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Authorities dismantleHong Kong barricades

Police were set to let traffic flow again at protest sites in a busy area of Hong Kong after clearing lanes at two of three sites in an orderly and violence-free operation.

The force was preparing to return Kowloon's busiest intersection to the general public, Chief Superintendent Stephen Hui said, after police reopened tramlines and traffic lanes on Hong Kong island on Oct 14.

Following a pledge to reopen the major east-west traffic artery with minimal force, officers with chainsaws and sledgehammers made quick work of the ramparts protesters built on Oct 13.

The protests relate to political reforms.

DPRK leader reappearsafter media absence

Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, has finally resurfaced with the help of a walking stick after a prolonged, unexplained absence that fueled speculation about his health.

State media reported on Oct 14 that Kim, who had not been seen in public for nearly six weeks, made an inspection tour of a newly built housing complex in Pyongyang and a science institute.

The front page of the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun was taken up mostly with a large close-up portrait of a smiling Kim.

Bribe takers'hefty booty

Thirty-one senior officials have been found guilty of taking bribes since China launched a campaign to clean up government in late 2012, according to court rulings listed by China's anti-graft body.

The average bribe was 14 million yuan ($2.3 million; 1.8 million euros). A wage-earner making 70,000 yuan a year in Beijing would have to work 200 years to make that much money.

The officials took a total of 440 million yuan in bribes. Six were top-level officials, and the rest were at or above bureau level.

Former railways minister Liu Zhijun topped the list, taking 65 million yuan in bribes. He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

Arrests highlightgraft in academia

The arrest of four professors has raised public concern over corruption in China's scientific research system.

The four were arrested for misappropriation of state research funds through false research projects, the anti-corruption watchdog said on Oct 10.

Li Ning, a professor at the Chinese University of Agriculture and member of the elite Chinese Academy of Engineering, is among them. Li is noted for trans-gene research and was the first in China to clone a rare cattle species in 2002.

The four were found to have behaved suspiciously by the National Audit Office in 2012, among seven professors from five universities, according to the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The seven are said to have swindled more than 25 million yuan ($4 million; 3 million yuan) in state funds.

Transport fare risesa step nearer

Bus and subway fares in Beijing are poised to increase under proposals made public by the city's top economic planner.

The initial subway fare will either remain at 2 yuan (32 US cents; 0.26 euros) or rise to 3 yuan, but fares will then increase according to distance traveled.

Under the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform's proposals, which are aimed at reducing government public transport subsidies, the average subway fare will be 4.30 or 4.40 yuan.

Bus fares will start at either 1 or 2 yuan and increase with distance traveled.

Public opinion will be sought on the proposals and a public hearing held on Oct 28 before the authorities decide which to adopt, the commission said.

Eastern China looksset to sizzle again

By 2024, more than half of the summers in eastern China will be as hot as last year, when the region was hit by a record-breaking heat wave and devastating drought, according to a study.

Based on current global warming trends, this will occur even if rising greenhouse gas emissions are slowed over the next decade, it said.

The summer of 2013 was the hottest on record in eastern China, 1.1 C above the long-term average. On 31 days the temperature reached or exceeded the heat wave benchmark of 35 C, more than double the usual June to August tally.

Expert calls for boostto rail promotion

The National Railway Administration should establish a working team to boost Premier Li Keqiang's efforts to help Chinese high-speed railway enterprises win projects abroad, a tunnel and rail expert said.

"China has rich expertise and experience in building and operating a large-scale high-speed rail network," said Wang Mengshu of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

China is the only country that has carried out large and complicated railway projects over the past decade, he said, and some of the projects are in harsh environments such as the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and in bitterly cold Northeast China.

Apart from Li's promotion abroad, no government department is taking the lead in drafting a strategy on how to assist enterprises win projects abroad, Wang said.

More money tofight air pollution

Heavy smog in Beijing in recent days has refocused public attention on the city's air pollution.

In May, the central government allocated 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion; 1.3 billion euros) to three major industrial zones to curb air pollution this year, double the amount allocated last year, the Ministry of Finance said.

"Of the government funds, Beijing will get 1 billion yuan to support the work in reducing air pollution this year," said Fang Li, deputy director of Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau on Oct 13.

Li sows the seeds for farming

China will substantially expand a program to offer more funding and technical support to help developing nations put their agricultural growth on a firmer footing, Premier Li Keqiang said on Oct 15.

He said the central government will donate $50 million(39 million euros) to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to develop South-to-South cooperation over the next five years as well as enhancing its support for the UN World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

South-to-South cooperation is a term used by policymakers and academics to describe the exchange of resources, technology and knowledge between developing countries.

"Even though global agricultural development has made long-term improvements, starvation and poverty are still threatening more than 800 million people's livelihoods," Li said in a speech during his visit to the FAO headquarters in Rome.

To tackle these issues, he said the international community must strengthen cooperation on agricultural development and pay more attention to developing countries, especially the less-developed nations.

More police added asAPEC meeting nears

Police in Huairou district, Beijing, have added to and integrated their forces in a move to ensure security at the APEC meeting there next month.

The redeployment has been in the works for almost a year, mainly targeting the district's rural mountain areas, which have fewer officers because of their smaller populations, the Beijing Public Security Bureau said on Oct 13.

The bureau has dispatched more forces to the district's Tanghekou police station, which covers four townships that include more than 300 villages in the district's mountain areas, to head off any security risks during the APEC meeting, to be held over two days from Nov 10, the bureau said.

Timetable set to booststandards of goods

China will push forward unified domestic and international safety standards for consumer products in the next three years, the national standards organization has announced.

The country will first target the unification of domestic and international standards for key consumer goods, said Tian Shihong, head of the Standardization Administration of China.

The authority will compare 300 major domestic safety standards with international ones and find gaps between systems, he said at a work conference.

Crackdown promisedon malpractice

China's top health authority has vowed to punish malpractice in the purchase and sale of medicines, following a rise in the number of cases, which has led to some multinational company executives being jailed and government officials being investigated.

"Anti-corruption authorities related to health and family planning departments must intensify cooperation with law enforcement authorities to handle cases involving official corruption," said Li Xi, head of the discipline inspection team at the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Health officials must take responsibility and be punished for illegalities committed by their subordinates, Li said.

Move to increasecourt transparency

Details of more than 3,200 court spokesmen and spokeswomen, including their names, office addresses and phone numbers, have been published online in an effort to improve judicial transparency.

The information has been placed on the website of the country's top court. The initiative is aimed at giving the public a point of contact and a way of checking legal points and obtaining details about important legal issues.

By the end of last month details of 3,281 spokesmen and spokeswomen, including 2,784 from grassroots courts, had been made public, the Supreme People's Court said.

Crab industry squeezed by anti-graft campaign

China's gourmet crab industry has become the latest victim of the authorities' crackdown on corruption, following high-end spirits and luxury cars.

The arrival of freshwater "hairy crabs" - a delicacy named for the bristles on the claws - on the market every autumn is eagerly awaited.

But the crabs have lost some of their appeal as anti-graft and austerity campaigns launched by the top leadership show little sign of abating.

Investment booston way for services

China's service sector will attract more foreign direct investment than other industries over the next decade, a report issued on Oct 10 says.

The 2014 Report on Foreign Investment in China says the development will come as the government opens more market channels for international companies to seek new growth points.

The report, by the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, says investment on the Chinese mainland by Taiwan dropped 27 percent year-on-year in 2013.

China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/17/2014 page2)