Egypt sentences ex-trade minister

Egypt's former Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid has been sentenced to five years in prison in absentia for embezzling public funds.

Rachid fled his home country after the uprising

Rachid, who fled Cairo after Egypt's uprising earlier this year, was also fined $1.6m (£1m).
A number of former top ministers who served under ousted President Hosni Mubarak are currently being detained on various charges.
Mr Mubarak was forced from power in February after 18 days of protests.
The former leader, who is in custody at a military hospital, is due to go on trial on 3 August, alongside his sons, Alaa and Gamal.
Earlier this month, a court sentenced former Egyptian finance minister Yussef Boutros Ghali to 30 years in prison in absentia, also on corruption charges.

Deadly suicide attack on Afghan hospital

At least 30 people killed and many others injured in bombing in eastern Logar province.


At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Afghanistan.
Estimates of the casualties, which included patients and medical staff, varied widely as chaos enveloped the facility in Azra district of eastern Logar province, which is just south of capital Kabul. Dozens more were wounded in the attack.
Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar provincial government, said as many as 35 people were killed, although Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the death toll at 20.

"The exact target is still not clear," Interior minister deputy spokesman Najib Nikzad said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in which he said "tens of civilians" were killed.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility for the attack. "We condemn this attack on a hospital ... whoever has done this wants to defame the Taliban," he said.
Din Mohammad Darwaish said the bomber had been driving an "an SUV packed with explosives".
"The target of the blast is not clear but what is obvious is that a hospital was attacked and civilians were killed ... The casualties are all patients, their visitors and relatives and hospital personnel."
Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, said the hospital was mainly treating women and children. He said the explosion had been described as "enormous" and had completely razed the building and one next to it.
The head of Logar's provincial council, Abdul Wali Wakeel, said local officials had contacted foreign forces to ask for help in evacuating the wounded to hospital.
Counterterrorism summit

Afghan civilian casualties

According to the UN, 76% of the civilian casualties in 2010 were caused  by anti-government fighters.

Saturday's attack came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a counterterrorism summit in Iran that despite his government's efforts, militancy was on the rise in both his country and the region.
"Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region," he told the opening session.
On Friday, 10 people were killed by a bicycle bomb, which went off in a busy bazaar in Khad Abad district of the northern province of Kunduz.
Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama announced that 33,000 US forces would leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer.
All foreign combat forces are due to pull out of the country by the end of 2014. There are currently up to 150,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, including around 99,000 from the US.
Some analysts fear that Afghan security forces may struggle to contain violence, which has reached record levels, as withdrawals start to get under way.
Nearly 2,800 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year, according to the United Nations.

CNN sportscaster Nick Charles dies at 64

ATLANTA – Broadcaster Nick Charles, who became CNN's first sports anchor, has died after a two-year fight with bladder cancer. He was 64.

The Atlanta-based cable network said Charles died in Santa Fe, N.M. He had been with the network from its beginning in 1980.

CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton said Saturday Charles helped put CNN on the map with his intelligence, style and passion.

Walton said in a statement that his passing is a loss to CNN, to the sports world and to fans and friends everywhere.

Russian plane crash,44 deid

Officials are investigating the cause of a plane crash in north-western Russia that killed 44 people.

Russian Deputy PM Sergey Ivanov said the crash, near the city of Petrozavodsk, was probably caused by pilot error in poor weather conditions.
The plane had veered away from the airport runway and attempted to land on a motorway but crashed and caught fire.
Eight people including a 10-year-old boy survived the crash with severe injuries.
His 14-year-old sister and a flight attendant were also rescued from the wreckage.
The RusAir Tupolev 134 plane, with 43 passengers and nine crew on board, was flying from the capital, Moscow, to Petrozavodsk, the main city in the Karelia region.
It just missed houses close to the motorway. One source told the Interfax news agency that bodies were strewn across the road.
A mobile phone video of the scene shortly afterwards showed flames from the wreckage soaring into the night sky.
'Power cut'
Mr Ivanov said the crash resembled one in April last year in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were killed as their Tu-154 plane attempted to land near the Russian city of Smolensk.
"I don't want to pre-empt the inquiry... but from the initial external data the pilot's mistake is clear - in bad weather conditions he veered to the right of the runway and in foggy conditions searched for the runway visually until the last minute [and] did not find it," he said.

But the inter-state air commission, a body which investigates air accidents in the former USSR, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying it was premature to draw conclusions about the cause.
Mr Ivanov reiterated earlier reports that the aircraft hit a power line, causing a power cut that extinguished landing lights on the runway.
Other Russian officials have said back-up systems were then switched on, but too late to stop the aircraft from crashing.
The emergencies ministry has published a full list of the passengers and the names of the survivors. One Dutch and one Swedish national, two Ukrainians and a Russian family of four with dual US citizenship were all among the dead.
Interfax news agency said most of the senior management of Gidropress, a subsidiary of the Russian nuclear export agency Rosatom, were killed, as well as Russian premier league football referee Vladimir Pettay.
The survivors are said to be in critical condition and suffering from burns.
Most have been sent to Moscow for further treatment.
A rescuer told Russian TV he managed to pull four people out of the wreckage.
"I carried out a woman in my arms. Then we brought out a large man and two people from the mid-section. Then everything burst into flames and started exploding. It was impossible to go close," he said.
The flight recorders have been recovered and a team of accident investigators has flown to the scene from Moscow.
Prosecutors say an investigation into possible violations of air transport rules is under way.
RusAir is a privately-owned, Moscow-based airline that specialises in charter flights in western Russia and eastern Europe.
The twin-engined Tu-134 is one of the work-horses of the Russian aviation industry.
Karelia is a sparsely populated region of lakes and forests bordering Finland, and a popular summer destination for Russian tourists.

Indian woman gang raped and set alight in Uttar Pradesh

A woman has been gang raped and burnt alive in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police say, the latest in a series of brutal but unrelated attacks on women there.

The woman's family says five men gang-raped her and then set her alight in her own home in Etah district.
In the past week there have been three violent attacks on women in the state.
Correspondents say Uttar Pradesh is one of India's most lawless states where women are accorded a very low status.
On Friday a 14-year-old girl was stabbed in the eye as she fought off two men who attempted to rape her.
The teenager was attacked in Gadwa Buzurg village in the Kannauj district of the northern state. She lost one eye and the other was also seriously damaged.
Police say the attackers were from her own village. Only one has been arrested so far and police said they were looking for the second man.
Two policemen in the area, who initially refused to lodge the parents' complaint, have been suspended.
Last week, a girl's body was found hanging from a tree on police premises in the Nighasan area of Lakhimpur district.
The girl's parents alleged that she was raped and murdered and that the police had offered them a bribe to keep quiet.
In the latest incident the woman, who was in her thirties, was sitting outside her home when five men dragged her inside the house and gang-raped her, according to her family.
Her family say the attackers sprinkled kerosene on her and set her on fire because the woman had recognised them and they were afraid of being caught.
The woman managed to give a statement to police but died shortly afterwards.
Police say they are are still looking for the attackers.
Earlier this year, the head of the National Commission for Women, Girija Vyas, said Uttar Pradesh was at the top of the list when it came to violent crimes against women.
State authorities have been criticised in recent years after several attacks on women and girls were reported.

Annual June rains hit southeastern China

As 'Plum Rains' cause havoc in many parts of China, Al Jazeera's weather experts explain why they occur.

Plum Rains arrive from late May to early June and usually peak around June 10 - 15 [Gallo/Getty]

As parts of southeastern China struggle to cope with the worst flooding in more than half a century it is worth reflecting on the cause of the rains which are an annual - and often most welcome, event.
These rains are referred to as the Maiyu, or Plum Rains. 'Plum' refers to the ripening of the plum crops around this time and the rains are also welcomed by rice farmers in both China and Japan.
But a hint at possible problems caused by these rains may be gleaned from an alternative name -  mould rains - as crops can fall foul to mould and other diseases when the rains are particularly heavy or prolonged.
The Plum Rains arrive from late May to early June and usually peak around June 10 to June 15, in southeastern China.
Alas, such precision with the timing of the rains does not carry forward into predictions of the amounts of rain the region is likely to see each year.
The key to their arrival lies high in the sky, above the Himalayas. High altitude jet stream winds branch either side of the mountains during the winter and spring months.
Summer monsoon
But during the last week of May the southern portion of these winds weakens rapidly. At the same time, the rising heat of the summer causes a mass ascent of air, forming a weak area of low pressure over the Tibetan Plateau.
This combination of events allows the moist southwesterly air of the summer monsoon to begin its advance.
The intensity of the Plum Rains is often dependent on the fine balance between the advancing warm, monsoon air and slowly retreating cool, northerly air.
The struggle between these two air masses is often played out over the Yangtze and Huaihe river valleys and it is particularly intense during times of the La Nina Southern Oscillation.
Although La Nina is currently weakening, its influence may be felt for some time after its peak and this may have been the case this year.
Inevitably, the rains in the flood-affected regions will ease as they make their way slowly northeastwards, weaken dramatically as they do so, but China lives with the threat to life, livelihood and property that the Plum Rains bring every year.

Millions affected by China flooding

Authorities predict downpours in the country's south after heavy rains wreak havoc in eastern provinces.

The flooding has caused more than $700m worth of damage, with the Zhejiang province hit especially hard [Reuters]

More than five million people are believed to have been affected by severe floods in eastern China, amid predictions of further heavy rains in the coming days.
The Chinese government has raised its disaster alert to the highest level as the flooding has caused more than $700m worth of damage.
"Severe floods triggered by heavy rains will continue to threaten parts of southern China," Chen Lei, minister of water resources, said on Monday.
"There is an increasing possibility that downpours, with enhanced frequency and intensity, will continue to lash regions in the south," he said in a speech posted on his ministry's website.
Heavy rains hit Zhejiang province over the weekend and the level of a river that passes through Lanxi city has risen sharply, Zhao Fayuan, deputy director of the flood control headquarters, said.
The level of Lanjiang river has now hit 34 metres, the highest since 1966, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Several sections of the dykes in Lanxi city are barely holding, Zhao said. More than 20,000 people could be affected if the dykes are breached, he said.
Torrential rains have left huge areas of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces under water, with more than one million acres (432,200 hectares) of farmland inundated, the Xinhua said.
More than 7,000 homes collapsed or were otherwise damaged and almost 1,000 businesses have been forced to suspend operations.
Rising death toll
Flooding in eastern and southern China this month has left more than 170 people dead or missing.
Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from Beijing, said the death toll was rising into hundreds.
Farmers quoted by Xinhua said the flooding was the worst in 20 years, reducing vegetable output by 20 per cent and also causing shortages of fruits and grains.
Prices for green vegetables were up drastically, Xinhua said, adding to an inflation rate of 5.5 per cent, a three-year high.
"The economic cost of this is huge, as crops are being absolutely destroyed in central, southern, and particularly eastern China," our correspondent said.
"Some food prices have jumped more than 20 per cent. In one province alone they are estimating the economic loss at more than three quarters of a billion dollars."
Torrential downpours across large swathes of the country last year triggered the nation's worst floods in a decade, leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

Top 10 nationalities of foreigners in the Chinese mainland

A total of 593,832 foreigners were living and working on the Chinese mainland by November 1, 2010, according to the sixth national census data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) late in April.

The top three home countries of the foreigners were the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan.

Here is the list of the top 10 nationalities of foreigners living on the mainland.

Rank	Country	Residents on Mainland
1	Republic of Korea	120,750
2	United States	71,493
3	Japan	66,159
4	Myanmar	39,776
5	Viet Nam	36,205
6	Canada	19,990
7	France	15,087
8	India	15,051
9	Germany	14,446
10	Australia	13,286

 

  

Top 10 countries in clean energy investment 2010

China remains the world's leading investor in clean energy in 2010 with an investment of US$54.4 billion, up from the US$39.1 billion for 2009, according to a report Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race released yesterday by US-based Pew Environment Group.

The country was followed by Germany and the United States in the ranking, which invested US$41.2 billion and US$34 billion in the sector respectively last year.

Worldwide, the clean energy sector roared back from flat recessionary levels, increasing 30 percent above 2000 levels to achieve a record US$243 billion worth of finance and investment in 2010, said the report, which examines new trends in the clean energy sector worldwide.

Following are the Top 10 in Clean Energy Development, 2010

2010 Rank	Country	2010 Investment (billions of $)	2009 Investment (billions of $)	2009 Rank
1	China	54.4	39.1	1
2	Germany	41.2	20.6	3
3	United States	34.0	22.5	2
4	Italy	13.9	6.2	8
5	Rest of EU-27	13.4	13.3	4
6	Brazil	7.6	7.7	7
7	Canada	5.6	3.5	9
8	Spain	4.9	10.5	6
9	France	4.0	3.2	12
10	India	4.0	3.2	11

Top 10 most beautiful universities in China

Universities are not just institutions of higher education and research; some are beautiful scenic spots in their own right. Here, China.org.cn presents its selection of the Top 10 most beautiful universities in China. All have their distinctive characteristics. Some are famous for their spectacular locations, some for their outstanding architecture, yet others for their beautiful gardens.

   Ocean University of China

Established in 1924, Ocean University of China is located in the coastal city of Qingdao. It is famous for the study of marine sciences and fisheries.

Ocean University has one of the most beautiful campuses in China, entirely composed of Western-style buildings. In summer, the buildings are surrounded by the trees and flowers of the university gardens. In winter, a dusting of snow adds a feeling of mystery and solemnity to the scene. The campus sits on a hill overlooking the sea and the old European-style town of Qingdao. Students can often been seen sitting outdoors reading in the sea breeze.
Soochow University (Suzhou)

Soochow University is located in Soochow, old name for today's Suzhou, one of China's oldest and most famous tourist destinations. The city has many refined classical gardens, which imitate natural scenery with pavilions, rocks, hills and rivers.

The campus grounds of Soochow University have been described as among China's most beautiful, in part based on the incorporation of typical features of the classical gardens in Suzhou.
 Anhui Normal University

Anhui Normal University, one of the oldest universities in Anhui province, is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, close to the famous beauty spot of Zheshan.

It has a large Chinese language study program for overseas students. The campus is especially beautiful in winter when it is covered with snow.
 Sichuan University

Sichuan University is one of the oldest universities in China. It is ranked No. 8 among the Chinese universities according to the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Its 470 hectare campus is located in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

Sichuan University has a deserved reputation as one of the most beautiful campuses in China. Its Huaxi Campus is famous for its bell tower and the lotus blossoms that cover its lake in summer. Its buildings include grand modern teaching centers as well as older steepled buildings representing the university's long past as well as its determination to move with the times. The whole campus is set in a wonderful environment of lawns and trees.

Nanjing Normal University

Formerly Jinling women's college, Nanjing Normal University is a comprehensive normal university with a long history of postgraduate education. It was one the first higher education institutions in China to resume graduate programs after the Cultural Revolution.

The campus of Nanjing Normal University features woods, lawns and traditional Chinese-style buildings built in the early twentieth century. The university was also one of the sites of the international protection zone set up by foreign residents of Nanjing in an attempt to shield civilians from Japanese attacks during the infamous Nanjing Massacre.
Shenzhen University

Founded in 1983, Shenzhen University has 25 colleges, providing 65 undergraduate programs, 72 masters' programs and three doctoral programs.

The university is known as "Lychee Garden" because of the abundance of lychee trees planted on the campus, which also boasts a 500 meter-long lake surrounded by rolling hills and trees. The scenery has a picturesque Chinese name that means "Eagle hitting the water".
Tsinghua University

Founded in 1911, Tsinghua University is considered by many to be the best university in China. Covering 356 hectares, it is also one of the largest universities in China. Many celebrities have graduated from or worked at Tsinghua, including Nobel Laureates Tsung-Dao Lee and Yang Zhenning, China's current president Hu Jintao and writer Wen Yiduo.

Located on the site of a Qing Dynasty royal garden, the campus retains Chinese-style landscaping and buildings, as well as Western-style buildings that reflect the American influence in its history. The campus was named one of the most beautiful in the world by Forbes in 2010.
Peking University

Peking University is known for its long history, outstanding academic resources and beautiful campus.

The campus of Peking University, also known as Yan Garden, has been unofficially dubbed by many as the mini-Summer Palace for its great scenery near the Weiming Lake area, which was once part of a Qing Dynasty royal garden. The Boya Tower to the south of the lake is illuminated at night and its reflection in the lake is considered particularly beautiful. In warm days, students can be seen reading and studying beside the lake and in winter they skate on it.

The campus is also renowned for the beauty of its traditional Chinese architectures, similar to those inside the Forbidden City.

Xiamen University

Xiamen University was the first university in China to be founded by an overseas Chinese businessman. Located at the foot of green mountains and facing the blue ocean, the University is justly famous for its rolling green campus, which includes the beautiful Furong (Lotus) Lake. Nearby the campus is the Nan Putuo monastery which was established in the Tang Dynasty and is now a major training center for Buddhist monks.
Wuhan University

The history of Wuhan University can be traced back to 1893, making it one of the oldest universities in China. It is considered one of the most beautiful universities featuring the scenic Luojia Hill. The campus is particularly famous for its cherry blossoms. Every spring, thousands of people flock to a blossom festival on the campus.