TRAGEDY STONES Rescuers search for the missing after a massive landslide hit Fengshan County in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on November 23. The landslide had killed six as of November 25

China has postponed the 11th summit with the European Union scheduled for early December because of French leader's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said on November 26.

"The Tibet issue is related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and it touches China's interests at the core. We firmly oppose the Dalai Lama's separatist activities in foreign countries in any capacity and firmly oppose the contact between foreign leaders with him in any form," Qin said.

Nevertheless, China has not changed in its determination to push forward the healthy development of China-EU relations, said the spokesman.

Vegetables to Taiwan

Some 22 tons of fresh vegetables were shipped from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan's Kinmen Island on November 25 to ease shortages there.

The vegetables, which had been transported from Yunnan, Shandong and Liaoning provinces, were loaded onto a cargo vessel at Dadeng Port in Xiamen in southeast China.

Customs and quarantine agencies in Xiamen opened an emergency "green channel" for the cargo to ensure smooth and quick customs clearance and loading of the cargo.

Kinmen, which usually gets vegetable supplies from other parts of Taiwan, has been suffering shortages of fresh vegetables in recent days because of rising prices, according to traders.

Affordable Homes

The Beijing Municipal Construction Commission said on November 22 that it was scheduled to start construction on an 8.5-million-square-meter housing project for low-rent and affordable apartments next year, a move to boost home purchases and benefit low-income residents.

The commission said it would ramp up efforts to provide affordable apartments. Meanwhile, it plans to tighten land supplies for commercial residential projects where the infrastructure and service facilities are not mature enough, said the committee in a joint circular issued together with another 10 local government agencies.

China announced earlier this month plans to invest 900 billion yuan ($131.8 billion) in housing construction in the coming three years, which it said would benefit 7.47 million low-income households.

Earthquake Aid

The Ministry of Finance said on November 26 it had earmarked 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) from the 2009 central budget for reconstruction in regions devastated by the May 12 earthquake in southwest China.

The fund was allocated to quake regions on top of 70 billion yuan ($10.15 billion) that the Central Government promised for this year.

The 20-billion-yuan fund had been transferred in advance to the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi to support reconstruction in the fourth quarter and also for the first quarter of next year, the ministry said.

Healthcare Investment

Clinics and hospitals in China's rural areas and state farms will get 4.8 billion yuan ($702 million) this year to improve infrastructure, a Ministry of Health spokesman said on November 23.

The money is part of a 21.7-billion-yuan ($3.2 billion) investment plan announced by the government in 2006 with the aim of overhauling the nation's rural healthcare network by 2010.

The investment will be spent on new buildings and medical equipment in more than 13,000 clinics and hospitals in villages, townships, and state farms and forestry farms, said the spokesman Mao Qun'an.