| Chinese Nobel Laureate
Chinese writer Mo Yan, whose real name is Guan Moye, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on October 11, a somewhat unexpected choice by a prize committee that has favored European authors in recent years.
The 57-year-old writer, a native of Gaomi in east China's Shandong Province, has used his hometown as the backdrop of many of his novels. His breakthrough came with the novel Red Sorghum, published in 1987. Other masterpieces include Big Breast and Wide Hips , Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out , Frog , Pow, Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh, and The Republic of Wine .
The Swedish Academy, which selects the winners of the prestigious award, praised Mo's "hallucinatoric realism," saying it "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."
Judicial Reform
The Chinese Government on October 9 issued a white paper on progress made in enhancing justice and protecting human rights.
The white paper, the first of its kind, says that the ultimate purpose of judicial reform is to improve social fairness, justice and human rights.
Improving human rights is vital, the white paper says, citing a 2012 amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law.
In terms of protecting human rights, effective measures are being taken to deter and prohibit the obtainment of confessions through torture, protect the rights of criminal suspects and defendants and protect the right of attorneys to do their work. Measures are also being taken to strictly control the use of the death penalty.
Jiang Wei, a senior official in charge of reforming the judicial system, said at a press conference that China's reforms would be based on its own present circumstances, instead of simply copying from other countries.
However, he said, China is keen on learning from the experiences of other countries and will try to incorporate judicial concepts and practices used elsewhere.
Journalists have been invited to cover the upcoming 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to an official statement released on October 8.
Applications for covering the congress can be submitted between October 9 and November 2.
During the congress, a media center will be set up in Beijing to help organize press conferences and arrange interviews for reporters.
In a meeting on September 28, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee proposed convening the 18th CPC National Congress in Beijing on November 8.
China's food and drug safety watchdog plans to add imported drugs on the national electronic monitoring network in a move to step up drug management.
Overseas pharmaceutical companies and their designated agents in China will have to apply to be covered by the network and get relevant cipher keys, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said in a draft regulation.
The electronic network was designed to monitor the entire process of manufacturing, transportation, storage and the sale of drugs. The move will also enable realtime inquiries into inventories and destinations, according to Wang Yingli, chief of the SFDA Information Planning Office.
By assigning each package of medicine a 20-digit unique code, the administration can use the network to track and recall drugs, Wang said.
The electronic monitoring network was initiated in 2006. By November 2008, the government had incorporated into the network narcotic drugs, blood products, vaccines, important injections, and some psychiatric drugs.
By February this year, all drugs that were on the country's essential drug list had been covered by the network, according to the SFDA.
China will invest a total of 87.79 billion yuan ($13.98 billion) to help limit sandstorms that affect Beijing and Tianjin in north China, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner.
The money will be used during the second stage of the sandstorm control project for Beijing and Tianjin during 2013-22, which was approved by the State Council last month, the commission said.
China initiated the first stage of the control project in 2000 to improve air quality in Beijing and Tianjin. In the first 10 years, the government allocated 41.2 billion yuan ($6.56 billion) to the project, which helped restore 6 million hectares of forests.
The second stage of the project will cover 138 counties in Beijing, Tianjin and other major sandstorm affected areas, including Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to the plan.
China will beef up its support for secondary vocational education by offering more students free schooling and improving financial aid, according to a statement released by State Council, or China's cabinet on October 10.
Urban students who have financial difficulties but major in agriculture-related subjects will be exempt from paying tuition at secondary vocational schools starting from the fall semester of 2012. The same applies to students in rural areas.
A Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesman said on October 10 that a national database to record and distribute human organ donations would be established.
A national database will improve distribution efficiency as well as help authorities of the operation and ability to trace the sources of organs, Deng said. A waiting list automatically formed by the computer system will also prevent malpractice, he said.
A network for organ donations and transplants will be composed of 164 qualified hospitals nationwide, and a committee jointly founded by the MOH and the Red Cross Society of China will supervise the network, according to Deng.
Statistics from the MOH show that about 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants, although only some 10,000 transplants are performed annually.
More than 80,000 physical rehabilitation institutions for handicapped people had been built in China as of the end of 2011.
Large rehabilitation centers are set up in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland, said Li Jianjun, Director of the China Center on the Study of Rehabilitation, at the Seventh Beijing International Forum on Rehabilitation.
China has 85 million people with physical disabilities, 260 million suffering from chronic diseases and 160 million elders in need of rehabilitation, according to the official. | 
