China's AIDS crisis has become a hot issue at the annual session of parliament this week, with delegates urging stricter laws to curb the spread of the disease.
China is one of the three countries most at risk from AIDS outside Africa and health agencies say it could have 10 million victims by 2010 if it fails to take the scourge seriously.
"It is time for China to make laws on the control and prevention of AIDS, otherwise the country will lose the best opportunity to bring the deadly disease under control," National People's Congress delegate Shi Zuolin was quoted yesterday as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
He said current regulations were inadequate and some were contradictory, Xinhua said.
Beijing has faced widespread condemnation for disguising the scale of its AIDS epidemic, neglecting to treat patients properly and arresting activists and journalists.
The central Henan Province was the scene of one of China's worst AIDS outbreaks in the 1980s and early 1990s when thousands were infected after selling their blood plasma and having HIV-infected blood pumped back into them.
Officials say between 840,000 and 1 million people of China's population of 1.3 billion have HIV. But experts and activists say the outbreak is far greater than official figures show.
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
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