In This EditionChina's top legislator Wu Bangguo says China should "unwaveringly" keep to the socialist path of political development - but with Chinese characteristics.

A Chinese special envoy to Syria calls for unity to peacefully solve the crisis in the Middle Eastern nation.

Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker says Greece has met all conditions for receiving the second bailout loans and the eurozone is ready to release bailout funds to the debt-laden country.

And one year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, Japan still tries to come to terms with the tragedy that cost over 15 thousand lives.

Hot Issue ReportsTop Legislator Vows to Keep Socialist PathChina's top legislator Wu Bangguo says China should "unwaveringly" keep to the socialist path of political development - but with Chinese characteristics.

He made the comments in his work report delivered to the annual session of China's parliament, the National People's Congress.

"It is primarily because we blazed the socialist path with Chinese characteristics suited to China's conditions on the basis of an in-depth review of lessons and experience at home and abroad that China -- a large developing country with a population of over 1.3 billion, 56 ethnic groups, a weak foundation, and late start in development -- has been able to maintain long-term political stability and social harmony, safeguard national unity and ethnic solidarity, and sustain development at a speed rarely seen in the world."Wu Bangguo also says western political system models are not suitable for China.

"We need to thoroughly understand the intrinsic nature of China's system of people's congresses; confidently uphold our unique characteristics; be fully aware of the essential differences between this system and Western capitalist countries' systems of political power."The top legislator is also calling for innovation in parliamentary work.

Chinese Envoy Calls for Unity in Syrian CrisisChina's envoy to Syria Li Huaxin is calling for unity to peacefully solve the Syrian crisis.

"We call on the international community to try its best to find a common ground in order to peacefully solve the Syrian issue and to convey a clear message, instead of paying too much attention on the possibility of military intervention, sanctions and regime change."Li emphasized that unity on the issue is particularly important at the UN Security Council.

"All members of the Security Council should take responsibility in solving the Syrian issue and other similar issues. China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, will faithfully take up this responsibility."The Chinese envoy has just concluded a two-day visit to Syria.

Li met with representatives from both the government and the opposition side, reasserting China's call for an end to the violence in the country.

The minister's visit is part of recent international diplomatic efforts which aim to solve the Syrian crisis.

Following his meetings with the Arab League in Cairo, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan warned against military intervention to Syria.

"I hope no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation. I believe any further militarization would make the situation worse. We have to be careful that we don't introduce a medicine that's worse than the disease."Annan will travel to Syria on behalf of the United Nations and the Arab League.

Israel - Iran: Israel will Give Sanctions on Iran a Chance to WorkIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it was still undecided whether Israel would strike nuclear sites in Iran, a sign he had softened his previous stance of pressing for an immediate military strike.

"I am not standing with a stopwatch in hand. It is not a matter days or weeks, but it is also not a matter of years and the result must be that this threat of Iran with nuclear weapons will be removed."Netanyahu hinted that Israel could resort to force should Tehran continue to defy international pressure to curb its nuclear programme.

"We must not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons and I intend not to allow it to happen."Iran denies it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Greece Bond Swap Goes ThroughEurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker says Greece has met all conditions for receiving the second bailout loans and the eurozone is ready to release bailout funds to the debt-laden country.

Juncker cited the latest assessment of the Troika -- the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank -- as saying that "Greece has implemented all agreed prior actions in a satisfactory manner."His remarks came hours after the Greek government announced that investors holding 86 per ent of Greece's private debt have agreed to participate in the country's 206 billion euros debt restructuring.

Greek officials say the take-up far surpasses the minimum rate for the swap deal to go through.

Government spokesman Pant-elis Kap-sis says the result is a "vote of confidence" in Greece's ability to carry out deep structural reforms to its stricken economy.

Mich-alis Massou-rakis, Chief Economist of Alpha Bank, the second largest lender in Greece, agrees.

"Well obviously we are going to suffer a big haircut because of this debt restructuring, but at the same time the recapitalization of the Greek banks has been assured through funds from the Eurozone countries and the IMF and therefore I think this is the beginning of the restoration of confidence in the economy."The deal now clears the way for Greece to obtain a 130 billion Euro bailout package from the IMF and the EU.

China's CPI Eases to the Slowest in 20 MonthsChina's inflation has eased to its slowest rate in 20 months.

The country's Consumer Price Index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.2 percent year on year in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, China's Producer Price Index, a main gauge of wholesale inflation, remained unchanged in February.

The zero-growth reading is the lowest since December 2009.

Shen Hong, China Bureau Chief of Dow Jones Newswires, earlier shared his analysis on China's economic performance with CRI's Peter Smith.

Joint Efforts Needed to Deepen Public Hospital ReformPublic hospital reform is the most crucial component of the national healthcare reform program. While some progress has been made in the past three years, not everything has proceeded smoothly. Experts and officials in related fields are discussing further improvements to the system at the ongoing annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference or CPPCC.

Zhang wan has the story.

By the end of 2011, 95 percent of all Chinese had already been covered by some form of health insurance, according to official statistics.

But experts participating in a medical group discussion during the CPPCC remain concerned that it is too expensive for patients to see doctors at large public hospitals, and that some hospitals continue to depend on prescription drug sales to boost their revenue.

Shen Zhongyang, executive director of Tianjin First Center Hospital and a member of the country's top advisor body, says it will take a long time to end such practices at public hospitals because of the absence of coordinated policy support.

"My suggestion is to establish a compensation mechanism so hospitals stop profiting from the sales of drugs. It is not a matter of profit; however, the operation will have problems due to lack of capital flow if we only depend on government funding. It is feasible to realize the reform goals only if we have a scientific compensation system."Vice Minister of Health Wang Guoqiang, who also attended the meeting, agrees that public hospitals should put in place a step-by-step approach to stop relying on prescription drug sales for profits.

"The main solution, I think, is increasing financial investment and proceeds from actual operations and gradually getting rid of the current practice. Second, we should reform the methods of payment and adjust the prices of medical services to better reflect the value of medical workers."The current structure of hospitals' revenue streams is skewed in part because the cost of medical services is too low. This means that some health care workers cash in on prescribing unnecessary drugs and ordering unnecessary medical tests, which burdens the country with higher medical bills.

To address that, Wang says the current health care insurance payment system must be fine-tuned. He also suggests government encourage diversified financing to invest in and set up nonprofit hospitals.

The increased investment could improve the "hardware" of public hospitals quickly, although the recruitment of talented medical staff and establishment of efficient management systems would remain problematic for health care reform in the long term.

The members of the discussion group also stressed that public hospitals must retain their focus on serving the public and place top priority on people's health.

China's State Council, or Cabinet, passed a medical reform plan in January 2009, which began the following year with 16 cities piloting public hospital reform projects.

Urbanization in China, Fast Change and Great ChallengesChina's urbanization rate has surpassed 50%, and has been described as a 'historical change in the country's social structure' in Premier Wen Jiabao's Government Work Report delivered this week.

However, both NPC deputies and experts argue that urbanization poses a challenge for both urban and rural communities, especially migrant workers.

CRI's Zheng Chenguang has the story.

The major force for urbanization is migrant workers. These workers come from impoverished regions to more urban and prosperous environments in search of work and a better wellbeing.

Zhang Xiaoshan, professor with the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says that in this process, the key challenge is how to protect migrant workers' rights and benefits.

'Cities should increase the chances for migrant workers to be absorbed by the urban labor markets and society in general, especially the urban social security network, so that they can benefit from sustainable development.'

It is estimated that China has over 200 million migrant workers. Professor Zhang says that such workers usually work in labor-intensive sectors, receive wages lower than the regional average and are mostly unable to afford the cost of urban life. Migrant workers often move from city to city without securing a stable job, ultimately sharing less social and economic resources than urban residents.

Deputies at the ongoing 5th session of the National People's Congress, or NPC, have intimated that this has something to do with China's Hukou system, or the household registration system, which divides people into urban and rural citizens. The system implies different levels of eligibility and benefits related to employment, education, and social security.

Zhang Zhao'an, an NPC deputy from Shanghai points out that reforming the Hukou system would help equalize rights and benefits between rural migrants and urban residents.

'It's important for us to share. Migrant workers need to share the social and economic resources in the cities where they work and live in the aspects of education, housing, and social security. Actually, this is what we have been doing all over China.'

Back in the countryside, the issue of 'left-behind children' is one of the government's biggest concerns. The term refers to those children for whom one or both of their parents work far away from their hometown; thus they rarely get to spend time with one another.

Zhang Qiong, deputy Head of Wufeng County in central China's Hubei province, emphasizes that there should be no discrimination towards the children of migrant workers within cities.

"Migrant students should have equal access to education as local students, so that they shouldn't have to pay higher fees, or bear the label of 'outsiders'."Urbanization is a drawn out process which presents a number of complicated problems. Efforts from both the urban and rural sectors are called for in order to better integrate domestic migrants, rather than marginalize them.

For CRI, I'm Zheng Chenguang.

Japan One Year After the TsunamiIt's one year since the earthquake and tsunami that decimated much of Japan's northeast coast. Over the last 12 months the country's been trying to come to terms with the tragedy that cost over 15 thousand lives. CRI's Dominic Swire recently traveled to Japan and felt his own ground-shaking experience.

"So, I'm just stepping into this earthquake simulation van and there's a small room here with a table. I'm kneeling down underneath it. There's a small light above me. And I guess we just wait for the earthquake to start…"This simulation van shows visitors what it's like to experience an earthquake.

Not that many of them need reminding.

The one that hit northeast Japan on March 11, last year was the biggest ever recorded in the country.

Sendai university student Risa was coming home when it struck.

"I got home but electricity and water and gas - we couldn't use. That day was very cold. So we made a fire near the house. That situation lasted for two days."Thousands like her were in desperate need of help.

Eventually supplies did arrive. And much of this came from charities such as Tokyo-based food-bank Second Harvest.

Head of the charity Charles McJilton was one of the first to deliver aid in the area.

"The disaster you saw came from the tsunami itself. It was almost as if a giant hand had come over and just swept things away. It was just unimaginable."McJilton says last year they delivered 16,000 tones of food. But this wasn't always easy.

"What we found with this is that it's really more important for us, when we're doing that outreach -- we have a national care van traveling throughout Japan telling people about who we are -- is to reach out to the local government units. Because, if the local government's not understanding who you are, they're less likely to work with you when you can provide the aid…"Up in Sendai, the largest city in the affected area, buildings survived without much damage. A relief to some, maybe. But the bad news is that it's still impossible to know when the next big one will come. Naoshi Hirata is Director of the Earthquake Prediction Research Centre at Tokyo University. He says experts were expecting a quake in Tohoku of up to magnitude 8.

"But in reality it was a magnitude 9 earthquake. The difference is only one but the energy is more than maybe 100 times larger than what we really expected in that area."Professor Hirata says Japanese earthquake researchers need to work closer with foreign counterparts in order to increase our global understanding of these natural disasters.

For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire in Japan.

China DailyA deputy of the National People's Congress (NPC) has proposed at the annual two sessions that China should make academic fraud a crime to curb dishonestyYan Xijun, a deputy of NPC says academic misconduct seriously impacts the social credibility of scientific research and provides a hotbed for corruption. He says academic cheating has widened from academic papers to the high-tech fields, which not only involves young students, but also senior experts.

He also says although lots of measures have been carried out to enhance academic ethics, laws and regulations are still needed to standardize academic fraud and a public supervision system is needed as well as an investigation department.

***************************The Global TimesThe Beijing Workers' Gymnasium is to grant free access to some of its sporting facilities for the rest of March, and some venues will be free of charge all year long to promote "fitness for all" as a charity cause to benefit residents.

Sporting facilities, including eight badminton courts, have been available for residents for free since the beginning of March, from 9 am to 9 pm every day, however there are restrictions as to who can benefit from the offer. The gymnasium began offering free admittance in 2009, usually the first two weeks of March. This year the service has been extended to the end of March.

The gymnasium director says Spring Festival started early this year, which gave them plenty of time to prepare after an off-season of visits after the holidays. They say they want more residents to enjoy the facilities and at the same time promote public services and sports.

Market UpdateU.S. stocks ended higher on Friday as investors embraced a positive non-farm payroll report.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1 percent to 12,922. The Standard & Poor's 500 was up 0.4 percent to 1,371. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.6 percent to 2,988.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.5 percent to 5887. Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.7 percent to 6880. CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.3 percent to 3487.