Roundup - 04/01/2010

• A major oil spill in Shaanxi province is threatening to contaminate the Yellow River. 150,000 litres of diesel oil leaked from a pipeline belonging to the China National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday. Reports of the spill only came out on Sunday when water quality monitors at the Sanmenxia resevoir began detecting small quantities of diesel. It is not known whether local authorities were informed before this.
  
  More than 700 workers are trying to contain the spill and have been told by Vice-Premier Li Keqiang that they must contain the spill before it contaminates the Yellow River. The Yellow river is a source of drinking water for approximately 140 million people along its 5,500 km stretch.
  
  
  
• Cold whether and snow have caused chaos across northern China. 90 per cent of flights to and from Beijing's Capital International Airport were canceled on Sunday as Beijing received its heaviest snowfall since 1951. Temperatures in the capital are expected to drop to -16C, further disrupting air and ground traffic.
  
  China's Central Meteorological Station issued a third orange alert on Sunday evening predicting that some areas could see a temperature drop of up to 18C. Agricultural experts have been sent out to major wheat producing regions to help protect crops.
  
  
  
• China's Central Military Commission has released guidelines on strengthening party building in the People's Liberation Army. The guidelines, approved by CMC Chairman and President Hu Jintao, focus on developing grass-roots party organisations, strengthening measures against corruption and helping the party with ideological work. A CMC statement stressed the importance of “the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China over the armed forces.”
  
  
  
• New officials have been appointed by the State Council, including three new vice-foreign ministers. Cui Tiankai, Fu Ying, and Zhai Jun each have their own specialities. Cui Tiankai has spent many years with the Chinese delegation to the UN before heading the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fu Ying has served as Ambassador to the UK since 2007. Before that she was Ambassador to Australia, she has also led negotiating teams in nuclear talks with North Korea. Zhai Jun's focus is the Middle East and North Africa. He was Director General of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs 2003-2006 and Ambassador to Libya 1997-2000.
  
  
  
• The family of executed Briton, Akmal Shaikh, has written to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband asking for an inquiry into the death. Akmal's brother, Akbar said that the lack of information given them was the cause of “incredible grief and torment.” According to Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer and head of Reprieve, “nobody told the family how or where he would be killed. No family member or independent observer was allowed to witness his death, view his body or verify his burial. We have only the word of a press release that he was even killed.”