IN BRIEF

Finance

Zhu gets top post at IMF

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde has named Zhu Min, a former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and a special advisor to the IMF managing director, as the Fund's new deputy managing director.

Lagarde has proposed that Zhu assume his duties on July 26, and work closely with the three other deputy managing directors to support the managing director.

Zhu has a wealth of experience in government, international policymaking and financial markets, and strong managerial and communication skills as well as an institutional understanding of the Fund.

Science

Data relay satellite launched

China blasted off a new data relay satellite, Tianlian I-02, this week from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province.

The new satellite will bolster the country's satellite communication network for space docking. The satellite was launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket and it separated from the rocket 26 minutes after launch into a geostationary transfer orbit.

Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the satellite is the country's second data relay satellite.

Cross-straits ties

More cultural exchanges urged

President Hu Jintao has encouraged young people from both sides of the Taiwan Straits to take part in more exchanges and to cooperate with one another during a recent event for cross-Straits youth.

The gathering attracted 10,000 young people from both sides of the Straits and is jointly held by 17 governmental institutions, including the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Education.

Hu and the young people experienced traditional Chinese handcrafts, including woodblock printing, chime playing and also saw a puppet show in the afternoon at the Great Hall of the People.

Environment

Fish released into Yangtze River

A total of 1.3 billion fish was released into the Yangtze River as part of a project that will help restore fishery resources that were affected by a recent drought, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Species of fish released into the river include black carp, grass carp, chubs and bighead carp. The project will also include the planting of 9,000 hectares of aquatic weed, as well as the release of 21 million shellfish.

The ministry has launched the project in coordination with the provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze run through these five provinces.

Water levels in the middle and lower reaches of the river plunged amid a lingering drought earlier this year, causing significant damage to the river's ecology.

Population

Chinese account for 19% of total

The proportion of Chinese among the world's population has dropped from 22 percent to 19 percent over the past 30 years.

China's population by the end of 2010, at 1.339 billion, accounted for 19 percent of the world's total, compared with 22 percent in early years of the reform and opening-up period that began in 1978, said Li Bin, minister with the State Population and Family Planning Commission, at a ceremony to commemorate the World Population Day.

Li says that China will continue its policy of a low birth rate and improve the quality of life for its population, adding that the government has to deal with the unbalanced sex ratio.

China's ratio of infant and maternal mortality is the lowest among developing countries, according to Li. The average life expectancy of Chinese citizens has increased from 68 years nearly 30 years back to 73.5, which matches the standard of moderately developed countries.

Law

Rights protection moves hailed

Officials have hailed the country's improvements in curbing forced confessions and other illegal means of obtaining testimony as examples of the country's achievements in protecting human rights.

Xiong Xuanguo, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, says courts at all levels nationwide heard 81 cases involving forced confessions and five cases of obtaining testimony through violence in 2009 and 2010, after the Supreme Court outlawed forced testimonies via a new regulation.

Xiong says the upholding of the principle of evidentiary adjudication and the prohibition of forced confessions were among steps taken to protect the rights of detained people.

China Daily