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Honduras post-coup de facto leader Roberto Micheletti on Wednesday firmly rejected the U.S. demand that he leave office before Jan. 15.

“Washington should respect the sovereign decisions of our people,” said Micheletti, who has been serving as interim president of the Central American country since a coup in June 2009 which ousted then President Manuel Zelaya.

Honduras’ President-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa said earlier on Wednesday that Washington was proposing Jan. 15 as the deadline for Micheletti to quit to pave the way for Lobo’s inauguration on Jan. 27.

U.S. State Department official Craig Kelly is now on a visit in Honduras trying to reestablish the democratic and constitutional order in the country, promote national reconciliation and help normalize its relations with the international community.

Micheletti said during a recent interview that he would not attend the swearing-in ceremony of Lobo on Jan. 27.

Blizzards swept across central and southern England on Wednesday, bringing more road and rail chaos, forcing airlines to suspend flights and hundreds of schools to close.

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu Tuesday called for greater efforts to fight droughts and flood disasters, and especially the disasters brought by the recent cold snap.

Relevant authorities at all levels should step up monitoring and warning on the cold wave, maintain smooth flow of traffic and a sound circulation of necessities for the public, strengthen anti-disaster technological guidance on agriculture and animal husbandry to ensure vegetable and other farm byproducts supply, soas to maintain a good economic and social order, said Hui at a meeting jointly held by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the National Disaster Reduction Commission.

Local governments were urged to take measures to combat droughts, provide safe drinkable water for residents in the disaster-hit zones.

Hui also urged relevant departments to devote more efforts to restore the damaged water conservancy projects, and offer adequate food, clothes and medical treatment to people in the disaster-hit regions.

A strong clod snap began to hit a vast range of areas in the country from Jan. 2, bringing snowstorms and a temperature plunge of up to 18 degrees Celsius in some regions.

BEIJING, Jan.4 (Xinhua) — China’s capital reported the heaviest daily snowfall in nearly six decades on Sunday, local meteorological bureau said Monday.

At 10 p.m. Sunday, a major meteorological observatory in the southern suburbs of Beijing recorded a daily snowfall of 10 millimeters, the largest amount in one day since 1951, the bureau noted.Full story

BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — The Ministry of Agriculture dispatched Sunday seven working teams to oversee and guide agricultural work in major wheat and vegetable production bases in north China as a strong cold wave had swept across the region from Saturday.

Snowstorms and a temperature plunge caused by a strong clod snap had hit a vast range of areas in the country, bringing adverse effects on the agricultural production. Full story

HONG KONG, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — Over 30 flights were canceled or delayed at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday, due to heavy snow in the country’s capital city of Beijing.

By 21:00 (1300 GMT) local time, seven departure flights to Beijing were canceled and 10 delayed. As for arrivals, eight were canceled and nine delayed, said the spokesman of the department of News Relations from the Hong Kong’s Airport Authority. Flights to other cities including Dalian and Tianjing were also affected by the bad weather. Full story

BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — Beijing traffic authority has decided to go all out to deal with possible traffic jams or accidents during peak hours Monday morning after a snow storm Sunday caused traffic breakdown in the national capital.

“Low temperature and ice-covered roads are expected to severely affect local traffic on Monday morning,” said Song Jianguo, head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. Full story

BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — China’s Central Meteorological Station (CMS) on Sunday morning extended the warning against strong cold wave, snowstorm and heavy fog by issuing another orange alert.

Affected by the strong cold snap, temperature was to fall by 8 to 12 degrees Celsius in central and western Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, eastern parts of northwest China, north China, Guizhou and Chongqing from Sunday to Monday, according to the CMS. Full story

BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — A strong cold wave will sweep most of China and force down temperature in the coming two days beginning on Saturday as northern Chinese cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and others in Hebei Province embraced new year’s first snowfall.

The Central Meteorological Station (CMS) issued an orange alert for the cold wave, warning that most areas in north, central and east China would suffer temperature drops ranging from 8 to 12 degrees Celsius.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang here Tuesday urged medical workers to improve their professional ethics and skills to contribute to the country’s medical reform.

“All medical staff should strengthen their professional ethics, pay attention to humane solicitude, improve professional techniques, strengthen service skills and strive to serve the people well,” said Li during a ceremony awarding outstanding organizations, individuals and rural doctors in the medical field.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that for a long time all medical staff had pooled their wisdom, sweats, love and actions to the country’s health services.

He asked people in the medical field to carry on the fine tradition of saving the dead and curing the injured, learn from the outstanding organizations, individuals and rural doctors, do their duty well and contribute their wisdom to the country’s medical reform.

Li praised the prevention and control measures in the face of the A/H1N1 flu, saying the country’s health service still has a long way to go as people are having new expectations for health improvement.

Thirty-five senior executives of China’s large state-owned enterprises (SOE), such as former Sinopec chairman Chen Tonghai, faced corruption charges last year.

A report by Faren Magazine, affiliated to the Legal Daily and overseen by the Ministry of Justice, examined 95 serious criminal cases of executives of both state and private companies last year.

Thirty-one of the SOE executives were found to be involved in cases involving an average of 110 million yuan (16.18 million U.S. dollars).

Of those, 28 were charged with taking bribes, 16 with embezzlement and eight with misappropriation of public funds, the report said.

The only case still under investigation was that of Kang Rixin, who was removed in August as party secretary and general manager of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

He also served as a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the party’s internal anti-graft body.

Another prominent case was that of Chen Tonghai, former general manager of China Petrochemical Corporation, who was found to have taken almost 200 million yuan in bribes and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve in July.

The report said two SOE executives were sentenced to death last year for graft.

Li Peiying, former president of the Capital Airports Holding Company, was executed in August after he was found guilty of bribery and corruption.

An investigation showed Li received about 26.61 million yuan in bribes.

Yang Yanming, a former senior trader with a Chinese securities company, was executed last month after being convicted of embezzling and misappropriating 94.52 million yuan of public funds from 1998 to 2003.

The report also detailed crimes such as murder and poisoning, committed by some private enterprise heads last year.

Billionaire Wang Wenxiang was sentenced to death last month for hiring two people to murder a former business partner.

The owner of Xinheng Corporation, involved in a range of industries including real estate, power, wholesale and retail, graduated from the elite Tsinghua University and was a political advisor in the northeastern Heilongjiang Province.