RIA Novosti
Russia concerned by Japan-U.S. missile shield - FM Lavrov
TOKYO, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned by plans by the U.S. and Japan to deploy a joint missile defense system, the foreign minister told Tokyo's Kyodo news agency.
"Japanese-U.S. cooperation in missile defense is cause of concern for us. We are against the creation of a missile defense system as a means of achieving military superiority. The deployment of such a system will spur an arms race both regionally and globally," Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Saturday.
He said the system is part of the U.S. global missile defense shield and could be used against Russia and China.
Tokyo and Washington have intensified joint missile defense programs since North Korea's nuclear bomb and long-range missile tests last year.
Around 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed across Japan under a bilateral security arrangement.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83758834.html
Russian PM Zubkov hosts talks with Rice, Gate
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov hosted talks in Moscow on Saturday with the United States state and defense secretaries.
The government press office said the meeting with Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, on the second day of their visit to the Russia, focused on trade and economic relations.
The Russian side stressed the need to conclude the negotiating process on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization and the importance of abolishing the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which denies normal U.S. trade relations to countries with non-market economies that restrict their citizens' right to emigrate.
The controversial amendment is still applied to Russia, and has proved a key barrier for the country's entry to the WTO.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83749591.html
Russia, U.S. fail to agree on key issues at defense talks
MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. and Russia failed to resolve a missile defense dispute at Friday's talks in Moscow between the countries' foreign and defense ministers, but agreed to resume negotiations in Washington next April.
U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice said talks in the "two-plus-two" format had failed to overcome differences on U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Central Europe and Russian proposals to extend the START-1 arms reduction treaty, but a decision was made to continue discussions at the level of experts.
Rice said that at the talks, she and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had tried to respond to Russia's concerns on the missile shield, and were willing to continue efforts to allay its concerns.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted tense talks with Rice and Gates at his country residence near Moscow on defense issues.
Moscow strongly opposes U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, considering them a threat to its national security. Washington has insisted the European missile shield is intended to stave off the threat of missile attack from "rogue states" such as Iran or North Korea.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. side offered an alternative to its missile defense plans in a bid to allay Russia's concerns, and said Moscow would study it. "Today our American counterparts presented their return proposal, aimed at finding a solution to the dispute," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20071012/83677780.html
Rice meets rights activists during tense Moscow visit
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Russian human rights activists in Moscow on Saturday, a day after unsuccessful defense talks with the country's leaders.
The United States has repeatedly voiced concerns over the alleged erosion of democracy and human rights in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin, in turn, has warned against outside interference, and condemns the use of NGOs by foreign states to influence domestic policy.
Rice's meeting in the U.S. Embassy, attended by several heads of NGOs, appeared likely to further strain tensions with Moscow. However, according to one of the officials present at the talks, she avoided making judgments on the rights situation in Russia.
Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, told RIA Novosti: "She did not give an assessment. Those present gave their evaluation of the situation as a whole, and discussed particular areas of human rights violations."
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83746795.html
Sarkozy signals rapprochement with Russia over Iran nuclear program
MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that Russian and French positions had become closer with regard to Iran's nuclear program.
Sarkozy was speaking after discussing the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Iranian nuclear program is seen by some Western countries as a bid to develop nuclear weapons, despite repeated Iranian statements to the contrary.
"We have had a profound discussion on the matter and I listened to President Putin's analysis. I think our positions have become closer," Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy said that, despite slightly different approaches to analyzing the uranium enrichment program resumed by Iran in January 2006, Russia and France were unanimous that Iran was willing to cooperate on the issue.
"The most important thing is that they [Iran] are willing to cooperate," Sarkozy said.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20071010/83318593.html
Iran's Khamenei calls for boycott of Mideast conference
TEHRAN, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Islamic countries to boycott November's U.S.-sponsored international conference on the Middle East.
The conference was first proposed by U.S. President George Bush and subsequently approved by the Middle East Quartet, comprising the United States, United Nations, the European Union, and Russia.
"How can Islamic countries possibly participate in this event when the Palestinians describe this conference as a sham and do not intend to attend it?" he said at a religious meeting in Tehran.
He said all Islamic countries should treat the conference as a deception, and a stratagem by the Americans.
Iran's supreme leader said the Americans are attempting to "impose their will on the Palestinian people" and "save the Zionist regime [Israel]."
http://en.rian.ru/world/20071013/83751286.html
Gas blast kills at least nine in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine -1
(updates death toll, adds presidential press office statement in para 3)
KIEV, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - At least nine people are confirmed dead following a household gas explosion that caused a section of a building to collapse in Dnepropetrovsk, south-central Ukraine, rescuers said on Saturday.
So far three people have been pulled out of the rubble alive, and a further 21 are injured, the head of the regional emergency services said. The blast occurred in a nine-storey building in Ukraine's third-largest city, located to the south of Kiev.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko called on his Cabinet to do everything possible to help relatives of the victims, and those injured in the accident, the presidential press office said. He also offered his condolences to the victims' families, and urged Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to urgently ascertain the cause of the disaster.
The governor of the Dnepropetrovsk Region is keeping the president updated on developments at the site of the blast, the statement said.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20071013/83757853.html
President Putin signs degree on federal border agency
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on setting up a federal agency dedicated to securing Russia's borders, the Kremlin press office announced on Saturday.
At a news conference three days ago, the president said Russia was investing heavily in border infrastructure, particularly in the turbulent North Caucasus region.
He said that in order to prepare itself for a visa-free regime with the European Union, Russia must ensure the security of its external borders, and guarantee European partners that the country is secure from outside terrorist and criminal elements.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83736351.html
Russia intercepted over 300 foreign spies in past 4 years - FS
MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - The head of Russia's Federal Security Service told a popular weekly that the FSB had identified over 300 foreign spies over the past four years.
"More than 270 actively operating agents and 70 foreign intelligence recruits, including 35 Russians, have been exposed since 2003," Argumenty i Fakty quoted Nikolai Patrushev as saying. He said that 14 agents and 33 recruits have been caught this year alone.
Patrushev said six Russians were caught in an attempt to transfer state secrets to foreign countries, and have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Retired Colonel Valentin Shabaturov was given a 12-year sentence this year for treason and espionage. The court proved he had actively cooperated with foreign intelligence for seven years, from 1999 to 2006, and revealed state secrets to them.
Igor Arsentyev, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, was sentenced to nine years in prison on the same charges in September.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071010/83308532.html
Russia successfully tests short-range missile intercept
MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-fired a short-range anti-ballistic missile at a test site in Kazakhstan, a Space Forces spokesman said Thursday.
"A combined team of the Space Forces, the Sary Shagan testing site and industry officials fired a short-range interceptor missile at a target missile," Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.
He said the launch had been conducted to assess the possibility of extending of the service life of interceptor missiles on combat duty around Moscow.
According to some reports, at least 68 short-range A-135 interceptors (NATO reporting name Gazelle) are currently deployed in the Moscow missile defense system to protect radars and strategically important infrastructure.
The Gazelle, with an effective range of up to 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) is similar in design and mission to the U.S. Sprint missile of the U.S. Safeguard system.
The Sary Shagan testing site on the west bank of Lake Balkhash has been operational since October 1958. In recent years, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces conducted tests of six anti-missile systems, 12 air defense systems, seven types of missile interceptors, 12 types of ground-to-air missiles and 18 radars at the site.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071011/83439840.html
Odessa-Gdansk pipeline to be extended
MOSCOW. (Vladimir Saprykin for RIA Novosti) - The success of the informal energy summit held by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Wednesday will be judged later, when the agreements reached there become reality.
But it was certainly an achievement, because it offered more cooperation possibilities for participants, who endorsed the extension of the Ukrainian-Polish Odessa-Brody pipeline to Poland's port Gdansk and refinery in Plock. The pipeline is designed to pump oil from the Caspian to Europe, bypassing Russia.
The sides' oil producing and transporting companies signed a corporate agreement, which became the first practical step to preparing a feasibility study for the pipeline project.
The president of Kazakhstan did not come to Vilnius, but his energy and mineral resources minister, Sauat Mynbayev, said Kazakhstan viewed the project as a practical possibility and could take part in it.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071012/83636003.html
Will Sarkozy become Sarko?
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Yelena Shesternina) - On October 9-10, French President Nicholas Sarkozy will pay a visit to Moscow to have talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
This will be their second meeting since Sarkozy was elected president. For the first time, the two presidents met at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm and intrigued the journalists on the eve of the usually boring official talks. While they were talking before a regular meeting, the French president's phone rang. Having spoken for a minute, Sarkozy gave the receiver to Putin. It later transpired that they were not dealing with global problems. Their wives - Cecilia and Lyudmila - simply decided to check what their husbands were doing. The first ladies had their own program and found a common language rather quickly. Judging by all, their husbands also got on quite well.
At any rate, when French journalists asked him about his opinion of Putin, Sarkozy said that the Russian president seemed a calm and very clever man one could easily talk to. This admission perplexed political analysts who predicted almost return to the Cold War times for Moscow and Paris after Sarkozy became president.
During the election campaign the then presidential nominee was not very complimentary to Russia, and tried to distance himself as much as he could from the policy of Jacques Chirac, who had been Moscow's number one defender in Europe for many years.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071008/83005256.html
China Daily
CPC ready for national congress
By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 08:20
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday completed preparations for the Party's national congress by approving two key documents - amendments to the Party Constitution and a report by the 16th Central Committee of the CPC.
The 7th Plenary Session of the CPC's 16th Central Committee discussed and agreed to submit the documents to the 17th National Congress of the CPC, scheduled to start on Monday.
The CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau presided over the plenum, which was addressed by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, according to a communiqu released after the plenum.
Hu explained the draft work report to be presented by the CPC Central Committee to the national congress, which outlines the Party's priorities for the next five years.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/13/content_6171831.htm
Chen Liangyu expelled from CPC
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-12 18:31
BEIJING -- The Seventh Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday endorsed the decision made by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee of expelling former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu from the CPC.
The meeting reviewed and approved the investigation report on the case of Chen, former secretary of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, handed over by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to expelling Chen, 61, from the party on July 26 after the CCDI's investigation into a social security fund scandal.
The meeting also endorsed the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee's decision of expelling Du Shicheng, former deputy secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the (CPC), from the party.
Du, 57, also former secretary of the Qingdao Municipal CPC Committee in Shandong, was expelled for taking huge bribes and leading a dissolute life.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/12/content_6170911.htm
China's longest tunnel under lake opens to traffic
(newsphoto)
Updated: 2007-10-11 17:06
Vehicles move along a 3.46 km-long tunnel under the Dushuhu Lake in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province on October 10, 2007. The tunnel is part of the 7.37 km-long Dushuhu bridge and tunnel project, which opened to traffic Wednesday after more than one year of construction. The tunnel is the longest of its kind in China. [newsphoto]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2007-10/11/content_6166789.htm
China hikes bank reserve rate to 13%
(chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-13 16:22
China ordered banks to set aside more money as reserves for the eighth time this year to cool speculation in stocks and real estate and curb the fastest inflation in 10 years.
Lenders must park 13 percent of deposits as reserves from October 25, up from 12.5 percent, the People's Bank of China said Saturday on its Web site. The required ratio is the highest in almost a decade.
The move is aimed at "strengthening liquidity management in the banking system and checking excessive credit growth", the central bank said in a statement. Excess liquidity could lead to price hikes and pour more fuel into the sizzling economy.
China's consumer prices surged 6.5 percent in August from a year earlier, the biggest jump since December 1996. The rate breached the government's annual 3 percent target for a fourth consecutive month, as food costs soared.
China's trade surplus jumped 56 percent in September, the customs authorities said Friday, taking it to US$185.65 billion for the first nine months of the year, more than the US$177.5 billion for all of last year.
Money supply is surging as the central bank sold the yuan to buy into the foreign currency brought into the country by the trade surplus. Some of that money is finding its way into stocks, pushing the benchmark CSI 300 Index up 181 percent this year. Money supply rose 18.5 percent in September.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/13/content_6172368.htm
Health service for all by 2010 - minister
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-13 18:43
SHANGHAI -- Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu has vowed to establish a medical service system which covers all urban and rural Chinese by 2010.
The Ministry of Health will deepen the ongoing medical reform to attain the objective, the minister said at a Sino-American medical forum opened in Shanghai, China's leading metropolis, on Friday.
The reform of China's public health sector is in a crucial period. It covers a wide range of subjects including medical insurance, drug manufacturing and distributing and supervision and legislation of medical management.
Increasing public criticism on high medical expense burden and endless hospital sandals have compelled the ministry to launch the reform which involved 16 ministries and commissions to brainstorm the reform.
"Public medical service should not be a burden to the society, but an important aspect of sustainable social development," the minister said.
Eight think tanks including World Health Organization, Mckinsey, World Bank, Development Research Center of the State Council and four Chinese universities have submitted their proposals on the reform to the ministry.
"The final plan of the reform will be a mixture of the proposals," he said.
China started a medical service reform in 1992 to abolish a system in which governments cover more than 90 percent of Chinese medical expenses.
Medical insurance has been introduced and promoted in urban areas in Guangdong and some other provinces since 1992 and cooperative medical care has been experimented in some rural counties to find a way to provide all Chinese with affordable medical service.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/13/content_6172454.htm
US-Russia missile defense talks fail
(AP)
Updated: 2007-10-13 17:41
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President Bush's top two Cabinet officials on Friday to back off US missile defense plans for eastern Europe as high-level talks yielded little more than a pledge to meet again.
Despite presenting new cooperation proposals intended to bring Moscow on board, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates failed in a series of tough meetings to turn around Moscow's opposition to the system and other strategic issues.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/13/content_6172427.htm
Forbes: Woman, 26, mainland's richest
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-09 07:31
A 26-year-old woman worth $16.2 billion is the Chinese mainland's richest person, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices, the business magazine Forbes said Monday.
The fortune of Yang Huiyan - also Asia's richest woman - is based on shares in Country Garden Holdings Ltd, a real estate developer founded by her father, Forbes said. It said the company's Hong Kong stock market debut this year made billionaires of Yang and four other people.
In second place was another developer, Hui Wing Mau, with a net worth of $7.3 billion. No 3 was Guo Guangchang, chairman of a manufacturing, retailing and real estate conglomerate, Fosun Group, with a fortune of $4.85 billion.
Their rise reflects a sharp rise in Chinese real estate prices over the past year.
Yang also represents an unusual case of second-generation wealth in China, most of whose richest people are self-made entrepreneurs still in their 30s and 40s.
Her net worth was more than seven times that of last year's richest mainland person, appliance retailer Gome's Huang Guangyu, who was worth $2.3 billion. Huang, also known as Wong Kwong-yu, dropped to No 10 on this year's list, even though his net worth rose by more than 50 percent to $3.6 billion.
Forbes said it compiled its list by looking at shareholdings in public companies and estimating what holdings in private entities would be worth if public.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/09/content_6158746.htm
China to allocate 80b yuan for high-tech development
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-13 15:25
The China Development Bank (CDB) will provide 80 billion yuan (US$10.7 billion) to support the development and innovation of high-tech enterprises in upcoming five years.
According to a memorandums of understanding recently signed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and CDB, the fund will be used in high-tech innovation, key projects, small-and medium-sized high-tech firm development and etc.
It is an effort initiated by NDRC to formulate efficient finance channels for the high-tech industry at China Hi-tech Fair being held in Shenzhen.
Apart from government supportive policies, the industry still needs other effective financing methods such as venture capital investment, bank loans and public listing.
The NDRC will work with the CDB and Shenzhen Stock Exchange to promote cooperation between high-tech enterprises and the capital market in a bid to solve financial difficulties of high-tech enterprises.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-10/13/content_6172333.htm
Foreign exchange reserves swell to US$1.43 trillion
By Xin Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 09:23
The country's foreign exchange reserves expanded to US$1.43 trillion at the end of September, a year-on-year increase of 45.1 percent, the central bank said on Friday.
That's 3.5 percentage points higher than in the first six months.
"The increasing trade surplus has been the main driver of the reserve expansion," said Hu Shaowei, a senior economist with the State Information Center.
China's trade surplus was US$185.7 billion in the first nine months - more than for the whole of last year - according to Customs.
It may also be a result of incoming "hot money" as the domestic stock and property markets surge, said Chen Xingdong, chief economist of BNP Paribas Peregrine Securities in Beijing.
Some analysts said the reserves could have been higher if not for the transfer of funds to the newly launched China Investment Corp, but the central bank did not reveal whether this is the case.
Hu said the expanding trade surplus is difficult to control and contributes to the country's ballooning reserves.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' latest macroeconomic forecast said the surplus could reach a record high of about US$260 billion this year.
Meanwhile, the central bank said, the annual growth in broad money supply or M2 accelerated to 18.45 percent in September, up by 1.39 percentage points from the end of June.
Yuan-denominated lending rose to 25.9 trillion yuan (US$3.44 trillion) at the end of September, a year-on-year increase of 17.13 percent.
Banks extended 3.36 trillion yuan in new loans in the first nine months of the year, 607.3 billion more than last year, which, analysts said, could add pressure to fixed-assets investment.
The central bank said in a statement that the financial situation was, on the whole, "stable".
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-10/13/content_6171927.htm
One of "Jena Six" teens jailed in Louisiana
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-13 09:25
New Orleans - A Louisiana teen-ager who spent more than nine months behind bars in connection with the "Jena Six" case is back in jail to complete his sentence in an earlier juvenile case, an official said on Friday.
Mychal Bell, 17, was taken into custody on Thursday night, said LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters.
He was given an 18-month sentence in a juvenile detention facility, according to the Alexandria, Louisiana, Town Talk newspaper.
Walters said Bell's sentence in juvenile court was postponed after he and five other black teen-agers were charged with attacking a white Jena, Louisiana, high school classmate in December 2006 after months of racially charged incidents in the central Louisiana town of 3,000.
"As I earlier pointed out, Mychal Bell had four dispositions, as they are known in Louisiana juvenile court, before the so-called Jena Six case occurred," Walters said in a statement.
Walters declined further comment on Bell's incarceration because juvenile cases are not public record under Louisiana law, as in most US states.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/13/content_6171943.htm
3 scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-09 10:07
New York -- As a child in Italy during World War II, he lived for years on the streets and in orphanages. Six decades later, as a scientist in the United States, Mario Capecchi joined two other researchers in winning the Nobel Prize in medicine.
Their work led to a powerful and widely used technique to manipulate genes in mice, which has helped scientists study heart disease, diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.
The $1.54 million prize was awarded Monday to Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies, 82, a native of Britain now at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff University in Wales.
Their "gene-targeting" technique lets scientists deactivate or modifying individual genes in mice and observe how those changes affect the animals. That in turn gives clues about what those genes do in human health and disease.
The work has had "a revolutionary effect on the ability to understand how genes work," said Richard Woychik, director of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, a center for mouse genetics.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/09/content_6159959.htm
85-year-old Nobel laureate Yang: 'Young wife makes me younger'
(chinaview.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-25 17:37
BEIJING - Chinese-American Nobel laureate of physics Yang Zhenning said to Xinhua his wife Weng Fan, 54 years his junior, has made him younger and more energetic.
Yang and his wife visited China's Sun Yat-Sen University on Saturday in Guangzhou. Holding his wife's hand tightly, he said: "She really makes me feel the energy of youth."
He added: "I am now 10 times more famous than before since the current marriage."
Yang, 85, married 31-year-old Weng Fan on December 24, 2004.
It was the second marriage for both of them. Yang's first wife Du Zhili died in 2003 and Weng wed her first husband shortly after graduation from college and got divorced soon afterwards.
In 1957, Yang won and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Lee Tsung-dao "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws, which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles."
Since late 2003, Yang has been giving regular lectures exclusive for freshman in China's elite Tsinghua University.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/25/content_6133691.htm
Gore and UN climate panel share Nobel Peace Prize
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 08:45
OSLO -- Former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their part in galvanizing international action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".
The award appeared to be a snub to President George W. Bush, who has doubted the science of global warming and rejected caps on emissions of gases believed to cause it, but the White House said it was happy for the winners and praised their work.
Gore, who lost narrowly to Bush in the 2000 presidential election, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a near record field of 181 candidates.
The Nobel Committee said the award was made because of their efforts to draw attention to mankind's impact on the climate and measures needed to address it before rising temperatures bring droughts, floods and rising seas.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee said.
Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth to warn of the dangers and urge action against it.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/13/content_6171850.htm
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