T-Shirt Island

HEGANG,Heilongjiang, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — The death toll from the deadly coal mine blast in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province rose to 106 with two more bodies retrieved Wednesday morning, said local authorities.

Rescue work continues to search for two still trapped underground.

The blast happened at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the Xinxing Coal Mine under the state-owned Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group’s subsidiary in Hegang City. A total of 528 miners were working underground when the blast happened.

Safety officials and investigators have blamed poor management and inadequate safety precautions for the coal mine blast.

SHANGHAI, November 25, 2009 - Chinese shares edged down 0.18 percent by midday Wednesday in cautious trade amid lingering concerns that Beijing may tighten its monetary policy, dealers said.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, was down 5.88 points, at 3,217.64.

The key index shed 3.45 percent in the previous session, marking the biggest single day percentage loss in about three months.

“Yesterday’s tumble didn’t cause a stampede to sell today, so I would say Chinese stocks are holding up pretty well,” Huatai Securities analyst Zhou Lin told Dow Jones Newswires.

But uncertainties posed by an annual government conference on next year’s economic planning, which is expected to be held before the end of this month, continued to weigh on sentiment, traders said.

The Shanghai A-share index fell 6.46 points, or 0.19 percent, to 3,375.17, while the Shenzhen A-share index rose 8.25 points, or 0.67 percent, to 1,242.10.

The vice-foreign minister said the RMB rate’s flexibility may widen, echoing the nation’s central bank a month ago.

The announcement by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun comes after the People’s Bank of China, which has the power to oversee the yuan and financial institutions, said it was in the process of reforming the exchange rate system.

China is also starting to receive more international pressure to let its currency appreciate. The nation adopted the policy of loosely pegging the RMB to the US dollar since the financial recession began.

“China will increase the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate at a controllable level in the future,” Zhang said, “based on the market demand and with reference to a basket of currencies.”

But he said, China will further work on the exchange rate policy on its own initiative and in a constructive and controllable manner.

Foreign exchange rates are expected to be the focus of the 12th China-European Union Summit scheduled next week in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. The affluent Jiangsu province accounted for 18 percent of the total China-EU trade volume last year.

Three EU policymakers are due to hold talks in Nanjing a day before the summit with Premier Wen Jiabao and central bank officials, the Ministry of Finance as well as with the National Development and Reform Commission on Nov 29.

The trio are European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet; Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker; and Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s commissioner for economic and monetary affairs.

The summit, initiated in 1998, will be co-chaired by Wen, European Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Newly elected EU president Herman Van Rompuy and foreign policy head Catherine Ashton are not coming to the summit as they prepare for their new roles.

At the summit, China hopes to forge a common stance with Europe against protectionism, said Sun Yongfu, director of the Department of European Affairs with the Ministry of Commerce.

“We welcome more products from foreign countries to China and also from the EU,” Sun said.

China and the EU will also discuss ways to tackle climate change at the summit, Zhang said.

“The upcoming China-EU summit is very important leading up to the Copenhagen conference,” he said.

This will be the second China-EU Summit and the third meeting between leaders from both sides this year.

The last China-EU Summit was held in Prague in May, postponed from last December by China after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with the Dalai Lama.

“The EU is practical in economic ties with China but ideal-oriented in human rights and values,” said Zhao Junjie, an expert in European studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Lorena Ochoa and Jiyai Shin’s duel for LPGA player of the year fittingly came down to the final hole of the season.

Anna Nordqvist won the LPGA Tour Championship on Monday and Ochoa finished second to earn the top player title for the fourth consecutive year.

The 22-year-old Nordqvist shot a final-round 65 to finish 13 under par. Ochoa was two strokes back and won the top player honor when Shin couldn’t chip in for birdie from the front of the 18th hole.

“I always say that I want to stay on top as long as I continue playing, so this is just a great year for me,” Ochoa said. “It’s been tough in many different ways, but the important thing is I’m at the top.”

Shin led Ochoa by eight points (156-148) in the race entering the tournament. Once Ochoa secured second place, Shin had to finish no worse than seventh to win the player of the year award. Point totals are based on top-10 results.

Shin seemed to take the inside track when Ochoa needed two shots to escape a greenside bunker on the par-3 17th hole. Ochoa sank a bogey putt, virtually ending her chances of winning the tournament, as Shin and Nordqvist watched from the tee.

But Shin also hit a bunker on the 17th, blasted out short of the green and bogeyed.

Ochoa dropped her approach to the 18th hole about 16 feet away and studied the leaderboard as she walked to the green. She and caddie Greg Johnston talked about the situation before Ochoa curled in the putt, giving a modest fist pump after it fell.

Shin’s second shot to the 18th hole stopped a few feet off the green. Her chip missed the hole by inches and Ochoa patted her heart, embraced Johnston and held back tears near the scorers’ tent.

“I’m happy I can make history, and my goal is to continue that,” said Ochoa, who’s getting married in two weeks. “Hopefully, I’m going to get back home and work hard and be ready for next year.”

The 21-year-old South Korean fell short in her bid to win the rookie and player of the year awards. Nancy Lopez remains the only player to sweep both titles, in 1978.

The good-natured Shin was still smiling after coming up short.

“I learned a lot from this year,” she said. “I need more focus, concentration, and everything. I really made my goals. I just missed player of the year, but I still had a good year.”

Ochoa also won her fourth straight Vare Trophy, honoring the season’s lowest scoring average. Ochoa and Shin were separated by decimal points in that race award coming into the tournament.

Though she was constantly aware of where she stood with Shin, Ochoa said she never lost focus on the task at hand.

“I was just trying to win the tournament, so I didn’t have to worry about how she finished, or the points at the end of the day,” Ochoa said. “I’m just really proud of the way I finished.”

Nordqvist, meanwhile, earned her second career victory and made it through the season without missing a cut in 15 starts. She also won the LPGA Championship this year.

Shin and Nordqvist played in the day’s final group, right behind Ochoa. The Houstonian Golf and Country Club was still soggy after more than an inch of weekend rain and players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls.

Nordqvist surged to the lead at 12 under with five consecutive birdies between Nos. 8-12. She bogeyed the 13th, then added birdies on 14 and 15 to settle the tournament and clear the way for Ochoa and Shin to decide their duel.

“I definitely tried to be aggressive,” Nordqvist said. “It was pretty tight up the leaderboard, so you were really going to have to shoot low in order to pull it off. I’m just very, very happy that I did.”

Na Yeon Choi (64) and second-round leader Kristy McPherson (70) finished 10 under, tied for third. A trio of players finished 7 under and Shin’s costly par dropped her into a four-way tie for eighth.

Choi surged up the leaderboard in the early afternoon with a 30 on the front nine. She holed a 175-yard shot from the ninth fairway and birdied the 10th hole to reach 10 under.

Shin struggled to make putts on the front nine and didn’t make her first birdie until No. 11. By then, Ochoa was within a shot of the lead. But Ochoa dropped shots at Nos. 8 and 9, and Nordqvist to zip past her.

Ochoa got back on track with an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 15, setting up the dramatic finish.

The event was shortened to 54 holes after weekend rains forced long delays. The second round was completed Monday morning, the cut was made and the third round began immediately in sunny, calm conditions.

NEW YORK, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — New arena building plan for the New Jersey Nets survived after New York’s top court ruled Tuesday that the state can use eminent domain to force homeowners and businesses to sell their properties for a massive development in Brooklyn.

In a 6-1 ruling Tuesday, the Court of Appeals said the Empire State Development Corp.’s finding that the area was blighted was enough to justify taking the land.

A group of tenants and owners claim the seizure is unconstitutional. They argue that developer Bruce Ratner’s proposed 4.9 billion dollars, 22-acre Atlantic Yards project mainly enriches private interests, while the state constitution requires public use for taking land.

Ratner’s proposed development includes office towers, apartments and a new arena for the NBA’s Nets. A key element in his plan is selling majority team ownership to Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Prokhorov.

In a prepared statement, Ratner said construction will continue, with the intent that the Nets will play ball there in the 2011-2012 season.

“Once again the courts have made it clear that this project represents a significant public benefit for the people of Brooklyn and the entire city,” Ratner said.

“Our commitment to the entire project is as strong today as when we started six years ago.”

The attorney for homeowners and tenants who declined to sell after the project was announced in 2003 said the fight isn’t over. Matthew Brinckerhoff said his clients will oppose the ESDC when the urban development agency goes to court in Brooklyn in the second step of the process to take the properties.

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — China has extended its anti-porn campaign to mobile WAP sites, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Tuesday.

The effort will last until the end of this year because the porn WAP sites have a long invisible chain involving overseas sources which adds to its complexity, an official with the ministry said.

WAP sites can be accessed by a mobile phone.

The official said the campaign will be focused on Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Anhui, where many WAP sites are registered.

China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (CIIRC) said Tuesday the tip-offs of porn WAP sites it received have been on the rise.

The MPS and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology initiated a campaign in August to eradicate lewd contents from the Internet.

Latest statistics showed 1,179 people have been detained and 6,972 websites and online columns have been shut down. Among them,586 were porn mobile WAP sites and columns.

During the campaign, authorities in Shanghai detained seven people for profiting from lewd items through mobile WAP sites. The authorities in neighboring Zhejiang Province busted a ring specializing in spreading porn content via more than 100 WAP sites and arrested 38

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday on lackluster economic data in a session marked by low volume and choppy trading, but losses eased after the Federal Reserve raised its expectations for growth in 2010.

Stocks fell early in the session as revised government data on gross domestic product showed the U.S. economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the third quarter.

Hewlett-Packard Co shares led the Dow industrials lower a day after the technology bellwether said in its results that the U.S. economy remained challenging.

With the S&P 500 up 22 percent so far this year, investors were struggling to justify additional gains after a series of middling economic reports.

However, the downbeat mood was tempered after the Fed revised upward its growth expectation for 2010, while minutes of the FOMC’s most recent meeting showed officials are increasingly confident about a durable recovery for the U.S. economy.

“You’re getting the cross-current of weak revisions to third-quarter data matrixed against the Fed increasing the growth estimates for the economy for the next year,” said Jim Awad, managing director at Zephyr Management in New York.

“But the action in the market is moderate going into the holiday weekend and I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

The U.S. stock market will be closed on Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving Day. On Friday, it will be open for only half a day due to the holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 17.24 points, or 0.16 percent, to end at 10,433.71. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) inched down just 0.59 of a point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,105.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 6.83 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,169.18.

Hewlett-Packard Co fell 1.6 percent to $50.19 a day after the blue-chip computer and printer maker reported a quarterly profit that matched its preliminary results, but said the economy remained challenging.

HP also said it saw growth in its share of U.S. enterprise personal computers, which is rival Dell Corp’s key market. Dell’s stock fell 3.2 percent to $14.32 and ranked as a top drag on the Nasdaq 100.

Financial stocks showed weakness throughout the session. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) slid 1.9 percent to $42.48 and ranked among the heaviest weights on the blue-chip Dow industrials. The KBW bank index fell 0.7 percent.

Zephyr Management’s Awad said there is concern about banks’ capital after news that the Fed asked lenders that were part of its “stress tests” to submit plans to repay government money.

U.S. home prices rose in September, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, but the increase was less robust than forecast. Home prices for that month were unchanged, according to a separate report from the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index fell 1.7 percent.

Volume was light on the New York Stock Exchange, where only about 952 million shares changed hands, far below last year’s estimated daily average of 1.49 billion. On the Nasdaq, about 1.87 billion shares traded, well below last year’s daily average of 2.28 billion.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a ratio of about 8 to 7. On the Nasdaq, about three stocks fell for every two that rose.

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SYDNEY, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees said on Tuesday the choice of Sydney as a venue for a FIFA-organised fan park during the 2010 World Cup is a positive sign in Australia’s bid to host the event.

Sydney has been selected as one of seven sites worldwide for a official FIFA Fan Fest site during the World Cup finals in South Africa.

The other cities selected are London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro as well as all nine host cities in South Africa.

Rees said the choice of Sydney was a boost for the bid with five of the other live site cities - London, Paris, Rome and Berlin - having previously hosted the World Cup final.

“Five of the other cities have hosted a World Cup final. Rio is likely to host the World Cup final in 2014,” Rees told reporters.

“We don’t want to raise expectations too high but we can only interpret it as a positive sign,” Rees said.

The Sydney site at Darling Harbour is expected to attract 30,000 fans a night, with all 64 matches of the tournament to be shown live on giant screens.

The coverage of the matches will be complimented with pre-match and post match concerts and other performances.

The site will also be linked to other live sites across the globe and the official broadcast coverage which will have a cumulative audience for the 64 games of about 30 billion people in214 countries.

The exposure will be invaluable as Australia bids to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.

The 2010 World Cup will be the first time the Fan Fest concept has been taken internationally

SHANGHAI – The virus that causes AIDS is now spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend demanding new strategies to stave off a rebound in the epidemic after years of progress in containing it, a United Nations report said.

Data show that 40 percent of new HIV infections diagnosed in China were acquired through heterosexual contact, with homosexual sex accounting for 32 percent and most of the remainder related to drug abuse, which was previously the main source of infections and the government’s main focus for prevention.

The rate of infections through heterosexual sex in China tripled between 2005-2007, according to the report released Tuesday in Shanghai by UNAIDS. Since 2007, the number of infections through homosexual sex has more than doubled.

“We are transitioning. We are seeing a shift in the nature of the epidemic,” said Michel Sidibe, executive director for UNAIDS. Similar trends in Asia and Africa highlight the need to focus on populations most at risk, such as migrants and sex workers, he said.

“We need to ensure resource allocation is responding to that change,” Sidibe said.

China’s health minister, Chen Zhu, reported that as of the end of October, the number of Chinese confirmed to be living with HIV-AIDS was 319,877, up from 264,302 last year and 135,630 reported in 2005. But Chen said the actual level of infections is probably near 740,000.

AIDS was the top killer among infectious diseases in China for the first time last year, a fact that may reflect improved reporting of HIV/AIDS statistics in recent years as the country slowly acknowledges the problem.

“In China, we have a long way to go to prevent and control HIV-AIDS,” Chen said, while defending the government’s policies toward the disease as “open and transparent.”

The HIV virus that causes AIDS gained a foothold in China largely due to unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals. But last year, health authorities said sex had overtaken drug abuse as the main cause of HIV infections.

HIV’s spread has been accelerated by China’s thriving sex industry: about 37 million men are estimated to be clients of female sex workers, and surveys show that 60 percent do not regularly use condoms, the UNAIDS report said.

Such factors contributed to a doubling in women’s share of HIV cases in China in the past decade, it said.

China’s policy of tolerating the sex industry while outlawing it has long prevented effective efforts to promote education and testing among sex workers, though Chen said the government intends to improve education and prevention.