MOURNING HEROES: People in Taian, Shandong Province, pay tribute to two policemen and an auxiliary police officer who were shot dead on January 4 while investigating a murder case (ZHU ZHENG)

Desertification Threat

Despite effective efforts to control desertification, China still faces a grave challenge, a senior official said on January 4.

A study conducted between 2005 and 2009 shows 2.62 million square km of Chinese land was degraded, said Zhu Lieke, deputy head of the State Forestry Administration, at a press conference.

Sand encroachment has affected 1.73 million square km of land, Zhu added.

The survey was China's fourth nationwide survey on land degradation and sand encroachment. Compared with results of the previous survey, the area of land degradation decreased 0.47 percent while that of sand encroachment fell 0.49 percent.

Still, in regions such as northwest Sichuan Province and the lower reaches of the Tarim River, China's longest inland waterway, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the situation had deteriorated, Zhu said.

Uplifted Compensation

A revised version of the Regulations on Work-Related Injury Insurance took effect on January 1, raising compensation standards while expanding coverage.

The previous regulations stipulated the compensation to families of workers who die on the job is no more than five times the average annual salary of the previous year. The sum varies depending on the regions where the workers are working.

The new regulations raise the compensation to 20 times the national annual disposable income for urbanites per capita in the previous year­—about 340,000 yuan ($51,500), based on 2009 statistics.

In addition, the revised regulations cover the country's public institutions, social groups, non-profit grassroots organizations, foundations, law firms and accounting firms.

The previous regulations only included enterprises, small businesses and their employees.

Volatile Weather

China experienced more severe weather in 2010 than in other years of the past decade, a weather official said on December 30, 2010.

Chen Zhenlin, a spokesman with the China Meteorological Administration, said the numbers of extremely high temperature days and extreme precipitation cases that China experienced last year were rarely seen in history.

According to Chen, China experienced the longest hot spell since 1961 last year, as the national average number of days of extremely hot weather climbed to 3.5 days more than the normal level, while the average extreme high temperature reached a historical high, 2 degrees Celsius higher than normal conditions.

Meanwhile, average daily precipitation at 97 meteorological stations across the country was the highest ever, and the annual number of extreme precipitation cases was the largest since 1961, he said.

Preserved Pavilions

At least two pavilions of the 2010 World Expo, which was held on May 1 to October 31 in Shanghai, will be preserved as organizers of the event have signed contracts with owners of Italy and Spain pavilions to take possession of the buildings.

Talks were underway between organizers and owners of Saudi Arabia, France and Russia pavilions, who also showed willingness to donate buildings, said Ding Hao, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

The bureau was working to reopen the two pavilions as soon as possible, Ding said. But exhibitions have to be installed in these pavilions as they are currently empty.

According to original plans, all the Expo pavilions should be removed after the event. But organizers decided to keep some pavilions with the consent of their owners.