Welcome to the Beijing Hour, coming to you live from the Chinese capital.

Coming up on our program this morning...

More than 17 hundred homes have been damaged by the earthquake in northwest China's Xinjiang...

The Chinese foreign minister and current security council president Wang Yi has issued a call to stick to the purposes and principals of the UN Charter...

And the Russian President has stated that he believes war between his country and Ukraine is "unlikely..."

We'll also have a special report on China's medical reforms over the past year...

And we'll have a quick look at the results from the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood...

And in the second half of our program, we'll be bringing you a holiday-edition of Frontline.

First, let's check in with what's happening with the weather...

 

 

Weather

 

 

Beijing will be cloudy today with a high of 5 degree Celsius, it will have some snow tonight with a low of minus 2 degrees.

Shanghai will be cloudy with a high of 11, slight rain tonight with a low of 7.

Chongqing, cloudy today with a high of 18, tonight, overcast, 12.

Elsewhere in Asia.

Islamabad, cloudy with a high of 28.

Kabul, rainy, 7.

In North America.

New York will be clear with a low of minus 16 degrees.

Washington, clear, minus 11.

Honolulu, cloudy, high of 28.

Toronto cloudy, minus 21 degrees.

In South America,

Buenos Aires, clear, low of 21.

And Rio de Janeiro will be clear with a high of 23 degrees Celsius.

 

 

Top News

 

 

More than 1,700 houses damaged in Xinjiang earthquake

 

More than 17 hundred homes have been damaged in an earthquake that hit Shawan County in northwest China's Xinjiang.

Thousands of people are affected, though no casualties are reported. Economic losses have been estimated at over 14.5 million US dollars.

The magnitude-5 earthquake was felt in the afternoon on Sunday.

Three teams are carrying out disaster relief in over 130 villages near the epicenter. Work is underway to repair damage.

 

 

China FM issues call to carry forward UN charter at Security Council open debate

 

Anchor

The UN Security Council has held an open debate on the maintenance of international peace and security.

Holding the presidency of the Security Council this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has issued a call to better implement the UN charter and the building of a new-type of international relations.

CRI's UN correspondent Su Yi has more.

Reporter

Diplomats and Foreign Ministers from over seventy countries and organizations participated in Monday's meeting.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is calling on the international community to stick to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

"These basic norms serve the fundamental and collective interests of all countries and peoples. Though written into the Charter 70 years ago, they still have great relevance today and continue to play an indispensable role in maintaining world stability and tranquility."

The UN Charter was adopted on June 25th 1945, right on the eve of the end of the Second World War.

Wang Yi says the Charter affirms humanity's pursuit of lasting peace, defines the basic norms of international relations, and created mechanisms to prevent war.

But the Chinese Foreign Minister says the Charter needs new dimensions.

" Today, 70 years after its creation, the Charter of the UN remains as relevant as ever before. Not only should we stay true to the spirit of the UN Charter, we also need to act along the trend of the times and in line with practical needs to add new dimensions to the Charter and bring to it new dynamism and vitality."

Wang Yi also put forward four dos and don'ts as the principles of international relations.

These principles include upholding peace and preventing conflict, cooperation not confrontation, making sure justice prevails in the world instead of hegemony, and seeking win-win solutions to problems.

"In the world today, countries are more interdependent than ever and their interests are increasingly intertwined. Antiquated thinking, such as the cold-war mentality and zero-sum games, should have long been thrown into the trash bin of history."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon outlines the major changes that have been taking place since the birth of the UN Charter, but he says the Charter is still "valid, valuable and vital".

"The world is starkly different than when the Charter was drafted in San Francisco in 1945. The membership of the United Nations is nearly quadrupled. New powers have emerged. Globalization, urbanization, migration, democratic shifts, technological advances, climate change and other developments continue to remake our societies and transform international relations. Yet the expression of 'we the peoples' enshrined in the Charter remains just as valid, valuable and vital."

The UN chief is calling on the international community to take the opportunity of the 70th anniversary of the UN to look forward.

"We should use this year's observance of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations to seriously reflect on our common enterprise on peace operations, peace building, women's empowerments, disaster risks reduction and much else. We should also seize this year's opportunity to take transformative action on sustainable development and climate change."

The delegates attending Monday's open debate also touched upon a number of global issues apart from the UN missions.

The Security Council open debate is widely seen as opening the curtain for this year's commemorative activities for the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War 2 and the founding of the UN.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi in New York.

 

 

China's Beidou gets infrastructure boost on Qinghai-Tibet plateau

 

Precision infrastructure for the Chinese-made Beidou satellite navigation system will be built on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, part of the effort to create a nationwide base station network for the GPS-like system.

The announcement comes from Qinghai's First Institute of Surveying and Mapping.

The infrastructure includes base station networks, data processing, broadcasting systems, and user terminals.

The Beidou system currently includes 20 satellites.

It began providing precision positioning, real-time navigation, location reporting, precise time readings, and short message services for users in China and Asia Pacific in December of 2012.

The system is scheduled to go global in 2020.

 

 

China completes fishery survey in South China Sea

 

Chinese experts have completed a two-year survey of fishery resources in the middle and southern regions of the South China Sea.

The survey shows that the area around the Nansha Islands has fishery reserves of about 1.8 million tonnes, with about half a million tonnes available for fishing.

The report says more than 20 fish species in the Nansha Islands maritime area are rare or have a high economic value.

The South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute carried out eight survey trips using the country's first domestically produced advanced maritime fishery survey ship, the Nan Feng, beginning in 2013.

 

 

Russia's Vladimir Putin: war with Ukraine 'unlikely'

 

Russian president Vladimir Putin says war with Ukraine is "unlikely".

"Well, I think that such an apocalyptic scenario is hardly possible and it will not go so far."

Putin had been asked for his thoughts on the possibility of a wider conflict, given the current situation in eastern Ukraine and the failure of attempts to stop the fighting.

The Russian leader has stressed his support for the Minsk agreement as the best way to stabilize eastern Ukraine.

The agreement, reached in September, has failed to stop fighting in Ukraine's Donbass region.

Earlier, Ukraine's military said rebel shelling has prevented them from withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line.

 

 

France seizes passports of six 'Syria-bound' nationals

 

The French government has for the first time confiscated passports of 6 nationals who were allegedly leaving for Syria to join jihadists.

This is part of French authorities' new counter-terrorism laws adopted in November, in a bid to keep radicals from gaining violent experience abroad.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve:

"Six travel bans have been signed today and another 40 are in preparation. The measure is due to be amplified in the next weeks, and is aimed to limit the risks of terrorism created by a certain number of our nationals who decide to join the terrorist fighting in Iraq or Syria."

Under the ban, passports and ID cards of the 6 nationals have been declared invalid for 6 months, after which the order could be renewed up to 2 years.

Meanwhile, France has deployed an aircraft carrier off Bahrain to be used against Islamic State militants.

Planes from the Charles de Gaulle carrier will be used against IS positions in Iraq.

 

 

IS kidnaps 56 Christians of Assyrian minority in northern Syria

 

Islamic State militants have kidnapped 56 Syrian Christians in a northern province.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing sources, says the Christians were snatched on Monday from the town of Tal Shamiram in the countryside of the predominantly-Kurdish city of Hasaka.

Several others were captured in a nearby town.

The IS repeatedly attacked minority groups across Syria and most recently in Libya, where group snatched and executed over 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians, branding them the "worshipers of the cross".

 

 

52 IS militants killed in clashes, airstrikes in Iraq

 

Security sources say more than 50 Islamic State militants in Iraq were killed during several clashes that happened on Monday.

That includes an operation in the town of al-Baghdadi, 200 kilometers northwest of the capital, Baghdad.

Parts of the town have been retaken from IS, including the main police headquarters, following heavy fighting.

More than 20 militants were killed in that operation. The number of casualties among the security forces has not been revealed.

Other operations included US airstrikes on IS targets.

 

 

Libya parliament pulls out from UN peace talks

 

Sources in Libya's government say parliament has decided to suspend its participation in UN-brokered peace talks due to what it calls fresh violent attacks.

The House of Representatives made the decision following a vote, resolving to pull out from dialogue with warring factions.

The decision is blamed on a bomb attack on Friday in al-Gubba. Dozens were killed or injured. The House of Representatives accused rival factions of spreading "violence, terrorism, and extremism."

The UN has held several rounds of talks between the opposing parties since September, but clashes continued despite a truce agreement.

The conflict in Libya has caused a humanitarian crisis with at least 120-thousand people displaced, resulting in shortages of food and medical supplies.

The country has been in turmoil since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, leading to civil war in 2011.

 

 

Fresh round of Iran nuke talks to be held next week in Geneva

 

Iran's Foreign Minister says the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and representatives of the P5+1 group will be held on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week, since no substantial agreement has been reached in the latest high-level talks.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian media on Monday that "some progress" was made on certain issues but no final agreement has been made.

"It seems that both parties have managed to both find a better understanding of the negotiated topics and also move forward in some issues. Of course we have always said that there will not be a deal unless there is agreement over all issues, and still we are not at that stage to say agreement has been reached on all issues."

Zarif also says there will be no deal until the Iranian people's rights and nuclear achievements are respected.

It has been well over a year since Iran and world powers agreed to come back to the negotiating table in 2013.

However, wide differences have prevented the sides from reaching a final deal.

The talks have missed two previous deadlines.

 

 

China's catering sector picks up after austerity adjustment

 

Growth in the catering sector in China is picking up following an adjustment that was created by the country's austerity drive.

The China Cuisine Association says revenue last year reached nearly 2.8 trillion yuan, about 445 billion US dollars. That's an increase of nearly 10 percent over the previous year.

The organization expects growth in the double digits this year, with revenues reaching about three trillion yuan.

The sector has been hit hard in recent years, especially high-end catering and dining, with profits dropping sharply.

 

 

China's Medicare Reforms Still An Uphill Battle 5'55

 

Anhcor:

With the Chinese lunar new year underway, we're continuing our series of special reports highlighting some of the significant changes which have taken place in China through 2014.

The year saw new progress in China's medical reforms as its medical insurance program now covers more than 95 percent of the population.

But the overall situation remains tough, drawing public complaints.

Cao Yuwei finds out what has been achieved and what loopholes need to be closed.

Reporter: Limited progress versus fundamental challenges. But as it is New Year's Day, allow me to start with the good news.

China's basic medical insurance system was put into place in 1998. It involves three types of insurance policies focusing on the needs of urban employees, unemployed urban residents and rural residents. The system has evolved to cover more than 1.3 billion people in just 16 years. Almost all-inclusive now. It's average reimbursement rate is about 70 percent.

Zhang Mingjie, a 25-year-old white-collar worker in Lhasa, says she has benefited from the convenience provided.

"I was once operated for appendicitis. The total hospital bill came to 19,700 yuan. But since I had medical insurance, I only paid a fraction of it, or just 1,500 yuan."

That's less than 8%. Affordable.

It's also a similar case with Zhang Mingjie's mother, Zhao Rutao, and grandfather as rural residents in North China's Hebei province. They, too, saved a lot thanks to the insurance policy.

"We pay for the medical insurance once a year and get a card as certificate. With this card, our expenses for hospitalization and medicines can be reimbursed. The reimbursement proportion is now over 50 percent. Years ago that was lower. My father stayed in hospital in November, which cost us 2,840 yuan. More than half of it was reimbursed."

Sounds like bit of happiness for almost everyone. But in case of bigger problems, the benefits are smaller.

Nine provinces and municipalities in China introduced a critical illness insurance scheme in 2012. It covers 22 diseases. When the self-paid part exceeds the local per capita annual income, 50 percent of the self-paid part can be reimbursed through the critical illness insurance policy.

Different medical insurance schemes mean to guarantee that everyone can afford medical treatment. It also prevents families from falling into poverty due to high hospital bills.

But as the critical-illness insurance program exists only in several regions, many people living in poor and remote areas still have to either bear the huge costs or stay away from hospital.

Why so? What sounds ironic is that government has spent much more on public healthcare and the people don't really feel the benefits.

According to the latest Annual Report on Health Reforms released in December, China invested one trillion yuan, or about 160 billion US dollars in the healthcare system in 2014. That's two-thirds more than the average annual figure in the previous five years.

During the five-year-long medical reform process, government investment in healthcare grew by 20 percent each year. But the Annual Report admits that patient's medical burdens have not become any lighter. So where has the money gone?

According to the annual report, the government now does pay a much larger proportion of the total healthcare expenditure, but patients and families are also paying much more due to price hikes of drugs and services.

The reason? The report points to a focus too much on providing universal access to healthcare by building more hospitals as opposed to making it more affordable. Another fraction has been wasted importing more expensive branded drugs instead of cheaper ones. In other words, the money didn't rightly go to the doctor and nurses. Then the hospitals somehow have to rely on more expensive medicine, facilities and services. Or simply, administration corrupts in, taking away money; and market also joins in, writing off the benefits from the real beneficiaries.

To solve these problems Professor Gao Huajun, an expert on social security and welfare at the Beijing Normal University, discusses ways to improve the coverage of the medical insurance scheme.

"If we do well in preventing diseases and providing primary health care services, fewer people will get ill and the government can actually save money spent on the medical insurance system."

Then the existing critical illness insurance policy. Profession Cai Jiangnan from the China Europe International Business School, recommends that the program is treated and implemented separately based on the different incomes of different regions.

[Soundbite 03, Cai, Male, Chinese]

"I think that in economically-developed regions, critical illness insurance can be included in the basic medical insurance, because they have abundant funds for basic medical insurance and use part of the money to cover serious illness, and their premium is higher. But in less-developed regions, it's good for residents to have two forms of insurance."

Now to tackle the very key issue, make investment in the right way, to improve public health and medical services, rather than spending on administration.

The central government, along with the healthcare sector, must plug the many loopholes in the healthcare system through various reforms. But it's proven to be an uphill battle.

For CRI, I'm Cao Yuwei.

 

 

Egypt dissolves 169 Muslim Brotherhood NGOs

 

Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity has ordered the dissolution of 169 non-governmental organizations that have affiliations with the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

The ruling, issued on Monday, is in line with previous orders issued by the Court of Urgent Matters banning the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood and ordering the seizure of all of the group's assets.

The Egyptian government blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

The group had been the power base of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. The government blamed the group for a number of deadly terror attacks across the country and labeled the group a terrorist organization.

That label was affirmed by an Egyptian court in February of last year.

There have been numerous attacks across the country since Morsi was ousted in July of 2013.

 

 

Greece delays reform plan deadline for bailout extension

 

The Greek government has delayed its announcement of reform plans to Tuesday morning, missing a Monday deadline.

The list of reforms aims at securing a bailout extension to EU partners, which must be approved by international creditors to secure a four-month loan extension.

According to Minister of state Nikos Pappas, measures to fight tax evasion and trim the civil service will be included in the reforms.

Analysts say the deal's collapse would revive fears Greece will exit the euro.

The new anti-austerity government has vowed to reverse budget cuts after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won power last month.

 

 

Apple to build European data center in west Ireland

 

Apple has announced it will build a data center in Ireland at a cost of nearly a billion US dollars.

The data center will create about 300 jobs and will be part of Apple's largest data center project in Europe.

The facilities will power Apple's online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps, and Siri.

It is expected to begin operations in 2017.

Another data center is to be built in Denmark.

 

 

Biz Reports

 

 

U.S. stocks ended flat on Monday as a late-afternoon rebound helped pare early losses.

A drop in oil prices weighed on energy companies.

Meanwhile, a pickup in merger-and-acquisition activity in the pharmaceutical industry helped push health-care stocks slightly higher.

At close,

The Nasdaq composite index, even only gained slightly, 0.1 percent, managing to extend its winning streak to a ninth day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 index closed almost flat.

Over in Europe,

Markets there rose after Greece reached a tentative agreement with euro zone creditors over the weekend.

At the closing bell,

The UK's FTSE 100 closed flat.

Germany's DAX added about three quarters of a percent.

And finally France's CAC 40 gained more than three fifth of a percent.

 

 

New 3D scanner helps map baby's brain while inside the womb

 

Anchor:

Doctors in London have found a new technique to map the brains of unborn babies. It is hoped that this new technology may hold the key to finding cures for conditions like autism.

CRI's Poornima Weerasekara has the details.

Reporter:

New State of the art MRI technology is now helping doctors to look at fine nerve fibres, just a few millimetres long which criss-cross through the brain of Laura Crittenden's unborn baby.

Laura, who is pregnant for the second time has volunteered her unborn baby as a study subject for a new cutting edge research project, spearheaded by the Kings College London, Centre for the Developing Brain that aims to create a 3D map of the brain from its earliest foetal stage.

The research team then plans to make it a live model that shows how the baby's brain develops in the womb, over time.

Laura is participating in the study more out of curiosity to see how her baby grows in her womb. But she also knows that problems before, or during birth to a child's brain can have a severe impact on children, but they only becomes apparent years later.

"I'm really, really nosey so I like to know what's going on. I'm quite sort of self aware of what's going on in there, so to actually have the images on top of that is pretty special really, to see what they're doing and how they're growing."

We've known for a long time that our brains are constantly sending messages in the form of electric pulses, but we haven't still been able to map where these signals are going very accurately or the impact they're having.

By understanding the brains assembly from an early stage doctors hope they'll get a better understanding of what happens when things go wrong.

Professor David Edwards is a consultant neonatologist and professor of paediatrics for King College London who is part of this research team.

"Our physicists have made very novel methods of scanning babies which in particular cope with the fact that babies might move, especially before they're born and this ability to take scans during movement is quite a big breakthrough, it means we can start mapping the brain of the foetus as well as the brain of the baby who's been born."

Edwards says until now attempts by scientists to find their way around the brain has been like that of a stranger trying to pinpoint a place in a busy city without even having a basic map.

The map of the brain which he and his team are building is called the Connectome.

"The Connectome will provide a map so that we can understand what's going on in the brain and provide a context for all the other information we have."

Despite advances in genetic medicine, scientists are still uncertain about what causes certain diseases like autism.

Doctors hope that they might be able to solve this puzzle by being able to spot abnormalities and disruptions in foetal brain development early on.

For CRI I'm Poornima Weerasekara

 

 

Turning to entertainment:

 

Highlights from the 87th Academy Awards

 

"Birdman" has captured Hollywood's top honour at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. The jazzy, surreal comedy about an actor fleeing his superhero past won best picture at a ceremony punctuated by passionate pleas for equality.

"Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" also won best director for Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, best original screenplay and best cinematography.

Oscars host Neil Patrick Harris gave the 87th Academy Awards a humorous tone that sought to celebrate Hollywood, while also slyly parodying the all-white slate of nominees for major awards this year.

Julianne Moore won her first Oscar as best actress for "Still Alice."

One of the highlights of the show was Patricia Arquette advocating for wage equality after accepting the Oscar for best supporting actress in "Boyhood", during an emotional outburst at the end of her carefully scripted speech.

For his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21, Eddie Redmayne has won the Academy Award for best actor for "The Theory of Everything".

And Julianne Moore has won the best actress for her role as a university professor with Alzheimer's disease in "Still Alice".