Care For the Unfortunate

China's State Council has raised subsidies for people affected by natural disasters, saying the country has experienced worse than average problems this year.

At an executive meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao on August 16, the State Council raised the subsidy for rebuilding a room destroyed in a natural disaster from 600 yuan to 1,500 yuan.

Families who were permanently relocated from flood areas will receive a payment of 20,400 yuan, up from 15,000 yuan.

The government, which has already earmarked 6.7 billion yuan for natural disaster prevention and relief, will allocate another 11.5 billion yuan for the new subsidy levels.

State councilors were told China experienced an abnormal climate and frequent extreme weather this year, triggering a range of disasters simultaneously. The intensity and frequency of rainfall, floods and droughts in some areas reached record levels.

To Kill a Rumor

The local weather bureau used its emergency weather information system to dismiss rumors that torrential rain falling on Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, would cause an earthquake.

The rumors started after a number of houses, roads and railways were damaged by heavy rainfall caused by typhoon Pabuk in Zhanjiang.

In response, the provincial weather bureau, with the seismology authorities, used the emergency weather information system to send 2.8 million mobile phone text messages to people to tell them that heavy rainfall would not cause an earthquake.

"The most important thing at this time is that the emergency information system has helped local people pay attention to the relief work rather than believing in rumors," said Yang Qiwei, a media official with the provincial weather bureau.

No Mercy for Online Porn

China's press watchdog has penalized or closed 348 websites on the grounds they were publishing pornographic novels.

Forty online novels were judged to have "extremely pornographic content, causing great harm to the psychological development of young people," said a press release of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).

The spread of pornographic novels has disrupted social order, according to the government, so it stepped up an anti-pornography campaign in April, targeting illegal online activities, such as distributing pornographic material and organizing strip shows, to purge the Web of sexually explicit images, stories, and audio and video clips.

By mid-May, the police had dealt with 244 cases and arrested 270 people in connection with online pornography.

Oil Field Confirmed

China's Ministry of Land and Resources has certified the discovery of 445 million tons of proven oil reserves in the newly discovered Jidong Nanpu oil field in Bohai Bay, bringing the total possible oil and gas reserves to 1.18 billion tons of oil equivalent.

The figure was higher than the previous estimate of 405 million tons of oil equivalent, made by China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC).

"These certified proven oil reserves amount to almost half of China's newly discovered oil reserves in recent years," a ministry statement said.

The discovery of the oil field in east China's Bohai Bay was announced by CNPC in May and is said to be the biggest oil discovery in China in the last 30 years.

Monitor in Sky

China has developed its Beidou satellite monitoring system for dangerous chemical transportation, the Beijing Times reported.

The system, which has passed an experts' review, provides all-day data on dangerous chemical transportation for the Beidou navigation satellite, the paper said.

Scores of sensors, equipped on every vehicle transporting dangerous chemicals, collect data and information on the vehicle as well as road conditions.

The system can even monitor whether the driver has drunk alcohol, the paper reported, saying sensors installed in the driving cab can detect alcohol level.

China has successfully put four navigation satellites into orbit. The previous three were launched in 2000 and 2003.