fourth since his appointment.

    During his stay in Sudan, he flew to South Darfur’s capital city Nyala for a one-day visit to assess security and humanitarian situations there. It was his second visit to Darfur as Chinese envoy.

    Since resuming his current post, the 62-year-old diplomat had visited Sudan for four times and recently ended his fourth tour to the African country.

    He also shuttled between the United States, Britain, Egypt and other countries concerned, making unremitting efforts to resolve the Darfur issue.

    CHANGSHA, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — South China’s Hunan province is embarking on a five-year program to reinforce more than 5,000 unsafe reservoirs that a senior official described as “time-bombs” in severe weather.

    Heavy snows this winter had highlighted safety risks with 5,621reservoirs, said Zhang Shuofu, head of the provincial water conservancy department.

    The province would spend 6.7 billion yuan (938 million U.S. dollars), including 2.2 billion yuan (308 million U.S. dollars) from the central government, to reinforce the reservoirs. said Zhang.

    Forty-two percent of Hunan’s 13,326 reservoirs had problems, including construction damage and aging, facility malfunctions and instability of dams, said Zhang.

    ”Dangerous reservoirs are the weakest part of the provincial flood prevention work as every reservoir with problems is a time-bomb in flood seasons,” he said.

    Hunan vice governor Xu Minghua said, “It is hard to predict the influence of the snows on the coming flood season. We’re seeing more extreme weather, which could trigger disasters at any time.”

    The central government had invested 1.78 billion yuan (249 million U.S. dollars) to reinforce 210 reservoirs since 1998, Xu said.

    ”There is still a long way to go,” Xu said.

    Disasters caused by prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow in southern China in the past month have killed 129 people. Direct losses were estimated at 151.6 billion yuan (20.8 billion U.S. dollars).

    BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — China had 153 million people aged 60 or over by the end of last year, accounting for 11.6 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion population, said Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu at a plenary meeting of the China National Committee on Ageing (CNCA) Friday.

    The fast ageing of the population was a major strategic problem affecting economic and social development, said Hui, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the CNCA.

    Hui said the CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to the issue as it is a traditional virtue to respect, treasure and care for senior citizens.

    The government would endeavor to deal with problems related to the practical interests of the elderly, further accelerate the building of a social security system, promote the development of services for the aged, and take steps to protect their legal rights, he said.

    Hui said China had been an ageing society before it became affluent, so pensions and medical spending had become an increasingly larger financial burden.

    In 2008, the government would roll out more policies on social security, giving special attention to medical and social services, including psychological services, and making greater efforts to strengthen the role of non-profit organizations.