Society

Foreign employees in China will be entitled to the same social insurance benefits as Chinese nationals after the top legislature adopted a law on Thursday that is being seen as a major sign of the country's wider economic and social openness.

The Social Insurance Law, which was adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), will take effect in July 2011.

"China's economy and society are opening up more and more. Such a regulation follows international practice and gives equal national treatment to foreigners working in the country," Hu Xiaoyi, vice-minister for human resources and social security, said during a news conference held by the NPC Standing Committee on Thursday.

Five men, including two police officers, were sentenced Sunday for the attempted rape of two 16-year-old girls in Central China's Hunan Province in September.

The five men drugged the girls with the drug ketamine and attempted to rape them on September 4 in a hotel in Fenghuang County, the Intermediate People's Court in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture said.

China's primary energy consumption will be kept to between 4 to 4.2 billion tonnes of standard coal by 2015, Jiang Bing, director of the development and planning department of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said on Saturday.

Jiang made the remarks at a forum held by the energy research institute of the State Grid Corporation of China.

Primary energy refers to existing natural energy which does not need processing, such as fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, biomass energy, hydropower, wind power, solar power and others.

Li Baba could not believe it when, about 10 years ago, a psychologist told him that his son, then still in high school, is gay. " At that time, I thought homosexuality is what hooligans do. My son was a nice boy, how could this be possible?"

The psychologist referred him to a therapist in north China's Tianjin Municipality to "treat his son's homosexuality". After the treatment, Li Baba's son suffered prolonged depression, fits of agitation and other mental problems.

"Don't try to fix your child's homosexuality. It can't be changed. Treatment only cause more problems," said white-haired Li Baba. His wife, also in her sixties, wept in silence by the side, as the man told other parents of gays or lesbians about the story.