In This Edition

 

UN Doha climate talks reach weak commitment by rich nations after overnight negotiations.

European leaders discuss economic forecast and regional crises at the World Policy Conference in Cannes, France.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced he is running for a fourth term as Italy's head of government.

And China's aviation workers are urged to improve English-language proficiency to meet the needs of increased global appeal of domestic airlines.

 

Hot Issue Reports

 

Doha Climate Talks Reach Weak Commitment by Rich Nations

 

UN climate talks in Doha, Quatar, have adopted a package of drafts of low-ambitious second period of Kyoto Protocol and weak commitment on climate finance after overnight negotiations on differences between developed and developing countries.

 

Conference President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Atiiyah said the agreement on the Kyoto Protocol would apply from 2013 till 2020. Its first commitment period expires at the end of this year.

 

The European Union-led group have pledged to join the second period of the Kyoto Protocol, while the United States, Japan, Canada and Russia, among others, insist on keeping away from the treaty despite international criticism.

 

German environment minister, Peter Altmaier believes the outcome of Doha talks is a positive move that offers a solid basis for the future.

 

"I believe this compromise was good, it offers a solid basis for our work over the next two years and what I've noticed in particular is a sense of solidarity that goes beyond what we have seen in previous conferences, especially in Copenhagen."

 

British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey says it's important that the world moves in the right direction.

 

"It's not just about paving the way for 2020 it is about increasing ambitions now in the run up to 2020 and I think there has been some steps in that direction, so I think that is positive and I know some people will be disappointed and would want more."

 

However, no tougher emission reduction goals were announced by the developed countries, although they are urged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

 

The Group 77 and China have proposed that developed countries raise 20 billion dollars per year between 2013 and 2015 for " medium-term" climate fund as the long-term finance falls into uncertainty in the wake of global economic downturn.

 

European Leaders Discuss Economic Forecast at the WPC

 

European leaders have focused on economic forecast and the sovereign debt crisis at the World Policy Conference in Cannes, France.

 

Commenting on the financial woes in the Euro-zone, European Commission's Vice President Joaquin Almunia said that he expected a rebound in 2013.

 

"The positive impact of the adjustments, of the structural reforms, of the decisions that have been taken, will be there, improving the fundamentals, the main imbalances in the Euro area, in the European Union. So I hope that in the second part of 2013, growth figures will start to improve, and hopefully in 2014 positive figures will come back again."

 

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti defended his economic reforms at the meeting.

 

"We have done structural reforms that neither the centre-right nor the centre-left party could have done single-handedly."

 

Uncertainty in Italy's politics is rising after the party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi withdrew its support for Monti's coalition government days ago.

 

The World Policy Conference prides itself on being an independent conference, where heads of state and leading commentators can discuss hot topics freely.

 

This year's delegates are meeting under the thematic umbrella of global governance.

 

ECB Downgrades Outlook for Eurozone Economy

 

The European Central Bank has sharply downgraded its outlook for the eurozone economy next year after holding interest rates at a record low of 0.75 percent.

 

The bank puts gross domestic product in a range of falling by 0.9 percent to growing by just 0.3 percent next year, suggesting contraction is far more likely than not.

 

In September, the ECB had penciled in a significantly higher range of -0.4 to +1.4 percent for the euro-area economy.

 

ECB President Mario Draghi now says downside risks prevail.

 

"The Governing Council continues to see downside risks to the economic outlook for the euro area. These are mainly related to uncertainties about the resolution of sovereign debt and governance issues in the euro area, geopolitical issues and fiscal policy decisions in the United States possibly dampening sentiment for longer than currently assumed, and delaying further the recovery of private investment, employment and consumption."

 

Draghi also says the ECB has decided to leave its main interest rate unchanged because of high indirect taxes and increasing energy prices in some eurozone countries.

 

Berlusconi Prepares to Run for Premiership Again

 

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has announced that he is running for a fourth term as Italy's head of government.

 

Berlusconi said he is confident to achieve victory despite his Freedom People Party has gained far less popularity than other centre-leftist parties, according to the opinion polls.

 

"ˇI return in despair to politics and I'm doing it again for a sense of responsibility. In everyone's opinion we needed a credited leader but we couldn't find this leader, alas, a man like Berlusconi in 1994. It's not that we didn't look for him, we certainly looked for him, but there is no-one."

 

No date has yet been set for the parliamentary elections.

 

Berlusconi decided earlier to take the support of his Freedom People Party away from prime minister Mario Monti's government. Analysts say the move would prompt Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano to dissolve the legislature and call early elections.

 

Berlusconi resigned in November 2011 with Italy tottering through the European debt crisis. He was later convicted of tax fraud and has faced sexual misconduct allegations.

 

Bomb Blast Kills Three in Kenya's Capital

 

A bomb blast in a Somali district of the Kenyan capital Nairobi has killed three people and wounded at least fifteen, including a local lawmaker, Yusuf Hassan.

 

It was the second explosion in Nairobi's Eastleigh suburb since Wednesday night. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

 

Adan Dualle, a member of Kenya's parliament, said the injured lawmaker was out of danger.

 

"For now, we are happy he's out of danger. He is talking to us, and he is being attended to. His bodyguard was also injured, but he is also out of danger and being attended to by the medics."

 

Tensions have risen in the past two months in Eastleigh.

 

It was not clear if Hassan, a former journalist at the BBC, was the target of the attack.

 

On Wednesday, a makeshift bomb was detonated in the region, wounding at least nine people.

 

In mid-November, a bomb ripped through a commuter minibus, which sparked a day of street battles between Kenyan nationals and ethnic Somalis.

 

The attacks in Kenya have intensified since Kenyan troops joined the African Union peacekeeping force last year to fight against al Shabaab's last stronghold of Kismayu.

 

Obama Renews Call for Middle-Class Tax Cuts

 

U.S. President Barack Obama has again called on Congress to extend the tax cuts set to expire at the end of this month for middle-class taxpayers.

 

At the same time, he called for rise in taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.

 

In his weekly address on Sunday, Obama warned about the consequences if the tax cuts for the middle class are not extended.

 

"If Congress does nothing, every family in America will see their income taxes automatically go up on January 1st. A typical middle-class family of four would get a $2,200 tax hike. That would be bad for families, it would be bad for businesses, and it would drag down our entire economy."

 

He went on to say that the situation can be prevented.

 

"Now, Congress can avoid all this by passing a law that prevents a tax hike on the first $250,000 of everybody's income. That means 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses wouldn't see their income taxes go up by a single dime."

 

He also said that raising taxes on the wealthiest will generate revenue to reduce the national U.S. deficit.

 

So far Republicans have opposed his plan, preferring to find new revenues by closing loopholes and reducing deductions.

 

Light News

 

Mo Yan: I'm a Storyteller

 

Chinese writer Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, says he earned the prize as a "storyteller".

 

Speaking in a lecture at the Swedish Academy, he talked about how he started story telling as a child, and he shared with the listeners his memory of his childhood.

 

"I'm a storyteller and thus winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. There happened many fantastic stories after I won the prize. These stories make me firmly believe that truth and justice do exist. I will continue telling my stories in the days to come."

 

Mo Yan, a pseudonym for Guan Moye, was born in 1955 and grew up in Shandong province in eastern China. His parents were farmers.

 

He was announced winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature in October. The Swedish Academy said back then that the Chinese writer merges folk tales, history and the contemporary with hallucinatory realism.

 

Torbjorn Loden, a Swedish sinologist, said Mo Yan's writings stand out among the many Chinese writers.

 

"To my mind, what makes Mo Yan rather exceptional among Chinese writers is that his sort of deeply ankle in the Chinese soil. His language is very authentic. His stories can really make readers interested in and it's rather easy to understand."

 

One of Mo Yan's noted novels is "Red Sorghum", adapted for film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou in 1987.

 

Mo Yan will attend the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony and the Nobel Banquet on Monday.

 

Nobel Medicine Laureates Give Lectures before Award Ceremony

 

Britain's John Gurdon and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka, winners of this year's Nobel Prize for medicine, have given their traditional Nobel lectures in Stockholm.

 

The lectures are part of the official Nobel Week program of activities for the laureates ahead of the royal award ceremony on Monday.

 

79-year-old Gurdon and 50-year-old Yamanaka discovered ways to create tissue that would act like embryonic cells without the need to collect the cells from embryos.

 

Gurdon explained his scientific findings at the lecture in Stockholm.

 

"I think the interaction between egg and nucleus leading eventually to reprogramming can really be summarized as a battle between the egg and the nucleus. And at the moment, I would say the egg is doing very well, but the nucleus is slightly better, and we need to realize the full potential."

 

Gurdon's 1962 clone of a frog eventually give rise to Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal.

 

He shares this year's Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology with fellow stem cell research pioneer Yamanaka.

 

The Nobel committee has said that the pair had "revolutionized" science.

 

Japanese React Calmly to 7.3-Magnitude Quake

 

Residents of Miyagi prefecture damaged by Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami reacted calmly to a 7.3-magnitude tremor on Friday.

 

The tremor triggered a one-meter-high tsunami near the port town of Ishinomaki.

 

Some residents say they were not as scared as when the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit east Japan last year.

 

"No, no I wasn't scared at all. I've seen it all before. I've been in this dangerous position many times."

 

But others are still panic-stricken.

 

"Before last year, people said everything would be fine, because no one had really experienced a quake here before. But it turned out this area was one of the hardest hit places. So this time around, it was different because we had no idea what would happen next. We just made sure we could escape if we had to."

 

So far, five people in the prefecture have been slightly injured.

 

Nearly 20,000 people died in the 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011. The ensuing tsunami severely devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and triggered one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world.

 

China's Aviation Industry Insiders to Strengthen English Skills for Globalization

 

Several Chinese airlines and other aviation industry companies gathered Friday in Beijing for a seminar to discuss the importance of English-language proficiency for those who work in the sector to accelerate the global appeal of domestic airlines. CRI's Wei Tong has more.

 

Reporter: What level of English does a Chinese pilot need to operate aircraft in international airspace? This was one of the many issues at the seminar during which a number of domestic airlines expressed a strong will to improve their employees' English skills.

 

Song Qinghua, assistant director in charge of aviation personnel language training in China at the International Air Transport Association, spoke at the event. He pointed out that the poor English skills most Chinese pilots demonstrate are usually to blame for miscommunication incidents.

 

"Due to a lack of proficiency in English, sometimes pilots and air traffic controllers cannot understand orders in English, which has often caused a number of plane accidents."

 

In 2011, a China Eastern Airlines jet at Osaka airport in Japan took to the skies despite an order to remain on the runway and abort its takeoff. The airline later pledged on its accredited Sina Weibo page that it would further regulate its flight crews' English-language communications to ensure flight safety.

 

Zhao Honghai, an official in charge of education and training at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, explained at the seminar how Chinese pilots and flight attendants must meet a certain level of English proficiency.

 

"Our employees who work for the airlines are required to be able to smoothly communicate with international passengers in accurate English. In the meantime, we have also set a goal for those who work in relevant service sectors so that they express their ideas more correctly and accurately in English to better exhibit the charm of our Chinese culture."

 

Another factor forcing better English communication skills has been the expansion of China's civil aviation market. The move has introduced fierce competition and placed domestic airlines under intense pressure to improve the English skills of their flight crews. Song Qinghua explains.

 

"Chinese aviation's 'go global' strategy includes more domestic airlines adding new international routes and more international airlines increasing their numbers of flights to China. With foreign airlines' participation in the fierce market competition, domestic airlines have been forced to increase their competitiveness by stepping up their training of high-end talent, particularly professionals who have the advantage of already being good at English."

 

The International Air Transport Association, an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Canada, represents some 240 airlines comprising 84 percent of scheduled international air traffic.

 

The association estimates that the number of airline passengers worldwide will reach 3.6 billion in 2016, witnessing an annual growth rate of 5.3 percent since 2012.

 

With the number of airline passengers who traveled internationally at 2.8 billion in 2011, the association predicts 193 million of the newly added 800 million passengers over the next four years will board Chinese airlines or depart from cities in China.

 

Johan Nordqvist, Regional Vice President for Asia at EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions who participated in the seminar, expressed an interest on behalf of his company to contribute to the sector's development.

 

"Together with different parts of the aviation industry that serve passengers, such as the airlines, the airports and air traffic control, it's also very much useful for us to understand what's important for the industry here in China?the rest of Asia, for us to improve our services and to help develop the industry."

 

The one-day seminar, jointly hosted by the International Air Transport Association and EF, focused on providing flight crews and other airline personnel in China with English-language training to help them become highly competent in their positions.

 

For CRI, I'm Wei Tong.

 

[Media Digest]

 

China Daily: China-India Border Talks to Promote Regional Peace

 

China and India held an informal meeting on border issues in Beijing this past week. During the meeting, the two sides agreed to find a solution to end their border dispute and not allow differences to undermine their bilateral ties.

 

An editorial in the China Daily newspaper hailed the two countries decision to continue expanding their consensus within the framework for resolving the border issue. It also praised the two nations for pledging to always bear in mind the general picture of bilateral ties and uphold the spirit of peace, friendship, equal consultation, mutual respect and understanding.

 

According to the editorial, it came as good news that China and India had created a constructive atmosphere for resolving the border issue as well as promoting the healthy growth of bilateral ties. It was also good for the region as a whole.

 

The editorial went on to say instead of being competitive rivals, China and India are cooperative partners and have far more common ground than differences.

 

The editorial believes that as China and India are two emerging powers in Asia, every step forward in their development and bilateral ties will have positive impacts on peace, security and cooperation in the region and beyond.

 

Xinhua: Stamping out Party Bureaucracy Requires Long-Term Efforts

 

The newly elected leadership of China's ruling Communist Party has adopted "eight requirements" for how top leaders should improve their work style.

 

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee called for an end to "empty talk" and pointless inspection tours, meetings, circulars and media reports concerning high-ranking officials.

 

The new CPC leadership also asked officials to shun extravagance, saying there should be "no welcome banner, no red carpet" and "fewer traffic controls arranged" for officials' visits.

 

A commentary by Xinhua News Agency says the "eight requirements" show the new leadership's determination to fight the problems of formalism and bureaucracy within the Party, which have caused increasing public concern in recent years.

 

The commentary also points out that the style of officialdom, especially among top officials, has an important impact upon the Party and government as a whole and even on society in general.

 

The Xinhua commentary goes on to say the "eight requirements" emphasize the exemplary role of top officials in improving the Party's work style.

 

However, the commentary warns that formalism and bureaucracy cannot be eradicated in a short time. It stresses that proper implementation is crucial for the "eight requirements" to produce their intended effects.