Extracts.
Sunday, December 24, 2000, updated at 11:18(GMT+8)
China to Draw up Yellow River Law
China is preparing to formulate a law on Yellow River
to better protect and use its water resources.
Nine provinces and autonomous regions along the
Yellow River have forwarded their proposals to the
central government, urging the National People's
Congress, China's legislature, to list the law on its
legislation agenda as early as possible.
The Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee has set
up a special group to draft the framework of the law
and invited senior experts to make investigations in
provinces along the river.
The law will outline principles for harnessing the
river, the system and method of management as well as
the function, status and obligations of institutions
in charge of the river's management.
As the major source of water in northwest and north
China, the Yellow River provides water to 50 large
and medium-sized cities with 12 percent of China's
total population.
Historically, the harnessing of Yellow River is of
vital importance in maintaining social stability and
prosperity.
****
Sunday, December 24, 2000, updated at 11:33(GMT+8)
Colombia Rebels Free 45 Hostages for Christmas
Colombia's second biggest leftist rebel group freed
42 policemen and soldiers on Saturday and told them
to ``be happy,'' in a gesture of Christmas goodwill
that officials said brought full peace talks closer.
The men, looking well, were rounded up in a jungle
hamlet northeast of Bogota where Felipe Torres, a
National Liberation Army (ELN) leader on temporary
release from jail, checked names off a list and
displayed a ``certificate of handover.''
``We wish you all a good journey home, a happy
reunion with your families and that you be happy,''
Torres told the men, to applause, before they were
packed into helicopters and flown to the town of
Bucaramanga for medical checks and to meet relatives
they had not seen for more than two years.
The rebels' show of seasonal goodwill -- with no
strings attached -- has been widely welcomed in this
increasingly war-weary nation and officials said it
should spur moves to create a demilitarized enclave
in the north of the country where the rebels and
government could hold full peace talks.
Thirty of the hostages were policemen -- one with the
police dog he was captured with -- who arrived in
Bucaramanga wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with
the slogan ``peace.'' Many wiped away tears as they
arrived to hugs and kisses.
``Peace is built with words and especially with deeds
that we have started to see today,'' Colombia's peace
commissioner, Camilo Gomez, told reporters after the
handover.
``Colombians are waiting for acts of peace. Today, an
act of peace has been realized ... peace is
undoubtedly possible.''
The ELN had promised to free 45 policemen and
soldiers it had captured in combat. Gomez said the
other three had not been freed for logistical
reasons, but would be in coming days.
Meanwhile, the men, some playing with children, ate a
Christmas meal with music and entertainment supplied
by officers wearing Santa suits in the police's
trademark green.
Peace Talks Approaching
The ELN's first release of military and police came
after two weeks of informal talks with the government
in Cuba, the rebels' ideological homeland, designed
to pave the way to peace talks akin to those of
Colombia's main rebel group, the FARC.
``In Cuba, there were important advances,'' Gomez
said. ''Undoubtedly, we are starting to make
progress.''
El Espectador newspaper on Saturday quoted the top
peace official in the strife-hit northwestern region
of Antioquia, where the ELN is also active, as saying
that a decision on a zone for the talks to be held
could be made by Dec. 31.
Antonio Garcia, No. 2 in the ELN command, told Radio
Caracol three more hostages would be freed at a later
date.
The ELN, whose mass kidnappings and bombings of oil
pipelines are two of its main weapons in its war on
the state, wants the government to cede it control of
land in the north -- similar to the swath of southern
jungle in the hands of the 17,000-strong
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which
is off-limits to state security forces until Jan. 31.
Police chief Luis Ernesto Gilibert said it was clear
that ''kidnapping cannot continue in Colombia.''
The FARC, which controls about 40 percent of this
Andean nation, holds about 450 soldiers and police
officers hostage, which it proposed swapping for some
350 jailed rebels.
The government refused. But this month, seeking to
jump-start stalled peace talks, it said it was
nearing a deal that could open the way to Colombia's
first prisoner exchange.
The FARC last month snapped off two years of
slow-moving peace talks, demanding a state crackdown
on the far-right paramilitary death squads which it
says target rebels.
Colombia has been riven by nearly four decades of
violence involving the FARC, the ELN and
paramilitaries. The conflict has claimed at least
35,000 lives in the past 10 years. None of the
combatants has declared a formal Christmas truce.
(Agencies)
****
Sunday, December 24, 2000, updated at 11:33(GMT+8)
US Embassy Employee Killed in Niger Shooting
A Department of Defense employee assigned to the U.S.
Embassy in Niger was killed on Saturday during an
armed carjacking, said an embassy spokesman in
Niamey, the capital of the West African nation.
William Bultemeier, a retired U.S. Army master
sergeant, was leaving a restaurant with a group of
American embassy personnel when they were confronted
by two gunmen in the parking lot, the embassy
spokesman Louis Lantner told Reuters.
Bultemeier had been at the U.S. embassy in Niger for
five months and was leading the effort to
re-establish a U.S. Department of Defense office at
the embassy, he said.
``The two assailants used a 45-caliber pistol and a
semi-automatic AK-47,'' he said.
U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Christopher McNeely, who
also worked at the embassy, jumped into the line of
fire to protect Bultemeier but was himself wounded in
the incident, which occurred about 1 a.m. local time,
the spokesman said.
McNeely was injured by multiple gunshots to the arm
and flown by the U.S. military to Ramstein Air Base
in Germany for further medical treatment.
No arrests have been made in the attack although the
local police are on the case and ``we are receiving
very good work from the police,'' Lantner said.
(Agencies)
****
Tibetan Prefecture Escapes Poverty
The people in Ngari Prefecture, a remote and impoverished area in Tibet
Autonomous Region, no longer live in poverty due to rapid economic growth
in recent years.
The per capita net income of farmers and herdsmen in Ngari rose to 1,242
yuan last year, above the region's average.
Ngari covers 345,000 square kilometers in northern Tibet at an elevation of
4,500 meters, and is known as the "ridge of the roof of the world." It lags
behind other areas in economic development
because of underdeveloped transport infrastructure and geographical conditions.
Since the central government launched a campaign to speed up development of
western China, the prefecture has been able to exploit the rich
boromagnesite resources. At present, Ngari turns out 30,000 tons of
boromagnesite and 5,000 tons of tinkalite a year. Consequently, the
industrial output value of Ngari increased by 57 percent last year.
The prefecture has opened a number of tourist routes, making tourism a
pillar industry in the region. Last year, it received 18,000 Chinese and
foreign visitors.
Taking advantage of vast pasture land, the prefecture exports 200 tons of
cashmere and 1,300 tons of wool a year.
By taking advantage of the abundant sunshine, the prefecture has built
solar energy houses with a total floor space of 700,000 sq. m and
popularized the use of solar energy stoves.
****
China Adopts New Strategy in Ecological Protection in New Century China
will adopt three different ecological protection strategies according to
the distinct problems and characteristics in different regions to lessen
ecological deterioration, said an environmental official in Beijing Friday.
The State Council recently issued the National Ecosystem Conservation
Compendium, explicitly setting the goal of protecting national ecosystem
safety for the first time.
China will provide emergency treatment to important eco-functional zones;
help conserve the ecosystem of major resource
exploiting areas; and actively conserve the ecological sound areas,said Zhu
Guangyao, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection
Administration, at a press conference held by the
Information Office of the State Council.
The eco-functional zones include the headstream of the rivers and the
lakes, the major prevention and monitoring zone of the water and soil
conservation area as well as the fishery water area.
These zones have played important roles in safeguarding the water
environment, ecosystem balance and assuring the safety of the national
ecosystem.
"The compendium puts forward the new task of constructing eco-functional
conservation zones, which is the basic method to conduct emergency
protection to the zones," said Zhu.
He said that while building nature reserves, SEPA will give priority to the
emergency protection to key eco-functional zones.
Around ten state-level and a number of local level zones will be set up in
the coming five years.
Zhu noted that the abuse of natural resources and irrational development is
the major cause of China's current ecological deterioration. The compendium
asks for law enforcement and measures to prevent great damage to the
ecosystem during the exploitation natural resources.
China will also maintain sustainable development in the ecological sound
areas through building nature reserves and ecological demonstration zones,
added Zhu.
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