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Conservation efforts in Inner Mongolia have spurred the northern region's development and benefited the national capital,top regional officials said yesterday in Beijing. The autonomous region,which is known as a major source of the seasonal sandstorms that blanket Beijing,has "done what it could" to curb ecological deterioration,Yang Jing,chairman of the regional government,said. "Protecting the environment has been listed as Inner Mongolia's most important infrastructure project," Yang told a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office yesterday to mark the region's 60th anniversary. "The number of sandstorms has fallen significantly in recent years,which favorably influences the weather in Beijing and Tianjin." Inner Mongolia,which is some 300 km north of Beijing,has long been thought of as the capital's backyard.However,the distance is not enough to protect Beijing from the wind-borne dust and sand that blow down from the region. Dust blown in from western Inner Mongolia blanketed Beijing nearly two months ago,lowering visibility to 4 km from 20 km the previous day. Inner Mongolia has spent some 20 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) on efforts to halt desertification in an area measuring 16.7 million hectares over the past five years.It has also increased its forest coverage to 17.6 percent of its total area from 14.8 percent in 1999,Yang said. At least 3 billion yuan was earmarked to implement the massive "Beijing-Tianjin windblown sand sources control project" in a bid to build a green ecological belt in northern China,according to regional government sources. The project involves 458,000 sq km of land,about 48 percent of which lies in Inner Mongolia. "There are several sources of sand and dust (affecting Beijing) besides Inner Mongolia.We have done what we could on our part," Yang said. Chu Bo,secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of China,said yesterday that 70 percent of the region's livestock has been confined to enclosed pastures to reduce the grazing pressure on grasslands. In addition to returning farmland to forests and reclaiming overgrazed pastures,Inner Mongolia has encouraged traditional pastoral areas to develop alternative industries. Citing Erdos as a success story,Chu said the city would have plunged into an ecological vicious circle had it not built up secondary and tertiary industries. As a result,the city of 1.4 million people is expected to have a gross domestic product of 100 billion yuan ($13 billion) this year,a level of prosperity that can only be found in the country's coastal regions,Chu said. Inner Mongolia is home to China's largest grasslands.The region spans 1.18 million sq km,which is about twice the size of Ukraine. 不算太长吧.

Smiling Hu joins CPC delegates in discussionSource: Xinhuanet | 10-17-2007 08:47Special Report: 17th CPC National Congress Hu Jintao joins a panel discussion with delegates of Jiangsu province on Tuesday. He listens to the delegates talk about social and economic development in the rich eastern province, and discuss his report delivered at the start of the Party congress on Monday. (Xinhua Photo) BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Hu Jintao took a commoner's approach on Tuesday while he joined the Jiangsu delegation to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to listen to the delegates talk about social and economic development in the rich eastern province, and discuss his report delivered at the start of the Party congress on Monday. Jiangsu's Party chief Li Yuanchao and other officials praised the country's past five years as "having maintained sustainable, fast, coordinated and healthy development" and "having improved the lives of ordinary people", citing the province's own growth in the meantime. Hu urged the province to fully exploit its advantages and take the lead in transforming the mode of economic growth in accordance with the Scientific Outlook on Development. "We stress sound and rapid development, better quality, efficiency and an enlightened approach to development that results in expanded production, a better life and sound ecological and environmental conditions," he said. Delegate Wu Renbao, former Party chief of Huaxi Village, China's richest, spoke highly of the Party congress. "The report is comprehensible to ordinary farmers," he said. "I would like to keep working although I'm old," 79-year-old Wu said. Hearing that, Hu Jintao was the first to applaud with a broad smile. Chen Qiuyan, who cleans the sewage treatment system in Xuzhou City, was excited about her second meeting with Hu. "We will carefully study and put into practice the essence of the congress," she said. Hu visited Chen and her colleagues during a visit to Jiangsu in 1996. "Please forward my best regards to your colleagues," said Hu. "I hope your working and living conditions have improved with the past decade's economic growth and hope you'll do an even better job," Hu said with a gentle voice. Toward the end of the two-hour discussion, Hu said that the report he made on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee is a product of democracy and crystallizes the collective wisdom of the entire Party and all the Chinese people. After deliberations and revisions at the Party congress, the report will become a political proclamation and action plan to guide the Party in uniting all the Chinese people to seek better development along the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, Hu said. Editor:Du Xiaodan

10月11日的新闻:1. Chaos at an Ohio high school. A gunman opened fire in the Cleveland school. At least five people including three teenagers were taken to the hospital. Police say the gunman is dead and appears to have shot himself.2. Freight train cars carrying toxic chemicals derailed this afternoon, setting off a huge fire. It happened as the train passed through Painesville, Ohio. Authorities have evacuated the surrounding area. No one was injured.3. Autoworkers walked off the job at Chrysler plants. Talks broke off between the carmaker and the union. Health care is one of the main sticking points. It's the first United Auto Workers' strike against the company in a decade.4. The next time your teen gets behind the wheel of a car, parents might be able to see exactly what they do. Several auto insurers have started offering in-car cameras or global positioning equipment to parents to monitor teen driving habits. It's an effort to cut down on teen driver crashes.