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Rheal Desy, a 68-year-old Canadian, had planned to admit two more people this month to his “Home of Harmony and Joy” for handicapped people in the suburbs of the northeast Chinese city Jilin. But now, he realized it would not come true.

“I never thought things would turn out like this,” Desy sighed.

The home, a charity project initiated in 2004 to accommodate and train poor and handicapped people, is have a serious financial problem amid the global A/H1N1 influenza prevalence and economic downturn.

Benefactors had cut their donations since last December, “those who used to donate 1,000 yuan (147 U.S. dollars) monthly only gives 300 now,” he said.

Desy, along with his Chinese partner Zhang Lianghua, 32, started the home after receiving a piece of land in Fengman District, Jilin City, Jilin Province, from a local rich man.

The home, nestling against a beautiful hill, will house about 140 handicapped people upon completion, but it now only has nine such people.

Construction went smoothly until the end of 2008 when the global financial was worsening, Zhang told Xinhua.

“We still need one million yuan to finish the work,” said Desy, pointing to the empty square in front of the yellow building with a blue roof. Many rooms in the building are not fitted out, and the 3,000-square-meter yard even did not have something that can be called a door.

Desy and Zhang have spent 10 million yuan on the home so far. The money comes from the donations of friends, mostly ordinary people, and a few rich men in Canada and Hong Kong.

Desy has a doctorate in psychology and had worked in the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong before he came to the Chinese mainland in 1994.

The A/H1N1 flu, which broke out in Mexico last month and has spread to 46 other countries and region with 12,954 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, put the home in an even more difficult position.

The 40 pigs that took the home almost eight months to raise were ready for sale, but they no longer mean profit as the flu, more commonly known as “swine flu”, had triggered a public scare over pork consumption leading to a pork price plunge.

The pigs’ price fell from 12 yuan to about 8 yuan per kilogram and the estimated profit of 20,000 yuan was not realized. Desy and Zhang believed the other 50 pigs yet to reach market weight would not bring in a fortune either.

“I wanted the home to be financially independent within two or three years, but it looked as though this would not be possible in even four to five years,” Desy said.

His dream of opening branches elsewhere also seemed farther off now than before.

He borrowed one million Canadian dollars (about 887,490 U.S. dollars) from his friend for the home. Now, he has only paid off half of that.

Nine people who are mentally or physically challenged and have no relatives to count on now stay at the home for free.

Desy wants the home to operate with the idea that “every person, no matter how handicapped they are, can do a lot of things by themselves.” So, each handicapped person is “accompanied” by a home employee who is paid 700 yuan per month.

Desy preferred the word “accompany” because the employees teach the handicapped people how to do housework or they just work together, instead of “doing something for them” which is the common practice at Chinese senior citizens’ homes.

“It’s more like a family,” Desy said.

Cai Shuzhen, 65, mentally handicapped, is the first member of this special family. She massaged the shoulders of an employee named He Yong after they clean the dinning table together, in her own way to express gratitude.

“When Cai came here early last year, she did not talk and was afraid of people. She did not know how to do housework,” said He.

She is now friendly to visitors to the home. “She is the first one of us to pull a chair over to a guest,” He added.

In order to keep the home running, Desy and Zhang are working on two mills to make bean curd and grind peanuts. These will add to the home’s property that includes three cattle and a vegetable garden.

A mineral water bottling factory had been also on agenda, but was rejected by Desy who believed the factory would cause pollution.

A roadside bomb went off Thursday morning in Mohammad Agha district of Logar Province, some 50 km south from Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least 25 people, mostly civilians, officials said.

“It occurred at around 8 a.m. (0330 GMT) when large quantity of explosive material planted by militants in a truck went off this morning while a group of teenage students passing by in Mohammad Agha district,” spokesman of provincial administration Din Mohammad Darwish said.

Darwish said so far 25 people, including 12 students of the nearby school, were killed in the remote-controlled roadside bombing.

“Majority of the victims are civilians while four policemen were also among the death,” he added.

No group or individuals have claimed of responsibility. However, Darvish put the attack on the enemies of Afghanistan a term used against Taliban insurgents.

A massive operation against Taliban militants, jointly launched by U.S. Marine and Afghan security forces, is going on in the restive Helmand province while the rebels, in response, intensified assault in other parts of the countries, mostly in the shape of roadside and suicide bombings.

Culturally rich Nepal is welcoming the popular Teej, the colorful festival of women.

Though the festival is three-day-long and begins from Saturday to Monday, Nepali women have been celebrating it by organizing parties and gatherings a week before the festival arrives.

Teej is the Hindu women’s most awaited festival that has formally begun on Saturday and women across the country are observing it.

The Hindu women in Kathmandu valley, where Nepali capital Kathmandu is located, observe this festival in a very splendid way, most of them thronged to the famous Hindu temple of lord Shiva, Pashupatinath in capital. The government has estimated that more than 200,000 women will be coming to the temple to worship lord Shiva.

All the married women pray for the longer life of their husbands whereas unmarried girls also observe this festival to wish for their own good husbands.

Teej festival is the symbolic festival which is celebrated by women, but for their husbands.

According to Shyam Shekhar Jha, coordinator of the information and publicity committee of Teej festival said that the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has formed a committee of 166 members to facilitate the crowd. The PADT is much concerned with security management since the hauling crimes are common around Pashupati temple premises.

Jha said more than 1,300 security personnel will be deployed on Pashupati temple focusing at security of women who not just go to worship the lord Shiva during day but also stay whole night worshipping there.

Saturday is the first day of the three-day-long festival which is called “Dar Khane Din”. Since the festival is combination of banquets and fasting, on first day, women dressed themselves in red outfit and golden jewelry.

Teej is also the festival of gathering so they gather at one place and perform traditional dance and sing devotional songs.

A special meal called “dar”, including of sweets, varieties of food is consumed on this day. Celebrations continue till midnight after which the 24-hour-long fast begins.

On the second day, these women go for fasting throughout the whole day. They worship the lord Shiva on this day and pray for their husband’s longer life. They go to the Pashupati temple in red outfits on this day to make their fasting successful by worshipping lord Shiva.

Finally on third day, the seven sages of the Hindu pantheon are worshiped by women in a belief that it will cleanse all sins of the previous year. Womenfolk take a holy bath with red mud found on the roots of the sacred Datiwan bush, along with its leaves.

On the occasion, the senior women gift red color bangles, tika, sari and other ornaments to their relatives such as sisters, sisters-in-law, daughters, daughters-in-law, which make the festival of affection among women, also.

Violence between Palestinian Muslim prayers and Israeli troops and Jewish worshippers on Sunday at the holy site of al-Haram al-Sharif in East Jerusalem, or known as Temple Mount to the Jews, may spread in the near future, analysts said.

Clashes erupted between Palestinian Muslim prayers and Israeli police forces as the latter accompanied a group of Jewish worshippers who tried to break into the yard of al-Haram al-Sharif, where the Muslims first shrine al-Aqsa mosque is, resulting in injuries of dozens of Palestinians and Israeli police.

The violence continued on Monday, the eve of the festival in the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement. Since then, Palestinians and left-leaning Israelis have warned of more violence if Israel fails to make real moves on the peace front.

CAUSES OF VIOLENCE

It has been some time since such scenes of Palestinian youths hurling rocks at Israeli security personnel and police officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets were witnessed in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The root of the latest clashes is still being investigated, but the incident has once again turned the spotlight on the very fragile calm between Israelis and Palestinians.

On two previous occasions, Palestinian frustration with Israel developed into what subsequently became known as the first and second intifadas or popular uprisings.

The first began in late 1980s and was a popular uprising in the literal sense, with groups of youths taking on the Israeli armed forces in a struggle that lasted for seven years. The second intifada began in 2000, arguably sparked off by a visit to the Temple Mount by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon.

Michael Sfard, the legal adviser to the left-wing Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, believed that the Palestinian frustration is not only based on Israel’s perceived failure to move towards a resumption of peace talks, but also on the fact that the Israeli military and other security forces take the side of the Jewish settlers and not that of Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Sfard’s major work is centered on the rural areas of the West Bank, where there is plenty of interaction between the Israeli and Palestinian farming communities. All too often these meetings are unpleasant.

“The tension is mounting all the time. There’s a big difference between what’s being spoken about in diplomatic circles and what is happening on the ground,” said Sfard.

VIOLENCE MAY SPREAD

Sfard sees an outbreak of violence as only being a matter of time. While preferring not to call it a third intifada, he sees it as being very similar in nature to that of the first intifada. He believes the violence will emanate from the ground up and will be popular in nature.

“The level of violence will be high, but I think it will not be led or pre-planned,” said Sfard.

The chances of Palestinians resorting to violence are not just based on political ill will of the Israelis but on the more down-to-earth factor of the way in which Palestinians are treated day to day, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Abdullah Abdullah told Xinhua on Tuesday. Fatah is the senior movement in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

“Violence doesn’t need a political decision to start. If the lives of the people are reduced to humiliation, no one can expect or predict the reaction. Therefore we are trying to do our utmost to calm down the situation,” said Abdullah.

Shaul Goldstein, the head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, sees the matter differently. His council is responsible for a bloc of Jewish settlements that lies between Jerusalem and Hebron and predominantly runs to the west and south of Bethlehem.

Goldstein believes that when the Palestinian leadership warns of potential violence it is immediately showing that “its true intention is not to sign a peace deal with Israel.”

“As someone who is out in the field all the time I can tell youth at Palestinians are trying all the time to attack Jews. There are so many warnings and attempted attacks. We’re just very lucky that the Israel Defense Forces works well,” he said.

While the politicians talk in generics and accuse one another of laying down preconditions to peace negotiations, the territory itself is heating up. At the grassroots level both sides are increasingly speaking of possible violence ahead and blaming one another for the deterioration in relations.

PREVENTING VIOLENCE

“To stop this Israel must simply do what is written in law. I’m not even talking about ending the occupation and reaching peace, but at least to restrain the settlers and their construction, to defend Palestinians from settler violence and to investigate complaints against Israeli soldiers, police officers and civilians,” said Sfard.

Goldstein offers solutions of his own, some of which cannot be implemented overnight. The PNA must realize that the international Road Map peace plan calls on the Palestinians “to end terror, to make governmental reforms and to end incitement,” he said.

These are all clearly stated in the first phase of the peace plan, he said, adding that “the Palestinians must not educate their children to go down the path of violence.”

On the political level, some of these issues will be up for discussion at the end of this week when Palestinian and Israeli negotiators meet U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell in the United States. Mitchell is then expected in the Middle East once again, probably early next month.

Following that visit, he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are slated to present an interim report to U.S. President Barack Obama on the progress in rebooting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Subsequently, Obama will reportedly produce an updated peace proposal based on the administration’s talks with various Israeli and Arab leaders over the last six months.

A helicopter belonging to an international military contractor providing logistic supply to NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) made emergency landing in Logar province some 80 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, provincial administration spokesman said on Thursday.

“A helicopter belonging to Supreme Global Service Solution made emergency landing in Kharwar district and left the scene later on late Wednesday,” Din Mohammad Darwish told Xinhua.

However, Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via cell phone from undisclosed location claimed that his men crashed a helicopter in Logar, saying that they have had the wreckage.

The company supplies food and logistic services to military bases across the militancy-hit country.

In the past, Taliban insurgents have repeatedly attacked convoys providing logistic services to foreign troops.

Asia chose the right time to emerge as the world’s main influence as developed countries are still affected by the impact of the global financial crisis, intellectuals from South Korea and Indonesia said here at the International Conference of Asia Philosophy on Tuesday.

“The global financial crisis was rooted from greed in the United States. Now, with Asian philosophy that is highly recognized, we will take part in contributing thought for the world’s peace and prosperity,” Choi Woo-Won, the president of Asian Philosophical Association told the press.

To recover from the crisis, he said, the world must cooperate to change from egoistic paradigm to a higher dimension of economy which is in Asian culture.

Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest religious organization in Indonesia, said that the moment to conduct the event is very timely.

“It coincident with the rise of Asia, when China, India and Indonesia proved themselves as countries that could record positive economic growth when developed countries still suffer from the impact of the crisis,” said Din.

He said that Asia will be the epicenter of the world economic growth.

Indonesia will hold the International Conference of Asia Philosophy Association (ICAPA) on Nov. 4-6, in coordination with Turkey’s University of Faith, Jaedong Philosophical Association of Korea and Pacific Countries Social and Economic Solidarity Association (PASIAD) Indonesia.

The conference will be attended by about 150 participants from Indonesia, Turkey, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Egypt, Iran, India, Japan and Azerbaijan.

It will discuss social and economic issues in the region, namely Asian civilian society prospect, Asian community and alliance civilization, Asian community ageing, Asian dialog on social and economy, relationship and cooperation inter-Asia, among others.

The December 1937 incident that is known as the Rape of Nanking or Nanjing Massacre is, without doubt, a tragedy that will not be forgotten.

Looking back, Zhou Yufa, a survivor of the Japanese atrocities in Pukou County of Nanjing in East China’s Jiangsu Province, still feels horrified.

“It’s really terrible. Piles of corpses were lying around me,” he remembers.

The then 16-year-old Zhou and his parents managed to escape from their hometown, before the Japanese army invaded the city on December 13.

However, when he snuck back three days later, he found his house had been reduced to ashes.

“The bridge near my home was tainted with blood and dead bodies were scattered on the roads, in the ditches and in the septic tanks,” Zhou recalled.

“Judging from their clothes, most of them were civilians,” he added.

Litany of atrocities

On December 13, 1937, the Japanese army invaded Nanjing, the then capital of the Kuomintang government, and committed a litany of atrocities against innocent civilians, including mass execution, rape, looting and burning.

Around 300,000 Chinese were killed and many others were abused by Japanese troops after they captured the city.

“The chronicle of humankind’s cruelty is a long and sorry tale. But if it is true that even in such horror tales there are degrees of ruthlessness, then few atrocities can compare in intensity and scale to the rape of Nanjing during World War II.”

So wrote the late Chinese-American author Iris Chang in the introduction to her 1997 book”The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.”

Besides drawing international attention to a story that has long been a bruise on China’s national psyche, Chang added immensely to the overall body of research about the Nanjing Massacre.

She uncovered the historically invaluable 2,000-page diary of German John Rabe, who saved tens of thousands of Chinese from slaughter by creating a Nanjing safety zone marshaled by the city’s then-few expatriates.

In her book, Chang wrote:”My greatest hope is that this book will inspire other authors and historians to investigate the stories of the survivors before the last of the voices from the past, dwindling in number every year, are extinguished forever.”

Li Xiuying, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, died of respiratory failure at the age of 86 on December 4.

Li made her name known throughout China for her courage and perseverance in standing up to battle an anti-defamation lawsuit against Matsumura Toshio, a right-wing Japanese writer, who called her a”false” witness of the war in his book”The Big Question in the Nanjing Massacre.”

She won the case in April last year.

During the days of the Rape of Nanjing, Li was pregnant and was stabbed 37 times by Japanese soldiers. Thanks to timely medical treatment from an American doctor named Robert Wilson, Li survived. But she lost her baby.

It is impossible to keep a detailed account of all of the crimes committed by Japanese troops during World War II.

However, from the scale and the nature of these crimes as documented by survivors and the diaries of Japanese militarists, the chilling evidence of this historical tragedy is indisputable.

However, the trends of Japanese government’s treatment of this dark period of history have ranged from total cover-up, denial of the extent of the Nanjing Massacre, to official distortion and rewriting of history with the most extreme being the total denial of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese government officials.

“My mother left the world with deep regret since her wishes to seek justice from the Japanese Government failed to become a reality,” said Lu Yongsen, Li’s eldest son.

“As a witness of the massacre, she had been fighting to reveal the truth of the history. Her influence will last, I believe,” Lu said.

Like Li, most of the survivors of Nanjing Massacre are in their 80s, with the youngest at 70, says a report by China Central Television(CCTV).

According to a survey conducted by volunteers in Nanjing, in 1984, the number of survivors of the massacre was about 1,700 with less than 400 living today.

“It has become an urgent task for us to find more eyewitnesses and retrieve the material evidence of the tragic history,” said Ma Ji, spokesperson of the Forced Chinese Labourers’ Association.

Great difficulties

The Nanjing Massacre is one among a number of atrocities committed by Japanese troops after invading China.

The victims were also numerous”comfort women,” forced labourers and those killed by notorious germ warfare and chemical weapons.

Ma’s father, a victim of Japanese militarism, was forcibly taken to Japan to work as a slave labourer.

A hit TV series titled”Evidence of the Memory” that is being shown on the national China Central Television(CCTV) brought out the agonizing recollections of the 82-year-old.”The story, which depicts the sufferings of a large number of Chinese after they were forced to work as slave labourers in Japan during World War II, is a reflection of my father’s painful experience,” Ma said.

About 40,000 Chinese were forced to work in coal mines, on railways and other sites in Japan during the 1937-45 period.

Since 1995, the Chinese victims of Japanese troops in World War II and their relatives have lodged lawsuits against the Japanese Government and concerned enterprises and organizations, demanding an apology and compensation for their suffering.

However, most of their appeals were rejected by Japanese courts on the grounds that the statute of limitations for seeking redress under the civil code is 20 years, although some courts acknowledged the historical facts of the period.

“The lawsuit will be lengthy and tough considering the Japanese Government’s stubborn attitude towards historical fact,” said Kang Jian, a Chinese lawyer representing forced labourers and comfort women.

Now that the number of witnesses is dwindling, she worries the lawsuit will become more difficult.

Like Kang, many Chinese lawyers and people from non-governmental organizations are helping victims seek justice, despite setbacks.

They include Wang Xuan- a lawyer representing Chinese mustard gas victims suing for compensations and an apology from the Japanese Government- and Su Xiangxiang, who began providing legal assistance in 1995 to people suffering various afflictions after being exposed to chemical weapons the Japanese army left in China.

It is noted that an increasing number of Japanese lawyers and civilians are also lending a hand to the endeavours by offering legal services or donations.

Among them are 69-year-old lawyer Toru Takasaki and 57-year-old Nakamura Yojiro as well as a retired middle-school teacher Takayama Hiromu, 63.

“We hope militarism doesn’t resurface in Japan since right-wing attitudes tend to prevail in our society nowadays,” Takasaki told China Daily when he visited China in April.

He said conservative forces in Japanese politics cover up the truth of wartime atrocities, which leaves the Japanese people with a distorted understanding of history from their textbooks.

“Most Japanese people know little about slave labourers, comfort women or the Nanjing Massacre and they don’t understand the damage that Japanese militarism wrought on Chinese, Korean and people in other Asian countries during World War II,” Takasaki said.

Besides the decreasing number of eyewitnesses of the tragedy, both Chinese and Japanese lawyers participating the lawsuits face difficulties in the lack of government support.

“Although the Chinese Government gave up its quest for State compensation from the Japanese Government in 1978 for the betterment of diplomatic relations, victims of Japanese troops in World War II have a right to civil compensation from the Japanese Government,” Kang said.

Kang flew to Japan yesterday to represent four Chinese women who were reduced to comfort women during World War II at Tokyo High Court, where the second trial of the lawsuit will be ruled today.

“I’m not optimistic about the result but I will persist in my effort to help the victims,” Kang said.

The 20th Congress of the International Commission for Optics(ICO20) will be held in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, in August this year, organizers said Thursday.

The event will last from Aug. 21 to 26.

About 1,000 scientists from 48 countries are expected to attend the congress to present their researches and share their views on the development of optics technology, said Xuan Ming, executive president of ICO20 and director of the Changchun Institute of Optics Fine Mechanics and Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Some winners of the Nobel Prize, ICO Galileo Awards and ICO Prize will give lectures during the congress, Xuan said.

The International Commission for Optics was founded in 1947. The congress is held every three years. China, which joined the commission in 1987, is the first developing country to host the congress, and the third Asian country after Japan and ROK.

Changchun is regarded as the cradle of China’s optics research and industry, which has witnessed the birth of the country’s firstoptic mechanics research institute, the first optic apparatus museum and the first optic glass.

An optoelectronic exposition will also be held during the congress.

Former Olympic gymnast Liu Xuan has signed with Li Ning Company to start a new career as an actress.

Former Olympic gymnast Liu Xuan has signed with Li Ning Company to start a new career as an actress.

Since retiring from the sport at the age of 23, Liu Xuan has been studying journalism at Peking University and she will graduate in October this year.

She was part of the National Women’s Gymnastics Team during the 1990s and won a gold medal for balance beam at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Liu says she wants to change her career to because of the many entertainment opportunities opening up in Hong Kong and the mainland. She already has experience of shooting a film, a TV drama and being a TV host.

China and Vietnam have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in supervision of securities and futures markets, the China Securities Regulatory Commission(CSRC) said Thursday.

The document was signed Tuesday by Shang Fulin, CSRC chairman, and his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Xuan Ha, according to a pressrelease issued by the CSRC.

The CSRC said the two countries will improve their cooperation in supervision and exchange of information in a bid to facilitate the healthy development of their capital markets.

So far, China has signed such memos with the securities and futures supervision authorities of 26 countries and regions. These countries and regions include the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and several countries in Europe and Southeast Asia.