A call to relax adoption criteria

 

　　A Chinese lawmaker is calling for the government to make adoption easier amid the increasing number of families who want to adopt.

 

　　Jia Weiping, director of the Shanghai Diabetes Institute, says infertile couples and families who lost their only child have led to the increasing number of families who want to adopt children.

 

　　But strict legal criteria have dissuaded many of them.

 

　　The current law stipulates that adopters must have no children and be above 30-years-old. Each family can adopt only one child and the children also must be younger than 14-years-old.

 

　　Jia said the age of adopters should be younger so young couples who can't have children can adopt earlier, while the age limit on children should be raised.

 

　　He adds that lower standards on adoption allow more orphans to be adopted and protected from being abducted or forced to beg on streets.

 

　　Only a total of 31,000 families were registered to adopt children in 2011, while the estimated number of orphans in China was more than 700,000.

 

　　GLOBAL TIMES

 

　　The top schools in China are seeing a drop in world rankings

 

　　China's two flagship universities both slipped slightly in the recent world's top 100 university rankings.

 

　　According to the 2013 World Reputation Rankings published by the Times: Higher Education magazine, US's Harvard University is the world's top institution, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford.

 

　　In total, the US claimed 43 spots in the top 100 list, followed by Britain with nine universities, Australia with six, and Japan, the Netherlands and Germany each with five.

 

　　East Asian institutions made strong progress in the global index of academic prestige.

 

　　But the Chinese universities, the Tsinghua University and the Peking University slipped from 30th and 38th to 35th and 45th respectively.

 

　　Phil Baty, editor of Times: Higher Education Rankings, suggested Chinese universities embrace internationalization with greater international research collaboration, and a focus on recruitment of international faculty and students.

 

　　The DAILY MAIL

 

　　'locust vision' could stop car crashes

 

　　Scientists have created a revolutionary technology that could save countless lives by preventing car crashes, and it is inspired by locusts.

 

　　The insects have an early warning system which helps them avoid colliding with each other when flying in swarms at high speed.

 

　　Professors from the University of Lincoln have adopted key features of the locusts' system to develop a warning system.

 

　　The system effectively detects approaching objects and avoids them.

 

　　It's not a conventional approach since it doesn't use a radar or infrared sensors, which require very heavy-duty computer processing.

 

　　Instead, it is modeled after the locust's eyes as the basis of the collision avoidance system.

 

　　The technology is expected to make its way into vehicles, which will be a major challenge for the automotive industry.

 

　　CHANNEL-NEWS-ASIA

 

　　smartphone sales will top 900 million in 2013

 

　　A survey showed Smartphone sales are expected to continue growing in 2013 with over 900 million units worldwide, led by gains in big emerging markets from China, Brazil and India.

 

　　The research firm, IDC, said 2013 will be the first year smartphones will outsell the more basic feature phones in the mobile market, and will account for 50% of all mobile phones.

 

　　The research firm said that by the end of 2017, 1.5 billion smartphones will be shipped worldwide, over two-thirds of the total mobile phone market.

 

　　IDC said the growing middle classes in China, Brazil, and India are driving up smartphone sales.

 

　　China, which took over the United States last year as the global leader in smartphone shipments, is expected to see sales of 300 million this year, ahead of the US' 137 million.

 

　　India is expected to become the number three market for smartphones by 2017, and Brazil will be fourth, as those countries overtake mature markets like Japan and Britain.