Beijing

1.3m to compete for govt posts

An estimated 1.3 million young Chinese are competing for 18,000 civil servant posts in central government departments and their local branches this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, exams for specific skills were held for applicants competing for posts with foreign language requirements and those for posts of the China Banking Regulatory Commission. On Sunday, all applicants will take the general exam. Among them, about 88,000 applicants are from Beijing, said a report in the Beijing Times.

Transport network continues to expand

China's passenger and freight transport network extended its growth in the first 10 months of 2011, a transportation official has said.

From January to October, the country's road transportation served 27.2 billion passengers, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier, while overall ship passengers climbed 8.4 percent to 200 million, said He Jianzhong, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport on Friday.

World's biggest carbon emission cut

China reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 billion tons between 2006 and 2010, the biggest decrease of any country during the period, according to a new report.

The country's energy intensity in 2010, or energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product, declined by 19.1 percent from 2005. That is equal to saving the energy produced by 630 million tons of standard coal, and resulted in the emission of 1.5 billion fewer tons of greenhouse gas, said the report on China's low-carbon development, published by the Institute of Global Low-carbon Economy, University of International Business and Economics, and the Social Sciences Academic Press.

Food safety violations targeted

China's Supreme People's Court vowed on Thursday to crack down severely on bribery, abuse of power and malpractice in food-safety cases as these have become top concerns for Chinese people.

Chinese courts at all levels heard 173 cases and sentenced 255 people in relation to the production and sale of unsafe food in the first 10 months of this year, said Sun Jungong, spokesman of the Supreme People's Court.

Hainan

First-aid training for teachers

China's southernmost island province, Hainan, will provide first-aid training to 7,000 teachers in the next three years to improve student safety on campus, the local government said on Saturday.

The first batch of 60 vocational school teachers is expected to complete the course on Sunday, according to an official with the provincial education department. The week-long training course includes heart-lung resuscitation, use of bandages, shock management and survival skills in times of emergencies such as stampedes or natural disasters.

Guangdong

NGOs get more leeway

Starting from Jan 1 next year, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will be able to get registered without a government sponsor in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Eight kinds of NGOs, including business associations and public welfare service organizations, will also experience streamlined procedures and quicker NGO registrations, said a notice from Guangzhou's civil affairs bureau. The notice also said that more than one business association will be allowed in each sector, and people from outside the city with local business registrations, including from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, will be allowed into local associations.

News watch

Heavy fog on Saturday shrouded Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and stranded thousands of passengers at the airport.

This is the sixth time in the past seven days that fog has disrupted more than 100 flights on Saturday morning, causing delays and cancellations, airport authorities said.

Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily 11/27/2011 page2)