Thursday, September 8, 2011

08/09 Số lượng tỷ phú Trung Quốc tăng gấp đôi

Số lượng người 'siêu giàu' ở Trung Quốc đang tăng lên chóng mặt, với số tỷ phú gấp đôi chỉ trong vòng hai năm qua.


Hôm qua, Hurun Report, tập đoàn ở Thượng Hải chuyên xuất bản các ấn phẩm dành cho giới thượng lưu, công bố có 271 tỷ phú ở Trung Quốc năm 2010, tăng đáng kể so với số lượng 130 người năm 2009. Trung Quốc hiện là quốc gia có số lượng tỷ phú đứng thứ hai trên thế giới, chỉ sau Mỹ với hơn 400 người.

08/09 TIP nhận trách nhiệm tấn công Tân Cương - Trung Quốc


Thứ Năm, 08/09/2011 17:18

(NLĐO) - Đảng Hồi giáo Turkistan (TIP) vừa công bố một đoạn băng ghi hình nhận trách nhiệm các vụ cuộc tấn công gần đây tại Tân Cương, miền tây Trung Quốc, làm chết ít nhất 30 người hồi tháng 7.

Trong đoạn băng dài hơn 10 phút công bố vào cuối tháng 8 vừa qua, lãnh đạo TIP Abdul Shakoor Damla, với khuôn mặt bị che kín, nói rằng các cuộc tấn công trên là để trả thù chính phủ Trung Quốc.
 

An ninh tại Tân Cương được siết chặt sau các vụ tấn công. Ảnh: AP
 
Đoạn băng còn nêu tiểu sử tóm tắt của Memtieli Tliwaldi, nghi can đứng đằng sau các vụ tấn công hồi tháng 7 với các hình ảnh anh ta đang đấu vật với các chiến binh khác tại một trại huấn luyện của TIP.
 
Theo nhóm tình báo SITE (Mỹ), Đảng Hồi giáo Turkistan (TIP) đòi độc lập cho khu tự trị Tân Cương của Trung Quốc. Được đánh giá là nhóm hồi giáo cực đoan, TIP thành lập vào năm 1993 và có căn cứ tại Pakistan. Các chuyên gia an ninh còn cho rằng các thành viên chủ chốt của TIP đã được al-Qaeda huấn luyện. Trước đây, TIP từng đe dọa tấn công Olympics Bắc Kinh 2008.
 
Tân Cương là quê nhà của người Duy Ngô Nhĩ với đa số theo đạo Hồi. Trong vòng 2 năm qua, khu vực này xảy ra nhiều vụ bạo động khiến ít nhất 197 người chết, nguyên nhân do mâu thuẫn giữa người Duy Ngô Nhĩ bản địa và người Hán.
Hải Ngọc (Theo AP)

08/09 Displaced students want a school to call their own

Sachiko Asakuno and Mariko Sakai / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Nearly six months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, many students in Miyagi Prefecture who attended schools that were severely damaged in the disaster still have to take lessons in school facilities that are not their own.

"We are grateful for being able to use another school building. But having our own facilities is essential to providing adequate education," said the principal of a middle school that has been holding classes at another school in the prefecture. "I hope a makeshift school building for us will be built as soon as possible."

Many educational experts say that learning and teaching at other schools entail many inconveniences.

For instance, displaced students and teachers have fewer opportunities to use school facilities than regular students and teachers.

According to sources, students at a middle school they are temporarily attending are given limited use of the science room, the music room and the gym. This is because the curriculum of the host school is given priority over that of the displaced school.

The displaced students have been told not to enter areas other than those the school allows them to use to prevent trouble.

"I feel sorry for my students, because they must be feeling uncomfortable," the principal of the displaced school said.

Students of some schools have to use facilities of several different schools, forcing teachers and students to travel between them to attend events, such as club activities, student council meetings and teachers' meetings.

Miyagi Prefectural Agriculture High School, which was badly damaged by the tsunami, had used facilities of three high schools in the prefecture before its classes began at its own makeshift school building last Thursday.

Prior to this, about 240 students of the farm machinery course gathered at a meeting spot every morning and took buses to school. Because it took 90 minutes to reach their destination, the first class of the day was given en route. As the bus rides were bumpy, students had to hold their sheets and notebooks against the windows to write.

Eiya Kosai, 16, a second-year student at the school, said: "I had a hard time writing. Every time the bus went over a bump, my handwriting became crooked."

Some students on the buses also experienced motion sickness.

Attending classes at school buildings that are not their own has also negatively affected the students' academic performance.

A third-year student at the school said, "I lacked sleep and couldn't concentrate on classes well."

Before the disaster, teachers at the school had spare time to make handout materials for students and prepare for classes to make them efficient and understandable.

However, after they were displaced by the disaster, the teachers had much less prep time, as they had to travel between the school's three temporary locations.

"I wonder whether our students understood the classes enough," one of the teachers said.

Meanwhile, Watanoha Middle School in Ishinomaki in the prefecture is getting back to some semblance of normalcy after it started the second trimester at its newly built temporary school building last Thursday. Students at the school had been learning at three separate locations, one for each school year. They were finally reunited at the new building built in the playground of a primary school in the city.

Sana Takagi, 12, a first-year student whose house was destroyed in the tsunami and who has since been living at her grandfather's place, said: "I was driven to the temporary school by my grandfather every day. Now, I can go to school by bicycle."

Although the new building has thin walls and less space than the original, the school's principal, Hiroshi Abe, 57, was happy the students once again had a school to call their own.

"We were forced to learn in what was like a training camp before. Now we can finally get back to a real school life," he said.

(Sep. 8, 2011)

08/09 47 schools unable to rebuild after disaster




Forty-seven schools that have been using other schools' facilities since the March 11 disaster still are undecided on where and how to rebuild their own facilities, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.
The survey was conducted on 82 public primary, middle and high schools in 24 cities and towns in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures that are using buildings of nearby schools after theirs were severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
According to the survey results, 47 schools in 16 municipalities, or about 60 percent of the schools surveyed, had no plans to build temporary facilities or take other steps as of Tuesday. About 4,800 school children attend the 47 schools.
Municipalities that were struck by the March 11 tsunami are, in principle, required to relocate schools to higher ground. But they are not eligible to receive state subsidies for the cost of purchasing and preparing land for schools under the current law. Because of this, they are facing difficulty in securing relocation sites.
Education ministry officials say it is difficult to provide these schools with state subsidies for disaster restoration projects under existing law.
Calls for the prompt establishment of new legislation to address the issue may grow, observers said.
The survey found that only five of the 82 schools have committed to repair their original school facilities or relocate to new facilities as planned since before the disaster.
Another 30 schools said they had started or were planning to build temporary prefabricated facilities on other schools' grounds or athletic parks.
Under the law on government financial contribution to public schools on facility restoration from disaster damage, the government bears two-thirds of restoration costs when school facilities have been destroyed or severely damaged. But the law stipulates this applies to cases in which school facilities would be rebuilt at their original locations. The law provides no stipulation for cases in which school facilities need to be relocated.
Students using other schools' facilities have been facing various inconveniences, but municipal governments are in a quandary as there is very little public land that was not affected by the tsunami in the disaster-hit areas.
"We're giving priority to the construction of temporary housing units," said an Ishinomaki city government official in Miyagi Prefecture.
Some municipalities may consider obtaining privately owned land. But some lots not damaged by the disaster have inflated prices.
"Unless we receive state subsidies, we face enormous financial burdens," a town official of Yamadamachi, Iwate Prefecture, said, adding that the municipality has no chance to obtain private land.
An official of Minami-Sanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture, stressed the town's dire financial situation, saying, "We absolutely lack the budget [resources] as we must restore facilities other than schools as well."
There is also a government subsidy to assist the relocation of local residents in groups from areas affected by natural disasters. However, this covers the rebuilding of housing facilities and does not cover the expenses of purchasing land or preparing it for the construction for school relocations.
An official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which has received requests for state aid from municipal governments, said the ministry has asked the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry to include school relocations in the subsidy program for group relocations under its jurisdiction.
(Sep. 8, 2011)