BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) — As northern China enters its flood season, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has urged local authorities to step up flood-control preparations.

    Hui made the remarks on Saturday at a flood control conference after a two-day tour inspecting the facilities on Haihe River near Tianjin.

People walk and the vehicle moves on the flooded Weiming Road in Cangzhou City, north China’s Hebei Province, July 5, 2008. Heavy rainfall hit Cangzhou on Saturday.(Xinhua Photo)

    ”We have seen higher-than-average rains this year,” Hui said. “Extreme weather is happening more frequently, and strong torrential rains hit both southern and northern China. We cannot afford any carelessness in flood control.”

    Hui urged related authorities to strengthen early warning systems, make contingency plans, and step up defense of important, dangerous or weak embankments.

    Flooding and related disasters since the beginning of June have left 252 people dead and 64 missing across China, which saw the start of the main flood season on Tuesday.




Three Gorges Reservoir opens sluices for flood-control  

    YICHANG, July 5 (Xinhua) — The Three Gorges Dam Project has started discharging water to lower the water level in the reservoir after excessive rainfall upstream.

    The inflow was 34,500 cubic meters per second at 8 a.m. Saturday, up from 27,000 six hours before. Operators opened six spillways to discharge water of 11,000 cubic meters per second, said Zhao Yunfa, a director of the communication center of China¡¯s largest hydropower project. Full story

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    WUHAN, July 5 (Xinhua) — Rescuers had recovered seven bodies from debris as 8:40 p.m. on Saturday after an under-construction building collapsed on Saturday afternoon in central China’s Hubei Province.

    At least 10 construction workers were buried after the four-story building toppled at around 5 p.m. at the Qiuzhigou Village of suburb Wuhan City, the provincial capital, said an official with the city’s public security office.

    The municipal authorities said the construction of the building, a private residence, is illegal because it had not been approved by local government.

    More than 100 rescuers are searching for the missing, however, large rescue equipments, such grab and crane, can hardly got into the site because of the small alleyways.

    Investigation into the cause of the accident.

    NAIROBI, July 5 (Xinhua) — The Kenyan government has stepped up campaigns to woo Chinese investors so as to benefit from the one billion U.S. dollar China-Africa Development Fund.

    A local daily, Saturday Nation, reported that the business scope of the fund mainly includes equity and quasi-equity investment, fund investments, fund management, investment management and consulting services.

    ”They have declared interest in agriculture, manufacturing, energy, transport, telecommunications as well as oil and gas,” Trade minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, told reporters in Nairobi.

    ”They are also keen on the establishment of an industrial park and free port in Mombasa,” he added. Kenyatta said as a technical team from China, whose mission was to establish areas Chinese companies could invest in, concluded a week-long tour in the country on Friday.

    The minister said that the China-Africa Development Fund which started with one billion dollars in 2007 would be raised up to three billion dollars in the second phase with an eventual target of five billion dollars.

    ”We will fight for this to ensure that we get the bulk of this fund,” the deputy Prime Minister said.

    ”There is no portion that is set aside for Kenya but we will fight aggressively to show them we are the best investment destination in Africa,” he said.

    The China-Africa Development Fund (Cadfund) was formed as a follow up to the 2006 Beijing summit on China - Africa cooperation, where Chinese President Hu Jintao promised to improve Sino-Africa ties.

    BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) — An earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale jolted east China’s Fujian Province at 9:36 a.m. on Saturday, and moderate aftershocks are expected, China’s seismological authorities said.

    The epicenter was located along the boundary of Xiamen and Longhai cities at 24.53 degrees north and 117.93 degrees east, according to the China National Seismological Network.

Graphics shows a quake jolting southeast China’s Fujian Province on July 5, 2008, according to the China National Seismological Network. (Xinhua Photo/Zhang Liyun)

    A 10-strong team dispatched by Xiamen earthquake survey center arrived at the scene half an hour later. Two teams from the provincial earthquake administration were also sent to the epicenter and regions nearby.

    Some Xiamen residents fled from their homes to open areas during the tremor, but calm prevailed, local authorities said.

    No casualties or damages to buildings had been found in the epicenter, they said.

    Experts believe that chances of a stronger earthquake are slim, but they would not rule out the possibility after aftershocks measuring about four on the Richter scale in the short term.

    TAIPEI, July 5 (Xinhua) — Taiwan media and business people on Saturday welcomed the new weekend charter flights carrying mainland tourists as good news for ties across the Taiwan Strait and for the economy.

    The event made headlines such as “We have been waiting for this moment for 60 years!”, “Spring time for Taiwan aviation industry, “and “a day trip across the Strait”.

    Taiwan’s United Daily News devoted three full pages to the flights with stories headlined “Soybean milk at Yonghe (a popular Taiwan fast food chain store) for breakfast and steamed buns for lunch in Shanghai,” “No more transfers and win your afternoon back”. One of stories, titled “A business trip to Shanghai in one day”, described how the charter flights could change a Taiwan business person’s life.

    A commentary by writer Yang Du in the same newspaper said charter flights and mainland tourists would “draw the cross-Strait cultures even closer to each other psychologically”.

    Taiwan’s “China Times” published an editorial that said “weekend charter flights will change Taiwan people’s lives”, and “will help develop Taiwan’s economy with a much freer flow of people and investment”.

    Meanwhile, business people in Taiwan also hailed the events as economically beneficial to Taiwan.

    Taiwan Business Association chairman Chang Ping-Chao took a charter flight of Taiwan’s China Airlines on Friday from Taipei to Beijing. The seven or eight-hour trip had been reduced to four hours.

    ”So I arrived in Beijing at 1:30 p.m. and still had the afternoon and evening available,” Chang said.

    China Airlines spokesman Chen Peng-Yu said the mainland economy had been developing rapidly, but Taiwan’s airline companies could not get a share of the mainland market before. The weekend charter flights would enable them to have a more complete network and develop better.

    Taiwan Federation of Travel Association chairman Yao Ta-Juang said a mainland tourist spent an average of 1,785 U.S. dollars during a group trip to Taiwan. It could be estimated that if 3,000mainland tourists arrived everyday after July 18, it would bring 1.7 billion U.S. dollars to Taiwan’s tourist industry, and help revitalize the economy.

    ”Weekend charter flights carrying the first group of mainland tourists to Taiwan is a new start for the cross-Strait relationship. It might not be a big step, but it is quite essential, especially in terms of revitalizing Taiwan’s economy, improving the mutual understanding of people on both sides and promoting the peaceful development of the cross-Strait relationship,” said Chang Ling-Chen, honorary professor of the department of politics of Taiwan University.

    YICHANG, July 5 (Xinhua) — The Three Gorges Dam Project has started discharging water to lower the water level in the reservoir after excessive rainfall upstream.

    The inflow was 34,500 cubic meters per second at 8 a.m. Saturday, up from 27,000 six hours before. Operators opened six spillways to discharge water of 11,000 cubic meters per second, said Zhao Yunfa, a director of the communication center of China¡¯s largest hydropower project.

    The discharges since Friday night had lowered the water level from 145.91 to 145.78 meters as of 1 p.m..

    It was the first time this year that the reservoir had performed its flood-control function.

    The discharging would continue as more heavy rains were expected on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Zhao said.

    The world’s largest dam, 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, is expected to help minimize damage caused by floods that might occur only once every 1,000 years.

    Completed in May 2006, it passed its first flood control test last year.

    The 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar project was launched in 1993. Its 26 turbo-generators are designed to produce 85 billion kwh of electricity a year after their installation is completed at the end of this year.

    So far, 24 turbines have been put into operation and the project has produced 236 billion kwh of electricity since 2003.