PROMISE: An activity to collect the fingerprints of 10,000 people, who promise to never use pirated products in the future, is launched in Beijing on April 26, the 10th World Intellectual Property Day (ZHANG XU)

Fewer Entry Limitations

The Chinese Government announced the lifting of the 20-year-old ban on entry for foreigners with HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy on April 27.

According to a statement released by the State Council, after gaining more knowledge about the diseases, the government has realized that such ban has a very limited effect in preventing and controlling diseases in the country. It has instead caused inconvenience for the country when hosting various international activities.

The revision comes days ahead of the opening of the Shanghai World Expo. The government temporarily lifted the ban for various large-scale events, including the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Deadly Landslide

Rescuers in Taiwan had found four bodies and the wrecks of three cars as of 7 a.m. April 28, after a massive landslide struck the freeway between Taipei and Keelung on April 25. The landslide crushed an overpass and clogged traffic on the freeway between Taipei and Keelung.

The Taiwan Freeway Administration announced on April 28 morning that the bodies of two men and two women had been identified.

Rescuers are still searching for the buried. According to reports from relatives, at least one car and one person are still under the debris.

Abnormal April

China has experienced its coldest April for half a century due to abnormal atmospheric circulation at high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, according to meteorological experts of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

The nationwide average temperature in April hit its lowest benchmark since 1961 at 8.7 degrees Celsius, approximately 1.3 degrees below a normal year, according to the latest figures from the CMA.

The national average precipitation in April was 54.1 mm, 13.9 mm more than a normal year, making this April the most humid since 1974.

Effective Crackdown

Chinese police cracked 234 money counterfeiting cases and seized approximately 42.54 million yuan ($6.25 million) in fake bills in the first quarter of 2010, the Ministry of Public Security said on April 27.

The ministry's vice minister Liu Jinguo said the amount of fake money seized at bank counters dropped 55 percent from a year ago thanks to a campaign against money counterfeiting last year.

Liu pledged that the ministry will fully implement the policies for rewarding citizen reports of counterfeiting.

Additive Rules

China's top food safety authority issued new regulations on April 22, setting more stringent requirements on the use and the approval of food additives.

The Ministry of Health's Regulations of New Food Additives, published on its website, set six new restrictions on the use of food additives.

The new regulations forbid the use of food additives to mislead consumers about the content and quality of food or fake food content.

Under the new regulations, food producers are required to use the minimum amount of necessary food additives, and are not allowed to use those that would reduce the nutritional content of food.