President Xi Jinping on Friday called for an overall national security outlook at a seminar in Beijing, emphasizing security concerns related to politics, the economy, sovereignty, society, and the Internet, among others.
Xi, who heads the National Security Commission (NSC), presided over the seminar on national security on Friday. Premier Li Keqiang and top legislator Zhang Dejiang, the two deputy heads of the NSC, were present at the seminar.
The figures for the last three months compared to a year earlier still show good growth and no retail price inflation, with both volume and value figures up 4.6%. Add in motor fuel where oil prices have soared and volume growth is 3.8%.
Trying to stop Environment Agency staff from doing their jobs saw a businessman convicted of obstruction.
Bart Critchly-Clark, of Mill Lane, Monkton Combe, Bath, initially allowed environmental officers onto his premises at Riverway in Trowbridge. But after it was explained they were there to investigate claims of an illegal waste site, he became uncooperative. He refused to give his address. He refused to give his date of birth. And to stop officers from taking photographs of the premises, Critchly-Clark closed the entrance shutters.
To operate a business which manages waste, you must have an environmental permit from the Environment Agency. It details what can and cannot be done, to prevent impact on the environment and local community. To enforce this, Environment Agency staff have legal powers of entry and inspection.
In this case, the Environment Agency officers returned the next day, accompanied by police officers, gained access and finished their investigation.
Critchly-Clark pleaded guilty to a charge of intentional obstruction of an environment officer under the Environment Act 1995 and was fined £200 and ordered to pay £330 costs at Swindon Magistrates Court on 31 January.
Environment officer Huw Williams said:
The majority of the businesses we visit are welcoming and happy to work with us. But the Environment Agency has a zero tolerance approach to obstruction and threatening behaviour on our staff and we will not hesitate to prosecute.
Xu Feifei, an 11-year-old boy from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, suffered from a sudden acute eye disease which has almost led to blindness. The whole ailment was caused by excessive eye fatigue during the winter vacation, during which he played computer games for a continuous 10 days and nights.
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A girl, Ruru, has an eyesight test in Huaiyang County, Zhoukou in Henan Province. She and her two siblings suffer from severe nearsightedness. [Photo/China.org.cn] |
Many youngsters in China nowadays are increasingly indulged in computer games and other electronic products, and are unable to extricate themselves. This is followed by a series of health problems, with the most typical case being myopia, or nearsightedness.
According to the latest research report released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the nearsightedness rate among Chinese juveniles ranks first in the world – 70 percent of high school and college students. The rate is nearly 40 percent in primary school students, while it is only 10 percent for their peers in the United States.
The WHO research report says that the number of nearsighted people in China has reached 600 million, nearly approaching half of the country’s total population.
Experts attribute the soaring nearsightedness rate in China to the unhealthy lifestyles and learning styles which parents impose on their children.
On the one hand, to achieve high scores in exams, children spend too much time indoors studying and have not enough time outside in the sunlight. On the other hand, a growing number of high-tech products, such as smart phones and tablet PCs, make children focus their eyes and attention on fluorescent screens for long periods of time, resulting in excessive eye fatigue.
Experts suggest that youngsters maintain a proper balance between study and rest so as to protect their eyesight, and parents should play a correspondingly active role in the process.
