SAILING TO SHANGHAI New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on February 18 carves a small section of the waharoa, a Maori canoe, which would take center stage at the New Zealand Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo (HUANG XINGWEI)
Obama-Dalai Lama Meeting Condemned
China strongly opposed U.S. President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama and urged the United States to take concrete measures to ensure the healthy development of bilateral ties in the future
Mapping the Villages
Chinese mapping authorities worked out about 70,000 topographic charts and image graphics for rural areas in 2009
SUPERVISORY ROLE
Members of local committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference join lawmakers and media workers to inspect work of a railway station in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, before the Chinese lunar New Year (SUN CAN)
SEASON'S GREETINGS
Local residents of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, buy flowers during the holiday of the Chinese New Year (ZHAO GE)
DANCING IN THE NEW YEAR
Drummers give a joyful festive performance on February 18 at Qianfo Mountain in Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, to greet the Chinese New Year, which fell on February 14 this year (ZHU ZHENG)
 
Tightening Money
The People's Bank of China announced to raise the reserve requirement ratio—the amount of money that banks must deposit into the central bank—by 0.5 percentage points, effective on February 25.

It was the second reserve requirement ratio increase this year, with the first one on January 18
Funding Medical Reform
The Ministry of Finance said the Central Government recently allocated 37.2 billion yuan to subsidize nationwide medical reform.

Specifically, 22 billion yuan will be used to subsidize a new type of rural cooperative medical care system; 3.7 billion yuan to subsidize basic medical insurance for urban residents; 3.2 billion yuan to urban and rural Medicaid; and 8.3 billion yuan to basic public health services
  • Long-Awaited Glory
    Chinese figure skating couple Shen Xue (right) and Zhao Hongbo show their gold medals at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, on February 15. They are the first non-Russian skaters to win a gold medal in the Olympic figure skating pairs event in 46 years. Another Chinese pair, Pang Qing and Tong Jian, received silver medals. Shen and Zhao, three-time world champions, temporarily retired from the sport in 2007 after three failed attempts to secure an Olympic title. They returned to competition in the 2009-10 season and won China's first ever Olympic gold medal in figure skating this year. On February 17, reigning world record holder Wang Meng won China's second gold medal by retaining her title in women's 500-meter short track speed skating
  • THE UNITED NATIONS
    UN guards stand outside a cafeteria that was closed on February 18 due to a suspicious envelope at the UN headquarters in New York (BAI JIE)
  • TURKEY
    Businessmen from the Middle East negotiate at a jewelry fair in Istanbul, Turkey, on February 18. Some 390 companies from 15 countries attended the four-day event (CHEN MING)
  • GULF OF ADEN
    Qiu Yanpeng (second left), Commander of the Chinese naval fleet deployed in the Gulf of Aden to escort Chinese commercial ships in the pirate-ridden area, visits a South Korean escort vessel on February 18 (XINHUA)
  • AFGHANISTAN
    U.S. Marines guard a temporary military bridge in Marjah on February 17 during a major NATO-Afghan joint military operation against the Taliban in Helmand Province in south Afghanistan (XINHUA/AFP)
  • JAPAN
    A Toyota mechanic fixes the anti-lock braking software on a Prius hybrid vehicle in Nagoya on February 10. Japan's biggest auto company recalled hundreds of thousands of cars globally over safety concerns (XINHUA/AFP)
  • THE UNITED STATES
    Rescuers work at an office building in Austin, Texas, after it was hit by a small plane on February 18 (CHEN RUWEI)
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