新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 20:00 2015/02/05（打印版）

The number of dead from yesterda's TransAsia plane crash in Taiwan has risen to 32, including 18 passengers from the Chinese mainland...

The US Secretary of State is meeting with Ukranian leaders as Washington mulls sending weapons to help Kiev battle separatist forces in the east...

and China's first-ever ambassador to the country's new mission to the African Union talks about the challenges ahead...

In Sports...World #4 Chinese golfer Feng Shanshan has pulled out of the next LPGA event...

Beijing will be clear tonight, with a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius. It will be cloudy tomorrow, with a high of 8 degrees.　

Shanghai will be clear tonight, with a low of 1, tomorrow will be cloudy with a high of 7.

Chongqing will be overcast with a low of 5. Tomorrow it will be cloudy with a high of 14.

The death toll from the crashed TransAsia Airways plane has risen to 32, with 11 passengers still missing.

The TransAsia plane with 58 passengers on board came down in Taipei's Keelung River on Wednesday morning.

"I felt something was not right after the plane took off. The flight was not full. I told the woman next to me that we should buckle seat belts, hold on to the seat and cover our heads. I just finished saying it and then plane went down."

Rescuers are still searching the river for the eleven missing passengers, all believed to be from the Chinese mainland.

TransAsia Airways has announced compensation worth 200,000 yuan to be given to families to cover funeral expenses.

"TransAsia today will identify the relatives of the victims and will be paying out compensation of over 38,000 US dollars to the families for funeral expenses. Media reports today said that some abnormalities had been detected in the plane engine, but no examination was done before letting the plane take off. We want to clarify in front of the media that that was not the case"

Taiwan's aviation authority has invited experts from the Chinese mainland for a joint accident investigation, after discovering the plane's flight recorders yesterday.

Taiwan's civil aviation authorities have grounded all twenty-two ATR-72 aircraft currently in-operation on the island until safety checks are performed.

For more on this, CRI's Xu Qing Duo spoke to Jonathan Hutt, deputy general manager of strategy, Spring airlines

US Secretary of State John Kerry has met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, as Washington mulls whether to send weapons to help Ukraine fight rebels in the country.

Ashton Carter, the White House's choice for defense secretary, has previously stated that he is "inclined" to start supplying arms to Ukraine.

"The nature of those arms I can't say right now because I haven't conferred with our military leaders or Ukrainian leaders, but I incline in the direction of providing them with arms, including lethal arms."

The talks come a day after shells hit two hospitals and a kindergarten in the rebel-held city of Donetsk in East Ukrainian, killing at least 15 people.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine began last April, after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula.

Russia denies accusations by Ukraine and the West that it is arming the rebels in eastern Ukraine and sending its regular troops across the border.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has held a symposium to solicit opinions from leaders of non-communist political parties on the draft of the annual government work report.

The participants have offered suggestions on a wide range of issues, such as administrative reform, agriculture, and pensions.

"We should finish the drafting of the administrative organizational and procedural laws soon so as to preserve the fruits of administrative reforms and push forward the establishment of a law-abiding government."

Chen Changzhi, chairman of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association, says efforts should be made to combat air pollution.

"We should actively promote the use of new energy vehicles and build a network of charging stations for electric vehicles."

Premier Li Keqiang will deliver the finalized government work report at the annual session of the National People's Congress in March.

China has eight non-communist political parties that participate in state affairs under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

Under the multi-party cooperation system, the CPC and non-Communist parties work together and supervise each other.

Premier Li Keqiang's draft government work report has already drawn opinions from the general public.

Official data shows there was a surge in the export of railway equipment last year, as Chinese rail companies keenly engaged in overseas expansion.

The country exported more than 4 billion U.S. dollars worth of railway equipment last year, surging 23 percent year on year.

"The 'go global' strategy of China's railway sector has shifted from an early stage of only exporting rail equipment to a later stage of exporting technologies involving the construction and operation of rail lines overseas."

So far, China has exported its railway equipment to more than 80 countries and regions, including ASEAN countries, Argentina, Australia and the United States.

The overseas march was mainly led by state-owned firms, with their exports accounting for around 70 percent of the total value.

Although a latecomer to the field, Chinese railway equipment companies have thrived due to cost advantages and shorter delivery times.

The rail expansion overseas is part of China's overall 'Go Global' strategy, which encourages domestic enterprises to invest outside of China.

Meanwhile, Zhou Zhencheng, another official with the Ministry of Commerce, is urging Mexico to protect the interests of Chinese railway companies.

"Chinese companies invested huge amounts of human labor, materials and money during the two bidding processes for a high-speed railway project. Mexico should take measures to protect these companies' interests no matter what kind of domestic factors led to the suspension of the project."

At the end of last month, Mexico announced the suspension of its first-ever high-speed railway project due to budgetary constraints.

A Chinese-led consortium won the bid to build the project last November. But the bid was soon canceled by the Mexican government and a second bidding was held last month before the whole project was shut down.

The first Chinese ambassador to the African Union has given an update on the progress being made regarding the Chinese mission to the AU.

"The first batch of the team arrived at the end of last year to the African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. I will set out and take on the job later this month. Departments of politics, economy, humanities, as well as peace and security will be established there. Those I believe will vigorously improve exchanges and cooperation between China and the AU."

Chinese premier Li Keqiang proposed creating the mission to the Africa Union during his visit to the organization last year.

He Wenping is the Director of African Studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She says the Chinese mission will help strengthen bilateral cooperation in the future, including infrastructure.

"A mechanism for bilateral coordination is needed. It's not just about making contacts between China and individual nations, but also coordinating working groups involving transnational or trans-regional efforts. Communications between China and the whole African continent need to be developed. The Chinese mission to the AU will play a leading role in building that cooperation and coordination."

More than 200 militants from Boko Haram have been killed by Chad's army in northeastern Nigeria.

The militant group has been fighting for five years to create an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria.

Chad has deployed 2,500 troops as part of a regional effort to take on the militant group.

An unidentified army officer in a video broadcast in Chad talks about the recent operation:

"We dispersed them completely, and have prevented them from regathering. They acquired weapons, and were killing people. You can't slaughter humans like animals."

Militants also attacked a town in Cameroon in the latest cross-border incursion by the group.

A UN watchdog is alleging that Islamic State militants are selling some abducted Iraqi children as sex slaves while killing others, including by crucifixion or burying them alive.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says Iraqi boys under 18-years-old are increasingly being used by the militant group as suicide bombers, bomb makers, informants, or human shields to protect facilities against US-led air strikes.

"We have had reports of children, especially children that are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding what has happened or what they have to expect. We have also children used in very early age, there was a video placed that showed children on very young age, approximately eight years of age and younger, to be trained already to become child soldiers."

Children from the Yazidi sect or Christian communities, and also Shi'ites and Sunnis, have been victims.

Islamic State is a breakaway group from Al-Qaeda that declared an Islamic caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq last summer.

It has killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, in what the United Nations has called a reign of terror.

The UN body also gave fresh evidence of several incidences of mass executions of young boys.

But it also noted that a large number of children have been killed or badly wounded during air strikes or shelling by Iraqi security forces, while others had died of dehydration, starvation and heat.

The 18 independent experts who worked on the report called on Iraqi authorities to take urgent steps to rescue children under the control of Islamic State and to prosecute perpetrators of crimes.

Academics at a retrospective on the historic Yalta Conference that happened 70 years ago are urging people not to forget the lessons of World War II.

Scholars from Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Australia have exchanged thoughts on various topics regarding the Yalta Conference held in 1945.

Vyacheslav Nikonov, chair of the Russian State Duma Education Committee, says the historical significance of the conference deserves acknowledgement from the international community.

"It is worth remembering the 70-year anniversary. We have never forgotten it. In order to keep it from happening again, we need to remember 27 million people from Soviet Union who have dedicated themselves to it, as well as Chinese people who have made sacrifice."

The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference, has to some extent shaped post-WWII Europe.

Statues of the "Big Three" allied leaders have been erected in Yalta to remind people of the historic moment.

The US National Transportation Safety Board is now examining the black-box-style recorders from a train involved in a deadly collision yesterday.

Six people died and 15 others were hospitalized after the train hit an SUV in New York State.

Investigators are trying to determine how fast the train was going, if its brakes were applied, and whether the train's horn was sounded as it approached a controlled rail crossing where the accident took place.

Investigators are examining whether the crossing gates were working properly, but haven't reported any results of their examination.

First, let's have a look at the numbers across the Asian markets on this Thursday evening.

Chinese stocks ended in negative territory despite the central bank's decision to cut banks' reserve requirement ratio in an attempt to offset the impact brought about by capital outflows.

Across the board today, steel shares led the losses due to the concerns among investors over the effectiveness of the eased liquidity.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite index finished down by one- and- one-fifth of a percent.

Other Asian markets also headed lower, after the European Central Bank moved to tighten Greece's access to funding.

But in Australia, the ASX 200 traded higher by nearly three fifths of a percent, boosted by the gains in the banking sector.

Starting from today, China's central bank has lowered the reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points.

This represents the first across-the-board cut in the reserve requirement since May 2012.

On top of this, the central bank is additionally cutting the reserve requirement for banks that focus on lending to small and micro-sized enterprises, as well as the farming sector, by another 50-basis points.

China's major lenders currently need to hold 20 percent of their deposits in reserve.

The move comes just days after the purchasing managers' index, a main gauge of manufacturing activity, fell below 50 for the first time since October 2012.

For more on the move, the Beijing Hour's Zhao Yang earlier spoke with Liu Baocheng, Professor at the University Of International Business and Economics.

A new cross-Pacific cable directly linking China and the United States has been approved by China's National Development and Reform Commission.

China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile, together with companies from several other countries, will jointly contribute to funding and building the trans-Pacific link.

The goal is to meet the growing demand for telecommunications services between China and the US, and to reduce costs while enhancing network security.

Along with direct links to Shanghai and Taiwan, the line will also connect directly with other countries, including South Korea and Japan.

Despite the tight controls on airspace in China, the Chinese e-commerce giant now has the ability to deliver ginger tea to customers within an hour.

Taobao, the company's flagship marketplace, started the trial service yesterday. It applies to only one brand of tea from one particular vendor, with a limited 450 deliveries in total

Only three first tier cities in China are covered by this service, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In China, permission is required before such deliveries can be made. Alibaba's courier company, YTO Express, is handling the logistical arrangements and had got the qualification.

Disney's Chief Executive Robert Iger says major construction work will be completed by the end of this year.

The park was initially scheduled to open later this year, but a decision to invest a further 800 million US dollars on additional attractions forced Disney to reschedule the park's opening.

Disney says it hopes the extra investment will attract 30 percent more visitors than originally forecast.

Shanghai Disney Resort is a joint venture between the state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group which holds 57 percent of the project, and Disney, with 43 percent.

It will be the first Disneyland on the Chinese mainland and the sixth around the world.

It will feature two hotels, a theater, and a large retail, dining, and entertainment complex.

The Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group has signed an initial agreement to buy a controlling stake in South Korea's Tong Yang Life Insurance.

The purchase is worth around 1-billion US dollars, which is estimated to take up 58% of Tong Yang Life Insurance's stake.

Anbang has been on a buying spree overseas since last year, starting with its purchase of New York's famed Waldorf Astoria hotel for nearly 2-billion US dollars.

Recently, Anbang has also become the biggest shareholder of Minsheng Bank, the country's largest non-government lender.

Chinese Internet security company Qihoo 360 has paid a record price of 17 million US dollars for the rights to the "360.com" domain.

The ownership of this domain name was previously own by UK-based telecom giant Vodafone.

This purchase breaks the world record for domain sales, out pricing sex.com's historic 14-million US dollars.