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Shortly after concluding its naval war games with South Korea in the waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula this week, the US sent the carrier USGeorge Washington to Japan to participate in another joint military exercise. Analysts say this move can serve only to worsen the tense situation on the divided peninsula and threaten regional stability. US Major William Vause, chief of operational plans, training and exercises, said in a statement that the drills, codenamed "Keen Sword," will last from today to December 10 in Japanese waters off its southern islands, close to the southern coast of South Korea. The drills involve around 34,000 Japanese defense personnel with 40 warships and 250 aircraft, as well as more than 10,000 of their US counterparts with 20 warships and 150 aircraft, forming the biggest-ever war games between the two countries, according to Vause. Integrated air and missile defense, base security, close air support, live-fire training, maritime defense, and search and rescue will be covered in the drills, AFP reported. The joint maneuvers between Washington and Tokyo followed those between Washington and Seoul that concluded Wednesday amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The two Koreas exchanged fire last week in waters off the peninsula's west coast, resulting in at least four deaths. A Beijing-based military strategist who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Global Times Thursdaythat "North Korea's hard-line moves are attempts to pressure the US into holding bilateral talks. Pyongyang is confident that it can keep the situation from evolving into war. China's influence is limited in the face of such an independent North Korea." Responding to the US-Japan joint exercise, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursdaythat "the US-Japan alliance should not damage the interests of third parties, including China, and the international community does not support actions that escalate tensions." She reiterated Beijing's belief that dialogue and negotiations are the only solutions for the Korean Peninsula issue. The joint maneuver between the US and South Korea mobilized a combined 7,300 troops, the 97,000-ton aircraft carrier George Washington and about 10 navy ships. In an interview with the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military drills with South Korea had been planned a month ahead of time, and the US had informed China of their objective and how long the drills would last. China had expressed objections to the drills, saying it was opposed to such military activity in its exclusive economic zone. But Mullen reiterated the US' stance that the drills were held in international waters, and the US will continue to hold drills there in the future. In another development, South Korea moved more troops and guns onto its islands that border the North this week, AFP reported Thursday. "The danger of further attacks from North Korea is high," South Korean National Intelligence Service Director Won Sei-Hoon said during a closed session of Parliament's intelligence committee, reports said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to meet with the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan in Washington on Monday for crisis talks, Reuters reported Wednesday. South Korea, Japan and the US are reportedly reluctant to accept proposals, made by China on Sunday, to hold emergency consultations in Beijing early this month to ease tensions. China followed up that proposal by calling on Wednesday for calm and restraint, advising parties involved to avoid escalating the problem by doing anything that would "inflame the situation." Fang Xiuyu, an analyst of Korean issues at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times that protecting South Korea and Japan are just excuses made by the US to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Geng Xin, deputy director of the Tokyo-based Japan-China Communication Institute, told the Global Times that "frequent military drills involving the US are dangerous - inflaming the situation and threatening regional security." He urged the US to act responsibly by accepting China's call for international talks. Geng also noted that "economic relations among China, Japan and South Korea are unlikely to be affected, despite the war games, since the framework for economic cooperation runs deep in the region." zhemodou deexienge ljoie regrow hairs hairs receding hairs shedding thinning hairs overpluck plate heat exchanger PR |
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In 2005, the Ministry of Transport unveiled an expressway plan to link Beijing with Taipei before 2030. But the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council claimed in 2007 that at least 30 years would be needed for the Beijing-Taipei expressway project and there has not been any timetable set for launching the program. "Thirty years ago, nobody could have imagined building a bridge across the Straits," said Tsai Chung-chih, a Taiwan engineering expert. Engineers from both sides of the Straits have provided three plans for building a cross-Straits bridge: a northern route connecting Pingtan to Hsinchu, a middle route connecting Putian to Taichung and a southern route connecting Xiamen to Kaohsiung. But Lin said the north route is preferred as the water is less than 80 meters deep and the geological structure is quite steady with less risk of earthquake. There may be more than one way to skin a cat, and for engineers in Fujian province there is more than one way to build a bridge across the Taiwan Straits. While experts from both sides have provided three viable ways to create a land link between the island and the mainland, engineer Lin Yuanpei with the Chinese Academy of Engineering on Tuesday revealed an updated design for a northern route. The bridge would stretch about 100 km, connecting Pingtan Island in Fujian and Hsinchu in northwestern Taiwan. The new design features an enclosed bridge deck to allow the bridge to remain open in all weather conditions, including the heavy fog and strong gales that are common in the Straits. "It's like a tunnel hanging in the air," said Lin, who also designed the 32.5-km Donghai Bridge in Shanghai, which was the longest cross-sea bridge in the world until the 36-km Hangzhou Bay Bridge opened in 2008. "The cost will increase for adding the walls and roofs, but the traffic capacity will skyrocket," said Lin, who did not provide any specifics about the cost. He suggested a suspension bridge style be adopted where the water is deeper than 40 meters but the suspension sections would not be longer than 3.5 km. Li Dejin, director of the Fujian Provincial Department of Transport, said engineering experts have been discussing the bridge project for 14 years. "I hope all the scientists and industry associations can work together and promote the implementation of the project," Li said at the 12th annual meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology held in Fuzhou. Engineers on the mainland are expected to complete a plan for building a bridge across the Straits in the coming five years, Li said on Tuesday. There has been no response yet from Beijing on the latest proposal and the bridge project has not received official approval. learn mandarin Office furniture learn cantonese Office furniture manufacturer Office Furniture Desk learn chinese learning mandarin |
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The world's first set of ceramic stamps -- 11 pieces of 0.3 mm thick ceramic chips -- was unveiled in Jingdezhen in east China's Jiangxi province, a spokesperson with the China National Philatelic Corporation said Tuesday.
The company will release only 10,000 limited edition sets of the "World Expo National Ceramic Stamp", made with Chinese traditional craftsmanship and modern techniques, the spokesperson added.h The patterns of the ceramic stamps are based on 11 World Expo-themed stamps released by China since 2007. Different from paper stamps, these stamps, it is claimed, will not fade, corrode or catch fire. All the ceramic stamps are hand-made. Each 0.3 millimeter ceramic chip uses a combination of patented ceramic technology, traditional craftsmanship and modern techniques. "Each of these ceramic stamps is unique in the world. It overcomes the limitation of paper stamps and shows the world the creativity of Jingdezhen as the ceramic capital of China in modern times," said Liu Jingbo, director of the Jingdezhen Municipal Philatelic Corporation. He said by releasing the stamp sets, Jingdezhen hoped to spread interest in traditional Chinese ceramic art and the Shanghai Expo. Jingdezhen has a history of producing quality pottery going back 1,700 years. The 2010 China Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair is being held from Oct. 18 to Oct. 22. meeting vhiew meiose seowgbah plate heat exchanger Office furniture China company search Learn Cantonese office interior design hairs shedding regrow hairs led strip lights led tube lights |
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Patients with colon cancer who used multivitamins during and after being treated with post-surgical chemotherapy did not reduce the risk of the cancer returning or their dying from it, according to researchers at Maryland-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
In a study of patients with stage III colon cancer -- characterized as cancer in the large bowel area with some cancer cells in a few nearby lymph nodes -- the researchers found that while multivitamin use had no beneficial effect on patients' outcomes, it also did not have a detrimental effect. The findings were reported online on Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and later will be published in a print edition. Kimmie Ng, the paper's first author and a gastrointestinal oncologist at Dana-Farber, said that despite conflicting evidence on the efficacy of multivitamins to reduce cancer risk and death, studies suggest that approximately 30 percent of Americans take multivitamins to prevent and treat chronic diseases such as cancer. Among cancer survivors, between 26 and 77 percent report using multivitamins. "With such a high proportion of cancer patients utilizing multivitamin supplements in the belief that it will help them fight their cancer, we felt it was important to really examine the data to see what impact multivitamins had on cancer recurrence and survival," said Ng. The researchers used two questionnaires to track multivitamin use during and after chemotherapy. Of the 1,038 patients who completed the first survey, nearly half (518) responded they used multivitamins while receiving chemotherapy. Of the 810 cancer-free patients who completed the second survey six months after chemotherapy, more than half (416) reported multivitamin use. Ng and her colleagues found no statistically significant differences in the rates of disease-free survival (the study's primary endpoint), recurrence-free survival, or overall survival between those who used multivitamins and those who didn't. They also determined that an array of factors, including socioeconomic status, household income, multivitamin and individual vitamin dosage, and consistency of multivitamin use, did not impact their findings. However, they did find a small beneficial association between age and weight and the use of multivitamins while receiving chemotherapy. Those 60 and younger experienced some survival benefit, as did obese patients. There were no benefits for either subgroup when the multivitamins were taken after chemotherapy was completed. Ng said additional studies are needed to confirm their findings and to investigate whether there were other factors that influenced the outcomes. |
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With mass rapes of at least 240 women and children in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from late July to mid-August, a senior UN official here Tuesday called for "collective responsibility" in the UN's failure to prevent the brutal sexual attacks there.
"At this moment, we are all compelled to look in the mirror and face our collective responsibility for our inability to prevent the mass rapes in Kibua," the UN secretary-general's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Margot Wallstrom, told the UN Security Council in an open meeting on the DRC. With rape increasingly being used as the "weapon of choice," Wallstrom said that Kibua's attacks were not isolated, but part of a "broader pattern of widespread and systematic rape and pillage." The UN "cannot afford to shy away from confronting its shortcomings," Wallstrom said, noting that communication with local communities and early warning mechanisms need to be stepped up. "We should examine the UN's response, including that of our peacekeepers on the ground, not in a spirit of self-recrimination but with a determination and resolve to do better to protect civilians in what is undoubtedly one of the most complex, vast, and volatile conflict zones in the world," Wallstrom said. The mass rapes in Kibua showed a connection between the illicit exploitation of natural mineral resources, the continuing operations of illegal armed groups and high levels of violence against civilians, specifically women in"strategic areas," she noted. "Our policies of 'zero tolerance' cannot be backed by a reality of 'zero consequence,'" Wallstrom said, citing that the spotlight needs to be on bringing perpetrators to justice and deterring future incidents. She urged the Council to take such actions as "black-listing" certain individuals and sanctions, as well as other targeted measures -- beginning with the commanders of the armed groups response for the brutal rapes in Kibua. "This is our collective responsibility to the survivors; and, our collective signal to the perpetrators who are watching and waiting to see how the world will react," Wallstrom said. From the end of July to mid August, the UN has said that Congolese militants of the Mai-Mai group and Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) entered villages in the DRC's North Kivu province, and engaged in the violent mass rapes of over 240 civilians. |
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