Feb52017

Experiment zone in Qinghai to protect Tibetan culture

East Asia
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A woman wearing traditional Tibetan costumes is seen during a fashion show held at Batang grassland of Yushu city of Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Northwest China’s Qinghai province, July 26, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Ministry of Culture has agreed to build an experiment zone in China’s northwestern Qinghai Province to protect Tibetan ecological and cultural heritage.

According to Wang Dongmei, head of the culture and sports bureau in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, the zone will cover the city of Yushu and its adjacent counties.

On the zone’s protection list are the physical and cultural heritage items related to the local Tibetan people in the Sanjiangyuan area, which is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang (Mekong) rivers, Wang said.

Yushu is home to seven national-level cultural heritage sites, 29 provincial-level sites as well as two historical villages. The song and dance, costumes of ethnic minorities, and metal forging techniques are all listed as intangible heritage in China.

Wang told Xinhua that Yushu has eleven national items of intangible heritage and 24 national “cultural inheritors.”

“The experiment zone will help boost protection of Tibetan culture and local ecology as a whole, and sustainable development of the society and economy,” said Tsering Teg, governor of Yushu.

Yushu has recovered from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit the region on April 14, 2010. It affected 246,800 people, leaving 2,220 dead and more than 100,000 homeless.

Feb52017

These disappointing proposals fall far short of what is needed – Healey

Labour
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Labour’s Shadow
Secretary of State for Housing John Healey MP, responding to the government’s
announcement on renting, said:

“These disappointing proposals fall far short of what is
needed.

"Government figures show that affordable housebuilding has
fallen to the lowest level in 24 years, with the number of homes being built
for social rent now at the lowest level since records began.

"Ministers continue to do next to nothing to help people who
rent from a private landlord and have consistently blocked Labour’s attempts to
change the law to control costs and give renters security.

"Ministers even voted down Labour’s efforts to ensure
that private rented homes were simply fit for human habitation.

"After seven years of
failure on housing, renters deserve better than this.”

Feb52017

Privatised rail has left us with a fragmented and inefficient network that drives up costs and under delivers – McDonald

Labour
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Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary
of State for Transport, commenting on a report
by the Commons Transport Select Committee, said:

“Privatised rail has left us with a fragmented and
inefficient network that drives up costs and under delivers.

“A railway works best as an integrated network but
privatisation and franchising have meant breaking it up to create opportunities
for companies to extract a profit, resulting in costly inefficiencies. For
example, hundreds of people are employed full time on the railway to argue
about which company is responsible for delays.

“It’s not just that money which should be used to
improve services or keep fares down is syphoned off or wasted, we have a
confusing fare structure and services are disjointed and difficult to use for
passengers.

“The current system is broken. It is time for
our railways to be run under public ownership, in the public interest as an
integrated national asset with affordable fares for all and long-term
investment in the railway network.”

Feb52017

News story: New powers to crack down on laser attacks

HM Government
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People shining laser pens to distract pilots, train and bus drivers could face fines of thousands of pounds or a jail sentence under stronger new powers designed to protect the public.

Shining lasers at any transport operator will become an offence under new legislation. This new law will make it even safer for aircraft travel as well as passengers using buses, taxis and trains both now and in the future.

Currently, it is an offence to shine lasers at pilots and offenders could face fines of up to £2,500. But police do not have the powers to effectively tackle and investigate the inappropriate use of laser devices against aircraft, trains, buses and other forms of transport. One of the current laws means that police have to prove a person endangered the aircraft when committing the offence of shining a laser, whereas the new law will mean that police will only have to prove the offence of shining the laser.

Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling said:

Shining a laser pointer at pilots or drivers is incredibly dangerous and could have fatal consequences. Whilst we know laser pens can be fun and many users have good intentions, some are not aware of the risks of dazzling drivers or pilots putting public safety at risk. That’s why we want to take the common sense approach to strengthen our laws to protect the public from those who are unaware of the dangers or even worse, intentionally want to cause harm. This kind of dangerous behaviour risks lives and must be stopped.

There are around 1,500 laser attacks on aircraft every year in the UK and we know there have been similar attacks on trains and buses. What I am announcing today (5 February 2017) are plans to give the police effective powers to investigate and bring those who misuse lasers to justice.

The powers and penalties for the offence will be outlined in upcoming legislation.

Steve Landells, Flight Safety Specialist at the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) said:

BALPA welcomes this move to tighten the law on lasers. Any move to give the police and authorities more powers to tackle this real and growing threat to flight safety is a good thing, and we are pleased that the government has included action on lasers in this bill”.

The first laser attack on an aircraft was reported in 2004 with over 200 attacks reported per year by 2008. Since 2011, there have been approximately 1,500 attacks per year on aircraft.