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Five bodies were retrieved from Saturday midnight to Sunday morning to bring the death toll from a rainstorm-triggered landslide to 10 in Hongjiang district of Huaihua city, central China’s Hunan province, according to local government.

One person was still missing and another 30 people were injured after the landslide. All of the 30, including four who are seriously wounded, have been hospitalized, the local government said.

Downpour, reportedly the worst over the past six decades, swept the city from Thursday to Sunday morning, causing a landslide in Hongjiang district. A total of 5,410 residents in the district have been evacuated.

Approximately 18,328 rescuers have joined the disaster relief efforts in the city.

Local meteorologists forecast heavy rain would hit the city again in the next two to three days.

The local government said blackouts continued and telecommunication links were cut in part of Hongjiang district.

An earthquake registered 4.5 magnitude jolted central Italian city of L’Aquila on Monday with no immediate report of any casualties, according to local news media.

Local TV station said earlier the quake, which struck at 11 p.m. local time, was registered 4.6 magnitude with epicenter around L’Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo region, which was hit by a devastating earthquake on April 6 with about 300 people killed and some 1,500 injured.

The Group of Eight (G8) summit has set to be held in L’Aquila as the Italian government has decided to move the summit’s initially scheduled venue of La Maddalena to the quake-hit city.

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia and the United States. During the summit, the developed nations will hold a dialogue with developing countries including China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt.

Austria is implementing a program of constructing a central database of academic works, the Austrian Press Agency (APA) said Monday.

From 2011, people can read and even download all the master and doctor dissertations via the Internet, which are formally submitted to Austrian universities from this central database on a paid basis, the agency said.

It said the major purpose of establishing this database is to assist universities in finding plagiarism in time.

The database also serves as a window for the universities to display their academic achievements, and will provide references for academic research institutions.

In accordance with the amendment of the Austrian University Law (UG), the Austrian Library Association (OBV) will request all the universities to provide relevant bibliographic data and content summaries, and based upon its existing central database, convert the full text into PDF format for the database to lend out on a paid basis.

Martin Hekele, head of this database construction of the OBV, said that it will take a few years to enrich the academic works of this central database, adding that the establishment is not easy and costs a lot of money.

A Japanese real estate giant signed on Monday a Memorandum of Understanding on a 3-billion-yuaninvestment in the Sino-Singapore Eco-City in north China’s Tianjin with the project’s developer.

Mitsui Fudosan Co. Ltd. will spend the money, equal to about 440 million U.S. dollars, on a land of 40 hectares to build a high-end waterfront residential community in the eco-city in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, according to the MOU between the Japanese company and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development Co. Ltd.(TEID).

The community, designed to be auto-free, is expected to be completed by 2013.

TEID President Wu Caiwen said the cooperation with Mitsui Fudosan marks significant progress in the eco-city’s development.

The eco-city, a cooperation program between Chinese and Singaporean governments, is 45 km away from downtown Tianjin.

The Binhai New Area was authorized by the central government in2005 as an experimental development zone as a “new engine of growth” for north China.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who described the July 5 riots in Urumqi of west China’s Xinjiang as “a kind of genocide”, was slashed by Tuesday’s China Daily as “twist facts”.

A commentary of the English newspaper claimed that Erdogan’s description of the riots is “an irresponsible and groundless accusation”, which ignored the nature of the event as 137 of the 184 killed in the riots are Han Chinese.

“Turning a blind eye to what the Chinese government has done to restore order in Urumqi, Mr Erdogan said ‘we have difficulty understanding how China’s leadership can remain a spectator in the face of these events,’” says the commentary.

“Chinese leaders are the last people who want to see happenings like these in the largest ethnic autonomous region. The harmony of different ethnic groups has been the top priority of what both the central and local governments have been making unremitting efforts to consolidate for many years,” it adds.

Taking the family planning policy as an example, the article says, the one-child policy is strictly carried out among Han Chinese families, but it is never applied to ethnic groups.

Students of ethnic minorities also get an extra 20 points for the national college entrance exam.

“Mr Erdogan’s remarks, which constitute interference in China’s internal affairs, are the last thing the Uygur and Han Chinese would find helpful when they are looking forward to lasting peace,” says the commentary.

Scientists have detected a surge in seismological activity on a section of California’s San Andreas Fault that produced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1857.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, monitored seismic activity on the fault’s central section between July 2001 and February 2009, recording more than 2,000 tremors. The tremors lasted mere minutes to nearly half an hour. Unlike earthquakes, tremors occur deeper below the surface and the shaking often lasts longer.

During the study period, two strong earthquakes struck the region. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake was recorded in 2003 and a magnitude 6.0 quake a year later. Scientists have noticed the frequency of the tremors doubled after the 2003 quake and jumped six-fold after 2004.

Though the frequency of tremors have declined since 2004, scientists are still concerned because they are at a level twice as high as before the 2003 quake. The team also recorded unusually strong rumblings days before the 2004 temblor.

Results of the research appear in Friday’s issue of the journal Science based on work funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation.

“The fact that the tremors haven’t gone down means the time to the next earthquake may come sooner,” said Berkeley seismologist and lead researcher Robert Nadeau. USGS seismologist Susan Hough found the latest observations intriguing, but said it was too soon to know what they mean. “We don’t have enough data to know what the fault is doing in the long term,” said Hough.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Monday urged Communist Party members and government officials to put more efforts in finding and correcting problems that may hinder scientific development and taint the image of the Party.

Xi, also member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, made the remarks during a meeting on the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development.

In September 2008, the CPC launched a one and a half year campaign to study and apply the Scientific Outlook on Development, a doctrine adopted by the Party at the 17th CPC National Congress in October 2007.

A total of 11 inspection teams were organized recently to check the results of the campaign in 16 provinces and autonomous regions as well as six central government departments including the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Agriculture.

Xi said the campaign had achieved obvious effects as many Party members had deeper understanding of the Scientific Outlook on Development.

However, Xi stressed Party members and officials still needed to do much more work to fully realize the problems in their work and learn to solve them.

“Coping with the financial crisis, ensuring steady and rapid economic development and the stability of society should be an important part of the campaign,” he said.

Florida health officials said on Tuesday that a 19-year-old woman had died of the A/H1N1 flu in Orange County as the sixth victim of the virus in the state.

“We continue to emphasize the risk of A/H1N1 flu to the community,” said Dr. Kevin Sherin, director of the Orange County Health Department.

“We will, unfortunately, continue to expect more swine flu (A/H1N1 flu) in our communities in Central Florida and more deaths from the disease,” he said.

The young woman was visiting the Orlando area from Pennsylvania, according to local health officials. She was hospitalized in Orlando prior to her death.

The officials also said the woman had an undisclosed pre-existing medical condition.

Sherin said it was unusual to have flu cases this late in the summer. “This is not a normal season,” he said.

Sherin said one-third of cases submitted for tests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were confirmed of the A/H1N1 flu strain.

“In Orange County, of more than 400 samples taken from people who exhibited flu-like symptoms, 180 tested positive for A/H1N1 virus,” he said.

Last Thursday, Florida reported 1,302 confirmed and probable cases of A/H1N1 flu, with five deaths in the southeast U.S. state to the CDC.

Nationwide, the CDC has reported 170 deaths in 23 states and 33,902 confirmed and probable cases of A/H1N1 flu in all the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territory Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

“This is a global pandemic. It’s everywhere. The public should assume that it’s everywhere and take precautions,” Sherin said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono headed for victory in elections as results poured in on Wednesday, pointing the way to a five-year term of quickening economic reform.

“I think it’s clear now that Yudhoyono has won in one round,” said Kevin O’Rourke, a Jakarta-based political risk analyst.

Early “quick counts” from across the sprawling archipelago had suggested it was far from certain that Yudhoyono would clinch the 50 percent of votes required to avoid a run-off with his nearest challenger.

But by the time more than half of the LSI polling agency’s sample of votes had been counted, the former army general’s tally stood at a commanding 58.21 percent.

His rivals, Vice President Yusuf Kalla and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, stood at 16 and 26 percent, respectively.

The election, only the second direct vote for a president in Indonesia, will determine the pace of reform over the next five years and cement the country’s transition to democracy.

Analysts expect that in a second term Yudhoyono would quicken the pace and widen the scope of reforms in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy to attract badly needed foreign investment, create jobs and shore up flagging economic growth.

Indonesian stocks, bonds and the rupiah have rallied this year on the prospect of a Yudhoyono win, and analysts see them rising further on hopes of a more robust reform drive if he wins in one round.

Jakarta markets were closed for the election, but offshore Indonesia’s five-year credit default swap was steady at 310/335 basis points, with investors discounting a Yudhoyono win. There was no trade in Indonesia’s dollar bonds.

A decade ago, Indonesia was the sick man of Asia. After 32 years of rule by Suharto, who oversaw a system of entrenched corruption and nepotism, it stood on the brink of political, social and financial collapse.

Yudhoyono’s government has since brought political stability, peace and the best economic performance in a decade. Today, some see the country on another brink — of economic take-off and joining the emerging “BRIC” economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

“Today is the people’s day,” Yudhoyono told reporters after casting his vote in the town of Bogor, on Java island.

VOTER LIST ROW

Polling stations opened first in the remote eastern region of Papua, where extra police and special forces were on standby after recent violence linked to separatists.

Other polling stations followed as the sun rose across the rest of the country of 176 million voters, though there was little sense of excitement after weeks of opinion polls showing that Yudhoyono was almost certain to be re-elected.

The streets of central Jakarta, normally choked with traffic, were quiet with a few police standing watchfully at key intersections and close to polling stations.

In Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, there was no repeat of the protests triggered by problems with the electoral rolls in April’s parliamentary elections and the streets were quiet.

“I am here today to vote for a president who is competent, committed to the people, God-fearing and uncorruptible,” said Manado resident Olivia Rorimpandey, who refused to say which way she had voted.

A controversy over voter lists marred the run-up to the election with the teams of Yudhoyono’s two rivals complaining about millions of duplicate names and even the names of dead people and children on the electoral rolls.

Their barrage of complaints may have fanned public doubt about the credibility of the process, and could make it easier for the losers to challenge the result.

Megawati and Kalla adopted a more nationalist tone than Yudhoyono in their campaigns, promising to squeeze more from the country’s rich resources to pay for pro-poor policies.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a child, is expected to visit the country later this year — a trip that would warm ties that both countries say they plan to raise to the level of “comprehensive partnership.” However, U.S. trade officials and businesses complain about a range of protectionist policies, including judicial and bureaucratic bias favouring Indonesian firms, as well as rampant corruption that distorts the economic playing field.

Current account deficits of the United States resulted from surpluses of many countries, said the People’s Bank of China Assistant Governor Guo Qingping Saturday.

Guo, who was speaking at the Global Think Tank Summit in Beijing, said excess savings in many countries, not only China, also contributed to the crisis.

The United States imported goods from various countries and China’s exports only took about 12.1 percent of the U.S. imports in 2008, Guo said.

The countries’ savings then flowed into the United States and boosted its domestic demand, which further increased other countries’ current account surpluses and in turn helped inflate the real-estate market in the United States, he said.

Guo also called for the reform of the international financial system at the summit.

Basically a current account deficit occurs when more money is being paid out than brought into a country.