Chinese President Hu Jintao has returned to Beijing after paying a state visit to Austria and attending the sixth summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) in Cannes, France, at which G-20 leaders discussed measures to halt the downturn in the world economy and promote global financial stability.

At the two-day summit, the leaders exchanged views on the eurozone debt crisis, reform of the international monetary system, the strengthening of financial regulations, and trade and development issues. 

President Hu made speeches at the summit, elaborating on China's propositions on the topics.

 

Trapped miners rescued after China coal mine accident kills 8 

Rescuers have pulled out the last of the 45 surviving miners who were trapped for 40 hours following a rock burst that hit a central Chinese coal mine, leaving eight workers dead.

The last worker was seen waving his hands to the rescue team and journalists as he walked out of the Qianqiu Coal Mine with the support of other rescuers. 

A rock burst occurred in the Qianqiu Coal Mine in the city of Sanmenxia, Henan province, following a 2.9-magnitude earthquake on Thursday evening.

 

Greek gov't wins confidence vote 

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's government won a confidence vote by 153 votes on early Saturday, while 145 MPs voted against in the 300-member strong national assembly.

 

Thai flood death toll reaches 446, 2 missing 

A total of 446 people were confirmed dead and two people were missing in the floods that have inundated the upper part of Thailand for almost three months.

On Saturday, floods still prevail in 25 of 77 provinces and are affecting about 3.2 million people from 1.2 million housefolds 

70 main highways in 13 provinces are flooded and cannot be passed and some north-bound train routes were canceled.

 

Chinese vice premier urges more international exchanges for high-level talents 

Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has called for increased international exchanges for China's high-level talents, as well as for more efforts to attract overseas professionals.

Zhang Dejiang made the remarks at the opening ceremony for the 2011 Conference on the International Exchange of Professionals, held in the city of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong province. 

He said the exchanges should be focused on high-level and innovative talents, offering cooperative opportunities on a larger scale and a wider scope for them to achieve breakthroughs in common fields.

 

Chinese journalists urged to give voice to the masses 

Chinese journalists have been urged by a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to improve their work by "voicing the heartfelt wishes of the masses and always putting the people first."

Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a reception held in Beijing to honor winners of the China Journalism Awards, one of the country's top media prizes. 

He called on journalists to write more lively reports on ordinary people in grass-roots positions and also to better fulfill their responsibility of boosting social progress through promoting high culture.

 

Income gap between urban, rural residents continues to narrow 

An official with the Research Center for Rural Economics under the Ministry of Agriculture says the income gap between rural and urban residents in China has continued to narrow, as income growth for rural residents outpaced that of urban dwellers during the first three quarters.

The official says the income growth rate of rural residents was 5.8 percentage points higher than that of urban dwellers during the first nine months.

However, he says a combination of factors will restrict farmers from making more money, including high inflation, rising agricultural production costs and fewer job opportunities.

 

China vows crack down on relics looting in South China Sea

China's maritime and cultural officials have pledged greater efforts to stop small treasure hunters from looting the cultural relics from sunken ancient merchant ships in the South China Sea.

They say the authorities will strengthen surveillance and boost the law enforcement manpower to curb the looting, in which the use of explosives and other destructive methods have seriously threatened the safety of undersea relics.

Most of these relics have been found around the waters of the Xisha Islands, a chain of islets lying on the route of the ancient maritime Silk Road, where a number of merchant ships sunk after colliding on the shallow coral reefs or amid rough weathers.

 

China grants 4.74 bln yuan to vocational schools for tuition exemptions 

China has given more than 4.7 billion yuan (more than 747 million U.S. dollars) to secondary vocational schools as compensation for tuition exemptions they have offered to students.

The Ministry of Finance says the funds will be offered to secondary vocational or technical schools that have accepted students from poor families or students studying agriculture-related subjects without charging tuition.

The ministry says approximately 4 million students have enjoyed tuition exemptions in China's secondary vocational schools.