In This EditionChinese Premier Wen Jiabao starts an official visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tries to shore up support in Latin-America for his country's oil exports ahead of an impending European embargo on oil exports.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffles his Cabinet to garner support for raising sales tax.

The Beijing municipal authorities tighten inspections on vehicle emissions at entrances to the Chinese capital.

Hot Issue ReportsPremier Wen's Visit to Deepen Cooperation with West Asian CountriesChinese Premier Wen Jiabao Saturday starts an official visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

High on the agenda is addressing the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, one of the biggest and most influential international meetings on renewable energy sources.

Some Chinese experts on international studies believe Wen's visit is expected to deepen cooperation with the three west Asian countries.

Shuang Feng has more.

This is the first time that a Chinese premier will visit Saudi Arabia in 20 years. It is also the first time that a Chinese premier visits the United Arab Emirates and Qatar since they established diplomatic ties.

At a time when west Asia is under a volatile situation, experts believe Premier Wen Jiabao's visit is of great significance.

Qu Xing is the director of the China Institute of International Studies.

"China's stance on west Asia has become the center of attention amid chaos within this region. Premier Wen Jiabao's visit will show China is willing to push forward bilateral cooperation with these countries."China is already in close business ties with the three oil-rich countries. But Qu says China's relations with them are not all about oil.

"China and the Arab countries have enjoyed a multifaceted relationship, ever since our support for and cooperation with them in the 1950s. We weren't importing oil back then, so China's relationship with them wasn't built on resources only. But in recent years, China is more present in the international oil market because of globalization."During the visit, the Chinese Premier is scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of the fifth World Future Energy Summit, which is set to be held in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE. The summit will cover topics on renewable energy resources and discovering investment opportunities.

Qu says the presence of a Chinese leader is very important in tackling these issues.

"As a developing country with rapid growth and huge energy consumption, China's approach to international relations is a driving force in the development of this area. Premier Wen's presence in the summit announces China's willingness to participate in this global issue."Premier Wen Jiabao's visit is also expected to push for further development of China's relations with the Islamic world.

For CRI, this is Shuang Feng.

Iran's Parliamentary Speaker: Ready for 5+1 TalkIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reiterating that his country is not developing nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad made the remark before wrapping up his Latin-American tour in his last stop, Ecuador.

"The nuclear question is a political excuse. All of them know well that Iran isn't looking to build nuclear bombs. Iran isn't as imprudent as they are to spend money and not be able to use those bombs. We do not want to build nuclear bombs."Ahmadinejad began his 4-nation tour shortly after the United States imposed tougher sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.

It's widely believed that Ahmadinejad is trying to shore up support for the country's oil exports ahead of an impending European embargo on oil exports, which is expected to be voted on at the end of this month.

In the meantime, Iran's parliamentary speaker says the standoff over his country's nuclear program can be solved through serious talks.

Noda Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support for Tax IncreaseJapanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has reshuffled his Cabinet to win support for raising sales tax.

Noda has appointed Ka-tsu-ya Okada as his deputy to oversee tax and social security reform.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura reads into the appointment.

"I think the appointment strengthened his cabinet. And the reason the Prime Minster appointed the new Deputy Prime Minister Okada was to get grips with the big task of completely reforming the social insurance tax system."Okada was the former secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. And he is known for his clean and serious image.

Japan's sales tax rate is one of the lowest among major economies, but raising it has encountered a standstill in the parliament.

The country's major opposition parties have been refusing to be drawn into debate.

In order to win opposition's support, Noda also replaced the ministers of defense and consumer affairs in the latest reshuffle.

The two were both censured in the upper house last year.

Noda plans to double the sales tax rate to 10 percent by 2015.

China Further Strengthens Quality Certification and AccreditationChina is making efforts to strengthen the certification and accreditation work, aiming to control quality and safety incidents and better protect people's livelihood.

In the past year, China saw a number of quality and safety emergencies, such as the "Kumho Tires" incident, the "plasticizers" storm, and organic crabs, fruit and vegetable incidents.

Sun Dawei, director of National Certification and Accreditation Administration, says after those incidents, the commission took effective measures to intensify the quality standardization work.

"China has urgently implemented the formulation or revision of 30 inspection and quarantine standardizations regarding various industries, which provides technical support in regulating hazardous chemicals. The country will expand its certification and accreditation areas, especially in energy management, greenhouse gas verification, information technology services as well as medical laboratory safety."The official also points out China is continuing to establish an internationally recognized national quality infrastructure by international cooperation.

So far, China has deep cooperation with Germany, Uruguay and other countries through high-level visits.

Chinese Brand Automobiles Grow Popular in RussiaA manufacturer of Chinese brand automobiles in Russia's Caucasus has seen a 30 percent increase in annual production, indicating the growing popularity of Chinese made vehicles.

Derways, a manufacturer located in southwest Russia, has established cooperative ties with four Chinese automobile manufacturers: Lifan, Geely, Great Wall and Haima.

The annual production amount makes up 60 percent of the total numbers of Chinese brand automobiles manufactured in Russia.

The director of Derways marketing department says the growing popularity of Chinese brand automobiles in Russia has helped Derways to become the largest automobile assembly plant in the Caucasus region.

"The quality, design and comfort level have always been improving and in this sense the industry of Chinese brand automobiles has great potential. Currently speaking, we have made the correct choice."A local taxi company, which was newly founded last November, purchased 66 Lifan brand cars considering their outstanding cost effectiveness and comparatively low fuel consumption.

Last month also saw the set-up of a twelfth 4S store of Great Wall automobiles in Moscow.

Beijing Refuses High Emission Vehicles Entry into City to Improve Air QualityBeijing municipal authorities have tightened inspections on vehicle emissions at 19 entrances to the city.

Gao Yuan, chief of the Supervision Division of Beijing Administration Center on Motor Vehicle Emission, says vehicles that do not meet the standards will be turned away.

"The high-emission vehicles give out excessive black smoke with a high amount of PM, or particulate matter. The pollutant will spread to the downtown area and worsen the capital's air quality at night."Gao says, since Beijing began strengthening supervision on motor vehicles, few high pollutant vehicles can be seen on the city roads.

However, some heavy-duty trucks can still be spotted on the city's fourth and fifth ring roads at night.

Over 56-thousand vehicles were refused at the city entrances between January and November last year.

Now, the Beijing city government is releasing real-time air-quality data on its official website 24 hours a day.

The government says the much-anticipated PM2.5 readings will be made available in 10 days.

Ministry of Health to Call off Hospital Drug MarkupChinese Ministry of Health has vowed to call off the rule that allows public hospitals to add a markup on drug's wholesale prices.

But experts point out that much more needs to be done to lower the high medicine cost.

He Fei has more.

The soaring price of hospital prescription drugs is believed to be a fundamental problem in China's healthcare system.

Back in the 1950s, due to the lack of government funding, the central authorities resorted to the policy allowing public hospitals to add a 15 per cent markup on drugs' original purchase prices.

The policy has enabled hospitals to generate revenue as state subsidies continued to shrink.

Liu Guo'en, a professor from Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, points out the problem with the policy.

"This markup policy directly provides incentives to hospitals to seek more expensive drugs. This could create incentives to doctors to over-prescribe. "The Ministry of Health now sets to abolish the policy nationwide by 2015.

Currently, the revenues of public hospitals mainly derive from three sources: namely drug sales, medical service fees and state subsidies.

Statistics released by the State Council show that by 2009 drug sales accounted for up to 60 per cent of hospitals' income, while government funding covers only 10 percent of their operating costs.

Gu Xin is head of the national new healthcare reform research team.

"If hospitals can not make profits from drug sales, and if the current medical service fees are too low to sustain their operation, then governments will need to subsidize their expenses."But hospital administrators worry that state subsidies alone will not be enough to keep hospitals afloat.

Ma Xiaowei, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Health, says an alternative way to fill the deficiency is for hospitals to lift medical service charges.

And to make medical services affordable, Gu Xin believes they must do more than merely cut down the 15 per cent markup.

"The key is to increase the proportion that should be covered by health insurance."Currently, how much a patient can claim from the health insurance is based on the type of drugs used in medical treatment. Gu Xin suggests that if the insurance is offered based on the type of disease, it will limit the incentives for doctors to prescribe expensive drugs.

As the first step of the program, the new policy to cut down hospital markup rate is set to run in 300 counties later this year.

For CRI, I'm He Fei.

China to Blacklist Products with Quality ProblemsChina will establish a blacklist of businesses that follow shoddy business practices. This information will be shared with the public.

Experts believe the move will prompt potential lawbreakers to re-address their approach towards doing business.

Wu Jia has more.

Among the central government's renewed measures designed to address the issue, the establishment of a credit system for products and projects appears to be the most attractive option.

Such a system will include the drawing up of a blacklist of companies for failing to meet quality standards.

Qiu Baochang is head of the lawyers group at the China Consumers' Association.

"Such a system should be in place as soon as possible. Many discredited enterprises were not given appropriate punishments, neither in administrative areas nor in the market. They are still able to produce and sell products that fail quality requirements."Currently, if an enterprise engages in a form of malpractice which is not considered severe enough to constitute a criminal penalty, they are handed a cash fine. Evidence suggests that this form of punishment often fails to deter further wrongdoings.

Qiu Baochang says the market economy is not only a legal economy, but also an economy of integrity. Consumers are unlikely to buy anything from enterprises that are blacklisted, meaning that these enterprises will be automatically removed from the market. For this reason, it is thought the blacklist will prompt enterprises to act prudently.

Sun Shuxia, a professor with the China Health Care Association, says the blacklist system should also include an awards mechanism.

"With a system that encourages the public to report malpractice to the authorities, the blacklist system would be more efficient. We should work out a detailed plan on how to award those who inform the authorities of poor business practice."The proposed credit system is scheduled to be built up later this year. It will mainly target manufacturers of food, building materials, agricultural products and small and medium sized enterprises.

Qiu Baochang suggests that a points system should be utilized.

"It's like managing driving licenses; you get 12 points in total, and points are deducted according to the rules. There should be a warning prior to an enterprise being blacklisted."In China, the amount of the points deducted from a license for committing a driving offence ranges from 1-12 points each time depending on the degree of seriousness. Losing a total of 12 points within a year will lead to a driving ban.

Qiu Baochang says a similar approach may effectively expel those businesses which constantly fail to meet quality standards. Meanwhile, the enterprises which make minor mistakes or unintentionally break the law are given a chance to improve their practices.

For CRI, I'm Wu Jia.

Chinese Solar Companies Face Heavy Tariffs in the USChina is the world's largest solar module producer. From 2008 to 2010, China's export volume of solar cells and modules increased by 3 and half times. But on October 18 last year, the U.S. government was asked to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese solar products.

Zhong Qiu has more details.

The tariffs were called for based on the argument that China-based producers have been heavily subsidized and are selling solar products at unfairly low prices.

Richard Weiener, the legal counsel of Chinese solar companies in the US, explains.

"The lawsuit is very complicated. The American government has to investigate 40 items of Chinese government subsidies and then make a decision."Another investigation targeting Chinese solar companies has already started. A number of domestic companies have received letters from lawyers which accuse them of infringing American companies' intellectual property rights based on Article 337 of the American Tariff Act of 1930.

Expert with Peking University, Zhang Pin explains:

"The first sentence of this article says that should any foreign company violate the Intellectual Property Rights of American companies, Article 337 will be invoked immediately. Chinese companies have been suffering from it a lot, and some European companies have fallen victim to this act. They have conducted legal action against the use of it."According to Li Lei, a lawyer with Sheng De Law office, the Article 337 investigation has much more influence on Chinese companies.

"The anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation is only aimed at pricing. If the company fails, it can still export products by paying high taxes. But if you are judged to be infringing upon U.S. Intellectual Property, you can't sell products in America at all."Aside from that, if one company is ruled to be in infringement of U.S. intellectual property rights, the U.S. International Trade Commission has the right to forbid the products of all similar Chinese companies permanently from entering the American market.

The productivity of China's four major solar companies takes up more than half of the country's total production. At present, one of the four is already being investigated as part of the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation, and another two are likely to become involved.

For CRI, I'm Zhong Qiu.

Shanghai DailyShanghai Daily is reporting that Shanghai is considering ending the security checks at Metro stations. The city's politics and law committee says it's considering replacing the x-ray scanners with manual checks and police dogs. They haven't given a timeline but say local police have already begun working on the details of the replacement plan. Shanghai launched the security checks in 2010 for the Shanghai World Expo. However, it's claimed the current system is expensive and ineffective.

With some even saying the security checks have no function because some inspectors have been seen sleeping behind the screens of the scanners, while others never use their inspection wands. The committee says other foreign cities like Tokyo and Moscow don't have these large-scale security checks on their subway systems. They're saying police dogs will be able to sniff out banned materials and public safety will still be maintained.

XinhuaXinhua is reporting that a large diamond deposit has been discovered in Liaoning province. Officials say the site could be mined for more than 30 years. The deposit in Wafangdian, contains an estimated 200 kilograms of diamonds and is the largest discovery in the province in the past three decades. The diamonds are also apparently high grade and could be worth up to several billion yuan. Exploration work on the site is going to continue over the next three years and geologists are hoping to find more diamond deposits. Diamond resources are mainly found in South Africa, India and Siberia however this is the largest discovery in the world in the past ten years. However, there are no immediate plans to exploit the site and diamond prices in the country are not expected to drop due to the news. And those thinking of heading to Liaoning to dig up a precious gem for themselves are out of luck. Officials say diamonds are a national resource that cannot be exploited by individuals.

NY TimesThe New York Times is reporting that an iphone ringtone interrupted a performance by the New York Philharmonic orchestra. The unusual part of the story though, is that the conductor Alan Gilbert stopped the performance and requested it be turned off. The phone however, continued to ring prompting uproar in the Lincoln Centre. The angry crowd began to yell out in disgust until finally the man in the front row realised it was his phone and silenced it. The audience broke into applause at the silence and the performance continued. The man who is being called patron X was interviewed by the New York Times and says he had just received the new phone from work and had no idea it was his device making the noise. He says he's a 20-year subscriber to the orchestra and is friendly with several of its members. He also says the Lincoln centre contacted him afterwards to ensure it never happens again. He has even spoken to the conductor who has accepted his apology and says he's sorry the man had go through such humiliation.

Market UpdateStock markets in the US and Europe plunged Friday when reports of an imminent downgrade first appeared, and the euro fell to a 17-month low.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.4 percent to 12,422. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.5 percent 1,290. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.5 percent to 2,711.

London's FTSE 100 lost 0.5 percent 5637. Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.6 percent to 6143. And CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.1 percent to 3196.