BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) — Oyunqemag, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, on Monday met Arthur Alexander Foulkes, Bahamian deputy to governor general at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

    Foulkes, invited by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, is visiting China from March 29 to April 7.

    Apart from Beijing, Foulkes will also visit Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province and Shanghai, China’s economic hub.

Special report: Premier Wen visits Laos, attends GMS Summit
    BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao concluded the working visit to Laos and returned to China on Monday.

    Wen also attended the third Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit in Vientiane during his visit from March 29 to 31.

    Leaders from GMS members — Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and China — as well as representatives from the Asian Development Bank met at the summit.

    MACAO, March 31 (Xinhua) — Macao’s election law amendment bill, proposed by the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, is “an important part of the Basic Law’s implementation,” the SAR Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah said Monday.

    The SAR government has put its proposed election law amendment bill under public consultation, and collected many public opinions on the bill over the past few months, which the government will seriously take into consideration when carrying out the relevant legislative proceedings, said Ho.

    He made the remark on the sidelines of a seminar on the “understanding and implementation of the Basic Law,” which was part of the events that commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Macao SAR Basic Law promulgation on Monday.

    Ho pointed out that as Macao’s development entered a new stage, the government and people of the SAR need to learn more of the essence of the Basic Law and “carry out our work in accordance with it,” so that the “one country, two systems” policy can be smoothly implemented.

    The proposed changes of the SAR’s election laws include lowering voter registration age from 18 to 17, criminalizing activities of bribing election candidates, and raising the threshold for social organizations to apply for participation in the indirect election.

    Ho promised that the SAR government will ensure the elections of a new chief executive and new members of the Legislative Assembly next year be carried out with fairness, transparency and efficiency.

    GUANGZHOU, March 31 (Xinhua) — A south China court on Monday rescinded a life sentence handed down to a migrant worker who took 175,000 yuan (24,400 U.S. dollars) from a faulty ATM bank machine and instead jailed him for five years.

    The Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou in the southern Guangdong Province announced the verdict on Xu Ting soon after the court started at 3 p.m..

    The native of Linfen City in north China’s Shanxi Province previously work in Guangzhou as a security guard in April 2006.

    While getting cash from an ATM, Xu realized it had only deducted one yuan from his account for every 1,000 yuan withdrawn. He mentioned this to a friend surnamed Guo.

    Xu subsequently withdrew 175,000 yuan over 171 transactions while Guo took 18,000 yuan.

    Guo was jailed for a year after turning himself in. Xu remained on the run for a year before being apprehended and sentenced to life for the theft last year.

    The verdict of the 24-year-old Xu’s first trial sentence last year sparked an outcry among media and legal experts alike. Many people said he didn’t deserve such a severe punishment.

    The Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou was told by the Guangdong Provincial Higher People’s Court last month to rehear the case. It said the November ruling lacked evidence and some facts needed clarification.

    A retrial was conducted on Feb. 22 at the Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou when prosecutors insisted on charging Xu with stealing from a bank. The accused’s lawyers, however, protested their client was not guilty.

    The court deferred its decision.

    In order to be present at Monday’s rehearing, Xu Cailiang, Xu’s father, flew into Guangzhou late on Sunday.

    ”What concerns me most is the term of the imprisonment, but I am confident they won’t sentence my son to life this time,” said the senior Xu before Monday’s trial. “The retrial itself suggested the previous ruling was not fair.”

    BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese shares slumped 3 percent on Monday after securities regulators failed investors’ expectation that they might introduce stimulus measures.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 107.43 points from the previous close to 3,472.71. The Shenzhen Component Index fell 390.71 points, or 2.85 percent to 13,302.14.

    The major stock index rebounded by 4.94 percent last Friday on market talk that the securities watchdog might announce a stamp duty cut or unveil the timetable for the launch of stock index futures over the weekend to stem further declines.

    Investors were disappointed to find no such moves taken at the weekend, which made worries on the market worse, said analysts.

    Reports on Sunday said the China Securities Regulatory Commission had urged fund companies to stay cool amidst market changes and stick to long-term investment to help maintain stability of the capital market.

    The Chinese government will make efforts to promote stable and sound development of its stock market, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao when visiting Laos on Sunday.

    Losers outnumbered winners on Monday by 726 to 65 in Shanghai and by 570 to 49 in Shenzhen. Aggregate turnover shrank sharply to97.4 billion yuan from 130.88 billion yuan last Friday.

    Large caps led the downward movement, with PetroChina, the biggest index component, falling 3.64 percent to 17.22 yuan. ChinaLife lost 3.71 percent and China Shenhua Energy reduced 5.99 percent.

    Oil, coal, airline and banking sectors rose, with Sinopec gaining 1.34 percent and Air China climbing 0.18 percent. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s largest lender, went up 1.32 percent to 6.13 yuan.

Special report: Premier Wen visits Laos, attends GMS Summit
    VIENTIANE, March 31 (Xinhua) — Leaders of from the six Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries attended here Monday a ceremony for the completion of Route 3 along the GMS North-South Economic Corridor (NSEC), which will create more business opportunities and provide people with easier access to social services.

    The Kunming-Chiang Khong road in the NSEC (Route 3 in Laos), which links China’s Yunnan province with northern Thailand via Laos, is the last remaining stretch of road in an overland route joining China’s Beijing and Singapore.

    Route 3 passes through 94 villages and towns in Laos’ poor, northwest region with a total length of 220 kilometers. The total cost of Route 3 in Laos is 97 million U.S. dollars, to which China, Thailand, and the Asian Development Bank contributed 30 million dollars each.

    At the ceremony, Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh said he thanked the financial assistance of the Chinese and Thai governments in construction of the route.

    Also on March 31, the prime ministers from the six countries sharing the Mekong River — Laos, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand — witnessed a completion ceremony of phase one of the GMS Information Superhighway Project, the signing of an memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the road-map for implementing the GMS cross-border power trading, and the inking of another MOU toward the sustainable and balanced development of the GMS North-South Economic Corridor and enhanced organizational effectiveness for developing economic corridors in the sub-region.

    During the 3rd GMS Summit in Vientiane from March 30-31, the six leaders and representatives from the bank touched upon connectivity and competitiveness issues such as the establishment of transport corridors, power interconnection systems and telecommunications networks, improvement of infrastructure links, and measures to facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services.

    The leaders agreed that the fourth GMS Summit will be held in Myanmar in 2011.