新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2015/03/31（打印版）

Most of the Chinese nationals who had been living in war-torn Yemen have now been safely moved out of the country by Chinese naval vessels.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with Australia's Governor General, suggesting a Chinese-Australian FTA may be a reality this year.

Marathon talks are continuing in Switzerland as the deadline to reach a preliminary Iranian nuclear deal is just hours away.

In business... Chinese authorities are lowering the downpayment thresholds for 2nd home purchases.

In Sports... Chinese snooker ace Ding Junhui through to the next round of the China Open.

In Entertainment... Disney is reportedly working on a live-action version of Mulan.

The Chinese government says it's managed to evacuate virtually all off the Chinese nationals currently living in Yemen.

Some 570 Chinese nationals are either on their way or have arrived in Djibouti with the help of Chinese warships.

The Chinese naval vessels, which have been part of the anti-pirate coalition off the Horn of Africa, were dispatched to Yemen a few days ago to help evacuate Chinese nationals from the war-torn country.

"The evacuation mission was urgent and had been left with little time. Chinese institutions were dispersed at dozens of sites in Yemen. It was not easy to gather all the Chinese nationals to one place at a planned time. However, the Chinese Embassy in Yemen and Consulate General in Aden overcame a string of difficulties, making thorough arrangements that made the evacuation safe, orderly and efficient,"

The Chinese Embassy in Yemen and the Consulate General office in Aden will continue to operate.

It's also promising to stay in-contact with the 20 or so Chinese nationals who have decided to remain behind in Yemen.

The Yemeni government is pointing the finger at Shiite Houthi fighters for an air strike on a camp for refugees in northern Yemen that has killed at least 40 people.

Yemeni foreign minister Riyadh Yaseen has made the suggestion while speaking in-exile from Saudi Arabia.

"This is really untrue, they are always trying to have what is called a human shield. Houthis they are going to places where there is some population or residential houses and they are trying to put their weapons there."

Yemen's state news agency Saba, which is currently under the control of the Houthis, says the camp was hit by Saudi planes.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni government in-exile is accusing Iran of sending its elite Revolutionary Guards troops into Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, supported by its Sunni Muslim allies in the region, began launching air strikes last week against the Houthis, which now control much of Yemen.

The coalition forces are now said to be focusing on slowing down the Houthi march towards the southern Yemeni city of Aden.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Australia's Governor-General that his government expects to formalize a free trade agreement with Australia sometime this year.

Xi Jinping has met with Peter Cosgrove in Beijing, saying the FTA should help accelerate bilateral economic cooperation between the two sides.

Though officially the Queen of England's represenative to Australia as the Head of State, the Governor-General of Australia holds no tangible political power.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is calling on US lawmakers to approve long-awaited reforms to the International Monetary Fund that would give China and other developing countries more sway in the organization.

Li Keqiang has made the call while meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in Beijing.

The meeting has also seen the Premier call for the US government to support the adoption of the RMB in the IMF's basket of special drawing rights.

This is a basket of currencies the IMF uses to value the loans it gives to countries.

The premier has also petitioned Lew about relaxing US restrictions on the export of high technology to China.

For his part, Jacob Lew says the US side will cooperate with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank when it becomes operational.

Russia, Finland and Egypt have become the latest countries to apply to be founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The bank now has 30 prospective founding members, with Switzerland and Britain being formally accepted on Saturday.

Founding members have the right to help draft the bank's governance and operational rules.

Countries who join after the deadline will simply have voting rights, and less say in the rule-making process.

Chinese authorities are establishing a blacklist system to name and shame officials who interfere in judicial cases.

Under the new rules, judicial personnel will have to keep detailed records of officials to meet with them to discuss judicial cases, regardless of who is involved.

Judges, prosecutors and police officers will also be blacklisted and punished if caught illegally intervening in investigations or court cases.

The 13 new articles have been jointly-published by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

Under the new provisions, officials will be sanctioned if they're found to be interceding on behalf of litigants, asking personnel handling cases to meet with the litigants or their defense teams privately, or make suggestions or directions on how the cases should be handled.

The rules are part of a broader legal reform package authorities began putting in-place in October.

"It is a regulation to supervise officials and make them respect the judicial system and the legal process. It warns them not to put their hands into areas they're not supposed to be, which could hamper the fairness of the judicial system."

Officials meddling in judicial cases has been a long-standing problem in China, with the interference often linked with nepotism and bribery.

The new rules are expected to be more effective in stopping the interference, as they lay out more clear definitions and responsibilities.

The regulations will hold three different authorities accountable, namely judicial organizations, the CPC's political and legal affairs commission and the CPC's commission for discipline inspections.

"It is a balanced mechanism to ensure the judicial personnel's work. On the one hand, it stipulates that the judicial personnel are protected by the law and the Party. That helps to expel the personnel's fear of suffering from retaliation from the investigated officials. On the other hand, the judicial personnel will be punished if they fail to record faithfully because of personal reasons."

Officials will also face party discipline or even criminal charges if they threaten or try to carry out retribution for court cases after-the-fact.

Beijing municipal authorities have revised the heavy air pollution response programs this week, introducing stricter rules to deal with polluting companies and heavy vehicles to try to limit air pollution.

The Beijing Municipal Heavy Air Pollution Emergency Response Program includes a four-tier color alert system.

A Red alert, the highest, will be issued for heavy pollution that is expected to last more than 3-days.

Orange and red alerts are to be issued 24-hours before heavy pollution days to give people in Beijing advanced warning.

Sun Feng with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center says issuing alerts before heavy pollution days should help authorities deal with air pollution.

"If we try to control air pollution before it happens, the accumulation of pollutants may be reduced. Accordingly, air pollutant concentrations will be much lower."

Authorities contend the move should help give government departments enough time to take emergency steps to limit heavy-pollution days.

Sun Feng says this will require more accuracy and promptness in predicting the air condition.

"That is to say, we have to make a very accurate prediction of the air quality in the coming week. We will refresh the data every day to guarantee the accuracy of the prediction of what the pollution is likely to be like. The data will then be reported to various environmental administration departments for further analysis and research."

A Red alert for air pollution will prompt an alternate-day driving system for odd- and even-numbered license plate numbers.

At the same time, 30 percent of all municipal will also be pulled from the streets on an odd and even basis.

Liu Jianjun with Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation says improvements to the public transport system will also be made, with additional buses put on the roads to meet people's public transport needs.

"It's estimated that the public transport system will have 2 million more passengers on an emergency day."

When an orange or red alert is issued, construction vehicles will be banned from the streets and construction sites will be shut down.

Heavy polluting factories will also be shut down or forced to limit their production, except those necessary to maintain the operation of the city.

Last year saw Beijing Municipal authorities issue 2 Orange alerts, 5-yellow alerts, 11-blue alerts, but no Red Alerts.

The sun-powered "Solar Impulse 2" has landed in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.

The plane touched down safely earlier this morning after arriving on a flight from Myanmar.

"Solar Impulse 2" began its trip to China yesterday morning from the city of Mandalay in Myanmar on the third leg of its round-the-world journey.

"There is a lot in front of us, a lot in front of us in term of flying the plane, and in term of meeting with people in different countries and promote our message about clean technology."

After its stopover in Chongqing, the plane will then fly to Nanjing to undergo maintenance before passing over the Pacific Ocean.

The plane had to remain in Myanmar for 10-days because of delays brought on by bad weather.

It's expected to travel some 40-thousand kilometers without using any fossil fuels.

It is scheduled to stop in the US, Northern Africa or Southern Europe in coming months before returning to Abu Dhabi to complete its world tour.

Last-ditch talks are still underway in Switzerland ahead of today's deadline for a preliminary deal on Iran's nuclear program.

Foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, have been meeting with their Iranian counterpart in the hopes of working out a breakthrough after almost 18 months of negotiations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says all sides have made clear exactly what the sticking points are and how they see these obstacles be overcome.

As such, the Chinese foreign minister says they remain optimistic about a potential solution.

For his part, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says they're still working through various proposals.

"We are still not in the position to be able to say we are close to resolving the remaining issues, but we are hopeful and we'll continue the efforts."

Iran and the P5+1 have been working to try to break an impasse in negotiations aimed at ensuring that Tehran cannot develop a nuclear bomb.

At issue is which sanctions will be lifted, and how much work Iran will be able to do when it comes to nuclear development.

If a preliminary deal can be completed today, the technical details of a final deal have to be done by the end of June.

India's Defence Minister is touting the importance of defence ties with Japan as part of an official visit to the country.

Manohar Parrikar has met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his time in Tokyo.

The two countries signed the 'Tokyo Declaration' a year ago to strengthen military cooperation.

"The two countries share common interests, so strengthening the Japan-India relationship - especially in the areas of security - I believe will also deepen our strategic global partnership."

That deal will allow Japan to supply India with aircraft and other military hardware.

India's military has been long-dependent on arms sales through Russia to keep its military technology working.

However, much of India's military technology, particularly its airforce, is out-of-date, as much of it was purchased from the former Soviet Union in the 1980's.

Britain's election campaign has officially kicked off, with Prime Minister David Cameron visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

The royal audience has followed on the heels of parliament being dissolved ahead of the May 7th vote.

The election is the first time the historic practice of prime ministers asking the monarch to dissolve parliament has not been required.

Cameron has since launched the campaigning, suggesting the British people will have to choose between his Conservative Party and what he calls the economic chaos of the opposition Labour Party.

"The next prime minister walking through that door will be me or Ed Miliband. You can choose an economy that grows, that creates jobs, that generates the money to ensure a properly-funded and improving National Health Service, a government that will cut taxes for 30 million hard-working people, and a country that is safe and secure. Or you can choose the economic chaos of Ed Miliband."

At the same time, Miliband has begun launching attacks on Cameron's record with the European Union, accusing him of playing political games with Britain's membership in the bloc.

Early polling has suggested the race could be tight, though Cameron's Conservatives do maintain a slight advantage at the moment.

German prosecutors say the co-pilot accused of intentionally crashing a Germanwings flight last week into the French Alps was treated for suicidal tendencies before getting his pilot's license.

Authorities say Andreas Lubitz was being treated up until his death for an unspecified illnesses which resulted in him being told by his doctors he should be taking time off work.

"The co-pilot was, several years ago and before he got his pilot's license, for a longer period treated for suicidal tendencies. Since then, and until the end, there were further doctor's visits with sick notes, but there were no more diagnoses of suicidal tendencies or aggressive behavior."

Lubitz enrolled in training with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, in 2008 and became a pilot in 2013.

Unverified reports suggest he was diagnosed with a serious depressive episode in 2009 and received treatment for a year and a half.

U.S stock rose sharply on Monday amid upbeat economic data and optimistic sentiment from overseas stock markets.

Data released on Monday suggests the U.S. Pending Home Sales Index rose over 3-percent in February, hitting its highest level since June 2013.

The U.S. Commerce Department says personal income levels have increased by 0.4 percent in February from the previous month, beating market expectations.

Consumer spending, which contributes to over two-thirds of the U.S. economy, also rose to nearly 12 billion dollars through February.

Meanwhile, the US market rally was also driven by comments from China's central-bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan, who has gone on-record saying there is "more room" for Chinese authorities to ease its policies if the economy stays soft.

Meanwhile in Europe, shares there closed sharply higher as well, boosted by Zhou Xiaochuan's comments, on top of a slide in the euro and a round of solid economic data.

This was enough to outweigh ongoing concerns over Greece's struggle to reach a reform agreement with international lenders before it runs out of money.

Chinese authorities are lowering the required downpayment for second home purchases to 40-percent from 60-percent to prop-up the housing market.

The minimum downpayment ratio for first-time home buyers who use the government's housing fund is also being reduced from 30-percent to 20-percent.

At the same time, if buyers use the housing fund, the ratio for a second home purchase will remain at 30 percent, provided all their loans are paid off on the first house.

For more on the move, we're joined now live by Gao Shang, analyst with Beijing-based Guantong Futures.

1 Chinese authorities have also announced sales of homes purchased over two years ago will be exempt from a tax of 5.6 percent on the current and original price difference. How much will these measures influence the property market downturn?

3 How much does the fluxuation economic areas, such as the housing market, affect other markets, including the stock market and other areas?

China Pacific Insurance has announced a 20-percent rise in net profit through last year.

The Chinese insurer is crediting the profit increase to bigger life insurance premiums and investment returns.

The company says it did have to pay out more claims in property and casualty insurance last year.

As China's third-biggest life insurer, China Pacifics' life insurance unit grew 4-percent year on year, netting nearly 16-billion US dollars in profits.

Alibaba has signed a music distribution deal with music company BMG in its bid to become a bigger player in the digital media sector.

The move is part of Alibaba's bid to become an online-media powerhouse, including the distribution of music, film and television.

At the same time, the agreement should allow BMG a chance to boost its presence in China.

In November, the German music firm hooked up with independent Chinese music company 'Giant Jump' to manage its publishing and recording rights.

Chinese carpooling app Dida Pinche has entered into talks with US-based Uber to help expand its market share.

Tencent-backed Didi and Alibaba's Kuaidi currently control 99-percent of China's mobile taxi hailing market.

Dida's services match drivers and passengers, making the cost roughly half that of a taxi.

Chinese authorities have announced plans to restrict Photovoltaic manufacturing here in China.

Industrial authorities say they're tightening controls over developing new projects.

At the same time, authorities overseeing the solar power panel industry are demanding PV producers replace their old machinery with more advanced and environment-friendly ones.

The new regulations also require PV makers to spend over 3-percent of their daily revenues on technological research and upgrades.

However, the industry has been struggling with over-capasity amid a downturn in solar-power generation.

The high-cost of PV production, on top of depressed fossil-fuel prices, have been blamed for the downturn.

A new report from SWIFT suggests the renminbi has dropped to 7th place among the world's payments currencies through February.

The yuan has been used in around 1.8 percent of all global payments through Feburary.

The Swiss franc and the Canadian dollar surpassed the Chinese currency last month.

SWIFT attributes the slowdown in the global use of the Renminbi to a "seasonal effect" of the Chinese New Year .