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News Research

Hong Kong celebrates 10th anniversary of handover

(AP/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-07-01 08:42

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's red flag was raised into sky Sunday as the former British colony marked the 10th anniversary of its handover to China and bid farewell to a rocky decade of financial woes, disease outbreaks and economic recovery.

Hong Kong officials and citizens watch the flag-raising ceremony in Hong Kong on the morning of July 1, 2007, the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to the motherland. [Xinhua]

A few hundred people stood near Hong Kong's harbor to watch the ceremony attended by dignitaries. The crowd erupted with cheers when four helicopters carrying flags of China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region flew over the area.

"We're here to celebrate Hong Kong's birthday," said 12-year-old Jenny Kwok.

Sunday's festivities were to include a swearing-in ceremony for Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, a bow tie-wearing veteran civil servant who's beginning his second term. Tsang was to get the blessings of Chinese leader Hu Jintao, making his first presidential trip to the city.

Tsang was selected by an 800-seat election committee.

Since Hong Kong returned to China, the city has been governed under a "One Country, Two Systems" formula. The arrangement has allowed the territory to keep its capitalist economy, British-style legal system, free press and civil liberties, and Beijing has honored its promise to let Hong Kong enjoy a wide-degree of autonomy.

In many ways, Hong Kong has grown closer to the motherland -- which has been vital in helping the city recover from the Asian financial crisis that erupted in 1997.

Hong Kong has become tightly linked to the mainland's galloping economy and has positioned itself as a key entry point to the Chinese market. Hong Kong companies are heavily invested in southern China's booming Pearl River Delta region, employing more than 10 million factory workers.

Later Sunday, the Chinese president planned to attend the opening of a 5.5 kilometer (3.4 mile) bridge with the mainland city of Shenzhen. The bridge is the fourth border crossing for vehicles, and the two-way flow of traffic was expected to eventually reach 61,300 passengers a day.

Beijing has also given Hong Kong's economy a big boost by allowing more mainlanders to visit the city. Hong Kong's hotels, shopping malls and restaurants have become addicted to the big-spending tourists. Last month, about 1.2 million mainlanders visited, a 16 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Board said.

The tourists helped pull the economy out of recession caused by the 2003 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The disease killed 299 people here and devastated the tourism industry.

Although the mainland makes a great partner in many ways, it's also a fierce competitor. The red-hot stock market in Shanghai is competing with Hong Kong for Chinese companies seeking new stock listings. And Shanghai's port surpassed Hong Kong's this year as the world's second busiest behind Singapore. Another port in Shenzhen is expected to overtake Hong Kong next year.

But Hong Kong is famous for reinventing itself and meeting challenges. It may have to rely on this special talent more than ever in the next 10 years.

Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said Hong Kong has experienced a lot in the past 10 years and these experiences have proved the principle of "one country, two systems" an unprecedented success.

"Hong Kong is now stronger, maturer, and knowing more about its own future," said Tsang in Cantonese-accent Mandarin when interviewed by Xinhua.

Wearing his trademark bowtie, Tsang said he began to learn Mandarin when he was 45 years old. Though not perfectly fluent, he tried to use Mandarin every time when interviewed by reporters from the Chinese mainland.

International News

Almost 200 feared dead in Brazil plane crash

(AP/Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-18 09:16

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A Brazilian passenger jet crashed and burst into flames Tuesday after skidding off a runway and barreling across a busy highway, officials said. All 176 people on board were feared dead in what would be Brazil's deadliest air disaster, and at least 15 were killed on the ground.

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the site where a TAM airlines commercial jet crashed in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, July 17, 2007. [AP]

The death toll officially stood at 40 after the crash of the Airbus-320 owned by TAM airlines, but that number was expected to rise sharply as rescue workers, forensic experts and doctors scoured the wreckage in South America's largest city.

The crash - Brazil's second major disaster in less than a year - happened in a driving rain on a runway at Congonhas airport that had been criticized in the past for being too short. The TAM Airlines jet slammed into a gas station and a building owned by the airline, said Jose Leonardi Mota, a spokesman with airport authority Infraero.

An official said early Wednesday that 25 charred bodies had been recovered from what was left of the plane and that 15 people who were on the ground either died at the scene or in hospitals.

Ten more people on ground were injured and hospitalized, according to a Sao Paulo state public safety media official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

"I was told that the temperature inside the plane was 1,000 degrees (Celsius), so the chances of there being any survivors are practically nil," Sao Paulo State Gov. Jose Serra told reporters at the airport. That temperature in Celsius is equivalent to about 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning for the victims, and presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach told reporters late Tuesday that no cause would be immediately released because it was premature to do so.

"His worries now are with the victims and the relatives of the victims. That is main concern," Baumbach said, referring to Lula.

TAM Linhas Aereas Flight 3054 was en route to Sao Paulo from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. TAM Airlines said there were 176 people on board - 170 passengers and six crew members. A Brazilian congressman was among those on the flight, his aide said.

The airline released an list of most of the people on the flight early Wednesday, but did not specify their nationalities.

"TAM expresses its most profound condolences to the relatives and friends of the passengers who were on Flight 3054," the company said.

Before the list was released, Lamir Buzzanelli said his 41-year-old son, Claudemir, an engineer, had called him from Porto Alegre to say he was in the plane and about to return from a business trip.

"My hopes are not too high because I've been calling him on his cell phone, and all I get is his voice mail," Buzzanelli said, his eyes tearing up.

The crash highlights the country's increasing aviation woes. In September, a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 collided with an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest, causing the passenger jet to crash, killing 154 people.

Since then, there have been questions about the country's underfunded air traffic control systems, deficient radar system and the airlines' ability to cope with a surge in travelers. Controllers - concerned about being made scapegoats - have engaged in strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns, causing lengthy delays and cancelations.

TAM worker Elias Rodrigues Jesus, walking near the site just as the crash happened, told The Associated Press that the jet exploded in between the gas station and a warehouse owned by TAM.

"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook," Jesus said. "I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulfur."

Critics have said for years that such an accident was possible at the airport because its runway is too short for large planes landing in rainy weather. Two planes had slipped off the runway in rainy weather on Monday, but no one was injured in either incident.

In 1996, a TAM Airlines Fokker-100 skidded off the runway at the airport and down a street before erupting in a fireball. The crash killed all 96 people on board and three on the ground.

A federal court in February briefly banned takeoffs and landings of large jets because of safety concerns at the airport, which handles huge volumes of flights for the massive domestic Brazilian air travel market.

But an appeals court overruled the ban, saying it was too harsh because it would have severe economic ramifications and that there were not enough safety concerns to prevent the planes from landing and taking off at the airport.

After the September airliner crash, a Brazilian judge indicted four flight controllers and the smaller jet's two US pilots on the equivalent of manslaughter charges, but the defendants point to other problems - from holes in radar coverage to the inability of some Brazilian controllers to clearly speak English, the language of international aviation.

Travelers angry over excessive delays and cancellations in recent months have stormed airline check-in counters and runways in Brazil, and fist fights have broken out in waiting areas.

Some of the deadliest plane crashes in the last several years

May 5, 2007: A Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 crashed in a swamp in Cameroon shortly after taking off from Douala, killing all 114 people aboard.

October 29, 2006: A Nigerian ADC Airlines plane carrying 105 people crashed shortly after taking off during a storm in Abuja, killing 96 people. There were nine survivors.

September 29, 2006: A Gol Airlines flight crashed in the Brazilian jungle after clipping a private jet, killing all 154 people aboard.

August 22, 2006: A Russian Pulkovo Airlines jetliner returning from the Black Sea resort of Anapa crashed in Ukraine during a thunderstorm, killing all 170 people on board.

July 9, 2006: A Russian S7 airliner crashed while landing on a wet runway in the Siberian city of Irkutsk and burst into flames, killing 124 people.

May 3, 2006: An Armenian Armavia airliner crashed in the Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.

December 6, 2005: A C-130 military transport carrying Iranian journalists crashed into a building in a Tehran suburb as the pilot attempted an emergency landing, killing 115 people 94 in the plane and 21 on the ground.

December 10, 2005: A Nigerian Sosoliso Airlines jet crashed in Port Harcourt, killing 107 people, most of them schoolchildren.

October 22, 2005: A Nigerian Bellview Airlines jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Lagos, killing all 117 people aboard.

September 5, 2005: An Indonesian Mandala Airlines jetliner crashed into a crowded neighborhood moments after takeoff, killing 143 people 99 on the plane and 44 on the ground.

August 16, 2005: A West Caribbean Airways charter jet crashed in Venezuela, killing 160 people, most of them tourists from Martinique.

August 14, 2005: A Helios Airways flight from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Athens crashed into a hillside outside Athens, killing 121 people.

February 3, 2005: An Afghan Kam Air plane crashed in the mountains in bad weather, killing 104 people.

Industry News

Russia expelling 4 British diplomats

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-19 20:40

MOSCOW - Russia said Thursday it was expelling four British diplomats in retaliation for a similar move by Britain, as a confrontation mounted between Moscow and London over the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

After Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, who is accused of killing Litvinenko in London, Britain said Monday it would expel four Russian diplomats and place restrictions on visas issued to Russian government officials.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced the British expulsions after British Ambassador Anthony Brenton was summoned to the ministry earlier in the day.

Kamynin described Russia's response as "targeted, balanced and the minimum necessary."

Kamynin also said Russia would stop issuing visas to British officials and seeking British visas for Russian officials. He said Russia would halt counterterrorism cooperation with Britain.

"To our regret, cooperation between Russia and Britain on issues of fighting terrorism becomes impossible," he said.

Kamynin said the interests of tourists and businessmen would not be hurt. He said that on visa issues, Russia would mirror Britain's actions from now on.

Brenton said he met with Kamynin's deputy, Alexander Grushko. "We of course discussed the Litvinenko case. He gave me several notices for me to pass on to London. I won't comment on the contents," Brenton said, the Interfax news agency reported.

Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic, died Nov. 23 after ingesting radioactive polonium-210. From his deathbed, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind his poisoning.

Domestic News
GDP grows 11.5% in first half

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-19 14:02

China's gross domestic product (GDP) rose 11.5 percent in the first half of the year, after it grew 11.9 percent in the second quarter, official figures revealed on Thursday.

The growth rate for the first half is 0.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year and much faster than the planned eight percent, spokesman Li Xiaochao with the National Bureau of Statistics told a press conference.

Consumption, the previously weakest engine compared with exports and investment, has caught up as retail sales grew 15.4 percent in the first half, 2.1 percentage points more than the rise in the same period last year. Fixed assets investment rose 25.9 percent, down 3.9 percentage points.

"The changes in domestic demand since the beginning of the year are what we were expecting," Li said, attributing the faster consumption to the rising income of the public.

China has used a full arsenal of industrial and taxation policies to help the poor, including subsidizing low-income families and farmers, increasing minimum wages for migrant rural workers and investing more in education, medical care and housing.

"We are keeping a close watch on what direction the accelerated economic growth is taking," said Li, "but whether or not the economy is overheated is a comprehensive issue that should be viewed from different angles."

In the first half, the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors reported 947 billion, 5.55 trillion and 4.18 trillion yuan in added value, with the secondary sector, including manufacturing, mining and construction, growing at the fastest year-on-year rate of 13.6 percent.

The primary sector posted a growth rate of 4.0 percent and the tertiary sector, including transport, telecommunications, catering, tourism, banking and insurance, recorded an increase of 10.6 percent.