IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Honors

Li lauds foreign experts for work

Premier Li Keqiang had high praise for the work of foreign experts in China and their efforts for the country, and he emphasized that China will continue to invite more of them to work in the country.

"Through the foreign experts, we have got the opportunity to learn about the advanced technology and administrative experience of developed economies," Li said while meeting the winners of this year's Chinese Government Friendship Award at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept 30.

"Inviting foreign experts has aided China in opening up. It benefits the Chinese people and the whole world," Li said.

Fifty foreign experts from 20 countries received the 2013 Friendship Awards, among them Ravi Shankar, executive editor of China Daily's overseas editions.

The annual award, the Chinese government's top honor for foreign experts, was established in 1991 and has since been bestowed on 1,299 foreign experts from more than 60 countries and regions.

Justice

Hefty jail terms forrumor mongers

Those convicted of fabricating false rumors of terrorist threats or natural disasters will be sentenced to at least five years in prison if the consequences are deemed serious, a spokesman for the Supreme People's Court said on Sept 29.

"Over the past few years, China has seen many cases of terrorist threats being invented for the purposes of blackmail, taking revenge or just for fun," said Sun Jungong, spokesman for the Supreme People's Court.

"Such acts have caused panic among the public and disturbed public order."

The court has published an explanation of how such cases will be dealt with.

Lyu Guanglun, a judge of the Supreme People's Court, said Chinese airlines and airports had received more than 80 false terrorist threats by September, since the authorities started to collect such data.

New rules do not curbonline speech: experts

The main targets of a judicial interpretation to fight online rumors are those fabricating and disseminating false information and not Web users who forward it, legal experts say.

The tough measures unveiled by China's top court and prosecutor last month do not suppress citizens' freedom of speech but can help protect their rights by taking advantage of the Internet to supervise, they said.

To define the criteria for convicting and sentencing offenders who spread rumors online, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a guideline on Sept 9.

Under the guideline, Internet users who disseminate false information face upwards of three years in prison if online rumors they create are visited by 5,000 Internet users or reposted more than 500 times.

Call for additionallegal aid volunteers

Eighty-eight counties in China still do not have volunteers to provide professional legal aid services, said Minister of Justice Wu Aiying.

Most of the counties are in remote, impoverished areas or have large populations of ethnic groups, Wu told central and provincial judicial officials at a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the Legal Aid Regulation.

However, authorities will attach greater importance to less developed places where legal aid services are in need, she said.

China has 2,853 counties and county-level districts, the State Council Information Office said.

Justice departments should encourage large law firms to set up branches in less developed regions to offer legal aid for people in need, Wu said.

In February, President Xi Jinping urged authorities to provide better legal aid services to those in need, setting a guideline for the ministry's work, she said.

Diplomacy

Police on peacemission in Liberia

China's first group of riot police assigned to Africa as peacekeepers was set to depart from Beijing on Sept 30 after months of training.

An advance team of 15 will arrive first in the Republic of Liberia, followed by another 125 police officers on Oct 21. The mission will last eight months.

The unit is being deployed to Liberia to maintain public security, as well as to protect United Nations staff and facilities.

Most members were chosen from 1,350 applicants from Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Frontier Corps.

Starting on April 11, candidates began 100 days of high-intensity training at the China Peacekeeping Police Training Base in Langfang, Hebei province.

Safety

Checks ordered on amusement rides

China's quality and safety watchdog ordered intensified checks of amusement rides before the National Day holiday, which runs from Oct 1 to 7, following two accidents last month that killed one person and injured three.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine asked quality supervision officials nationwide to intensify checks on rides such as swings, roller coasters and cableways at amusement parks and scenic spots, Li Benjun, a spokesman for the administration, said on Sept 29.

In one of last month's accidents three people were injured, one seriously, on a swing ride at an amusement park in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

Health

Call for mass rabies vaccinations

Vaccinating dogs is the most effective way to stem rabies, experts say. Rabies kill more than 2,400 people a year in China, the most in the world after India, the National Health and Family Planning Commission has reported.

More than 95 percent of human rabies deaths in Africa and Asia result from infected dogs biting people, the World Society for the Protection of Animals said. Children younger than 15 account for up to 60 percent of rabies deaths and of all dog bites.

"Although rabies is renowned as one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, it is preventable," said Xiao Changyan, a spokeswoman for the society.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/04/2013 page2)