China raises oil prices
中国政府调高油价
Petrol cost 0.8 yuan (12 cents) and diesel 0.92 yuan more for a liter from June 20. The price of aviation fuel was also raised by 1,500 yuan ($217) a ton, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The prices of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, however, remain unchanged.
The move is expected to bring some relief to domestic refineries that have been reeling under losses and ensure a stable supply of oil in the market. "The increase in the prices will benefit domestic oil companies," the NDRC said in a statement. The price of crude oil in the international market has crossed $130 a barrel.
Crude prices are linked fully with the international market in China while prices of refined petroleum products are still controlled by the government. Because of the significant gap between the high crude prices abroad and the relatively low price at home, China's oil refineries have suffered huge losses.
The country's largest refinery, Sinopec, incurred a loss of more than 20 billion yuan in its refining business in the first quarter of this year. The largest oil company, PetroChina, saw its net profit fall by more than 30 percent in the first three months, with losses in its refining wing the biggest contributor.

NORTH

Beijing to halve traffic
北京将实施车辆单双号限行
Beijing is to pull half its 3.3 million vehicles off the road for two months to help clean up the city's air for the Olympics and Paralympics, the municipal government said on June 20. Vehicles will be allowed on the roads on alternate days according to even or odd car registration numbers from July 20 until September 20. In addition, 300,000 heavy polluting vehicles, including aging industrial trucks, will be banned as of July.
Officials sacked over mine blast
山西六官员受到矿难责任追究
Six government officials in coal-rich Shanxi province have been removed from their posts after an explosion a week ago killed 34 miners. This year’s deadliest accident occurred on June 13 at a coal pit of the Anxin Coal Mining Co. in Xiaoxi, Luliang. At least 58 miners, twice the number permitted, were working underground, of which fifteen escaped and nine were rescued.
New airport for ″China＇s North Pole″
中国最北端民用机场通航
A new civil airport that opened on June 18 in the China-Russia border county of Mohe is expected to bring more tourists to the destination dubbed "China's North Pole." The northernmost airport in the country is designed to handle 120,000 passengers a year and boasts a terminal covering 2,000 square meters. The total cost of the construction is estimated to be 236 million yuan ($34.3 million).

WEST
Thangka Arts Expo wraps up
青海举办唐卡艺术精品展
The first Qinghai International Thangka Arts and Cultural Heritage Exposition and the fifth Ethnic Cultural and Tourist Festival opened in Xining on June 14, the capital city of Qinghai province. The cultural festival features Tibetan Thangka, a special Buddhist art of painting and tailoring, in addition to many other folk arts. Expo visitors on June 18 were treated to paper-cutting displays, folk paintings and minority costume shows.

Tibet to reopen to foreign tourists
西藏将很快对外国游客开放
Tibet will reopen to foreign tourists soon, according to Palma Trily, executive vice chairman of Tibet. The official said the move would not occur immediately after the Olympic torch relay in Tibet and did not offer a specific date. Travel agencies in Tibet stopped receiving tourists after the riots. The tourism market reopened to mainland tourists in late April and tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan on May 1.

600 M yuan loans to boost tourism
6亿贷款助都江堰恢复旅游业
The Sichuan Branch of the State Development Bank signed an agreement on June 18 with the Dujiangyan municipal government to provide a special loan of 600 million yuan ($86 million) for the revival of the earthquake-hit tourism sector in Dujiangyan. The money will be used for the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure at the Mount Qingcheng-Dujiangyan scenic spot.

Torch relay passes through Tibet
奥运圣火拉萨传递
While dancers perform a Tibetan ethnic dance in front of the Potala Palace, well-known Tibetan singer Caidan Zhuoma runs the last part of 2008 Beijing Olympics Games torch relay in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region. The 9.3-km torch relay started on June 21 with 156 torchbearers, including 75 Tibetans.
Vocabulary
hostage 人质 boast 值得夸耀
halve 减半 diesel 柴油"

SOUTH

Minimum wage hike planned
珠三角拟提高最低工资标准
Authorities in the manufacturing hub of Guangdong province are planning a hike in minimum wages to attract more workers to the Pearl River Delta and plug a labor shortage. The new minimum wage in the region will be equal to or higher than Shenzhen's adjusted minimum wage, which will be implemented on July 1, said Chen Siyi, director of the wage division of the Guangdong labor and social security department on June 20.

Food safety test center opens
中美合作食品检测中心落户珠海
A Sino-U.S. food testing center opened in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, on June 18. The center is the first of its kind in the country and adopts food safety standards that are accepted jointly by Chinese authorities and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Foods that have been tested and qualified by the center will be directly exported to the United States and will be exempted from being re-tested by the FDA.

EAST
Police shoot hostage taker
上海警方击毙劫持人质者
Police in Shanghai fatally shot a hostage taker who had held his girlfriend at knifepoint for more than eight hours on June 20. The man, surnamed Shen, took his girlfriend hostage with a knife at Tianma town, Songjiang district. The hostage was slightly wounded in the back. An initial investigation found that Mr. Shen, a drug addict, had quarreled with his girlfriend before taking her hostage.

Railway structure collapses
浙江甬台温铁路工地发生坍塌
At least seven people were killed and more than twenty injured as the steel structure of an elevated railway collapsed on June 21 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. The accident occurred when a steel structure on the Wenzhou-Fuzhou railway under construction collapsed onto nearby houses. More than 100 firefighters and nine fire engines responded to the accident site to conduct rescue operations.

Course set for energy experts
上海交大将培养节能工程师
Local enterprises can soon expect experts to assess their energy-saving potential and provide conservation plans. Shanghai Jiao Tong University teamed up with the Minhang district government to launch a training program for energy management engineers. Candidates will attend special classes on how to assess a company's energy consumption structure.y