China to boost women's status

The 10th National Women's Congress opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Oct. 28, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has put forward development targets for women in the coming five years that aimed to further boost women's involvement in social and economic development and their participation in state affairs, according to the on-going national women's congress.

The targets also aim to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of women are fully protected, the national policy on equal status between men and women fully implemented and the environment for women development significantly optimized.

Chinese women's ability should be further improved so that they could play a bigger role in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, said All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) Deputy-Chairwoman Huang Qingyi at the opening of the Tenth National Women's Congress here.

Huang, who delivered a work report on behalf of the ninth ACWF Executive Committee, said the targets also aim to improve women's ability to create their own businesses and their abilities of science and technology innovation.

"Sex discrimination in employment should be eradicated and the income gap between men and women should be further narrowed," said Huang.

She said women should more extensively take part in and make greater contribution to the country's economic development.

Women could exercise their democratic rights and their ability to participate in national and grassroots public affairs as well as social affairs will be enhanced, according to the targets.

The number of women officials, female Party delegates and female deputies to legislatures and political advisory bodies at various levels would be increased and women's rights to knowledge, participation, expression of opinions and supervision be protected, said Huang.

Huang said women should contribute more to the cultural sector such as education, sports, press and publication and broadcasting.

She stressed that more opportunities and resources should be allocated to women and they should enjoy more enhances of education, benefit more from social securities and improvement of health and living standard.

Mechanisms for securing women's rights and interest would be further improved and laws and policies protecting women's and children's rights be further implemented. Measures to fight and prevent infringement upon women's and children's rights and interest would be intensified, Huang added.

The five-day congress will hear and discuss a work report by the Ninth Executive Committee of the ACWF, deliberate and adopt amendments to the federation's constitution, and elect the 10th ACWF Executive Committee.

ACWF Chairwoman Gu Xiulian said 1,407 delegates from across the country were present at the once-every-five-year congress. Among the 1,280 elected delegates, 1,020 of them are newly elected. Each of China's 55 ethnic minorities has at least one delegate to the congress.

5 Chinese oil workers kidnapped, killed in Sudan

KHARTOUM -- Five Chinese workers abducted in southwest Sudan by local militants this month have been killed by the kidnappers, officials of the Chinese embassy in Sudan said on Monday.

The Chinese embassy has learnt from the Sudanese authorities on Monday that among the nine Chinese workers abducted on October 19, five had been killed, two had gone missing and the two others had escaped the danger.

The Chinese embassy strongly condemned the killing, and was keeping contacts with the Sudanese authorities for more information about the incident, according to the Chinese officials.

The embassy also asked Sudan to continue the operation of searching the two missing Chinese workers, urging Sudan government to take all the necessary measures to safeguard the Chinese citizens in Sudan.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths were shadowy and Sudan denied that there had been any clashes between security forces and the kidnappers, who reportedly identified themselves as the Justice and Equality Movement.

"It happened around 3:00 pm (1200 GMT). Those people from JEM killed five Chinese and two of the Chinese workers managed to escape. They are now with the government," foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq told AFP.

The killings came one day after Sudan expressed confidence that the three engineers and six workers from the China National Petroleum Corporation, would soon be released safe and well.

The bodies and the two wounded former hostages were recovered by Sudanese government forces in a small village in western Kordofan, and the injured are undergoing medical treatment, the spokesman said.

"This happened without any confrontation with the abductors, while the government was trying to solve the problem through peaceful means," said Sadiq.

OUKA LEELE -- Venus's mirror has flakes, 1985
When

Today, 10am - 6pm

Ends Nov 16th

Where

Iberia Center for Contemporary Art Details

Contact

Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Media Dept.

5978-9030

iberia.weiping@gmail.com

www.iberiart.org

Contributor Description

Ouka Leele: Between Two Worlds is a comprehensive retrospective, organized by Iberia Center for Contemporary Art of Beijing and Tomas y Valiente Art Center of Fuenlabrada (Madrid), which will showcase a collection of 67 pieces of Ouka Leele's works from all different stages of her artistic career: from Hairdresser's Series of her first solo in 1979, and works of the 1980s during the new wave cultural movement in Madrid, La Movida.

Ouka Leele, a prestigious Spanish female photographer with an art career dating back to the late 70's, ranks among the landmark figures of Europe as a contemporary of the American female artist Cindy Sherman. Her career started concurrently with La Movida, the cutural and social movement that has renovated art scene in Spain during the decade of 80s. It was a counter-cultural movement that emerged in Madrid during the early years of the Spanish postfrancoist transition to democracy. Among the most representative names of the movement were the film director Pedro Almodovar and the photographer Ouka Leele.

Ouka Leele's universe has always been between two worlds, painting and photography, the earthly and the spiritual. In her work, the personal artistic language with the fusion of photography and painting, to quote her own metaphor, is "visual poetry, a manner of speaking without words, and a blend of drama, imagination, painting and photography". A critic has named her work of black and white pictures hand-colored with watercolor as "fotoacuarelas" (watercolor photographies). The process takes four steps: take the picture, make the positive of the film, paint the positive, and conserve the image. Presently, her unique work develops along two paths: one is works of portraits, in which she interpretes reality with a difficult simplicity, the other a sentimental and intimate approach to the Nature, which is related to the concept of feminity and the creator of life.

City Weekend says

Spanish female photographer Ouka Leela showcases her collection spanning from 1979 in her "Hairdressers series" to the new wave of cultural movement in Madrid during La Movida in the 1980's. Merging painting and photography, she presents a visual poetry of portraits and intimate photos of nature that captures femininity.

China calls for reform of global financial system

China on Tuesday called for "effective and comprehensive reforms" of the international financial system, elaborating on its stance in response to the on-going international financial crisis.

"The financial crisis has exposed the drawbacks and deficiency of the current international financial system," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular press conference when asked by a journalist to elaborate on China's stance on the reform of global financial system.

She said the international community should, from a long-term point of view, conduct effective and comprehensive reforms of the international financial system, based on full consultation by all stakeholders.

"The international community should promote the building of a fair, equitable, inclusive and orderly international financial system, to provide an effective guarantee for the sustained stable development and prosperity of world economy," she added.

She noted that China called for closer cooperation on international financial supervision management. China also appealed for reforms of international financial organizations, to increase the representation and say of developing nations in those organizations, she said.