Society

China will link compulsory automobile liability insurance rates with drink-driving records, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said Thursday.

The scheme, which will come into effect from March 1, 2010, will penalize drunk drivers and raise drivers' safety awareness, a statement on the CIRC's official website said, citing a notice jointly issued by the CIRC and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

The notice said the new scheme will be executed on a local basis, with punishment varying according to location.

An appreciation of the Chinese yuan will help US economic growth but it will not solve problems in its own economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist said Monday.

A 20 percent appreciation of the yuan, formally known as renminbi or RMB, along with a similar currency appreciation by other emerging Asian economic entities may lead to an increase of about 1 percent of the US gross domestic product, Olivier Blanchard said, basing the prediction on an IMF model.

"This would be good news for US growth but this is clearly not enough by itself to sustain growth in the United States," the IMF chief economist told Xinhua News Agency.

The yuan exchange rate with the US dollar has long been a target of criticism in the US and some European countries.

But Blanchard took a different view.

Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo broke Russia's 46-year stranglehold on the Olympics figure skating pairs event on Monday night (yesterday Beijing time) with a mesmerizing performance.

The husband-and-wife duo earned a record combined total of 216.57 points to capture China's first title in the discipline.

It took the veteran figure skating pair 18 years to finally realize their Winter Olympic gold dream at their possibly last Games show at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

The duo came out of retirement for a fourth attempt at winning their sport's top prize and achieved their goal in spectacular style, earning a standing ovation from cheering fans.

Customers line up to pay for goods at a supermarket in Beijing. The city's retail business is increasing as Spring Festival approaches. [Mirror Evening News] 

Another wave of high-end international stores will set up shop in Beijing this year as the capital continues its campaign to become one of the world's top cities.

Beijing aimed to introduce six more elite retailers and 40 percent of the world's luxury brands will have a presence in the city, a senior commerce official said.

Among 280 first-class international retailers, 101 are already in Beijing and more are on the way.

"Beijing is the most open city on the Chinese mainland when it comes to the retail industry," said Lu Yan, director of Beijing municipal commission of commerce.

The move is being seen as part of the city's ambitious plan to make it into what the mayor has described as a "world city". The aspiration gathered momentum when Forbes magazine ranked it as one of the 15 worlds' shopping capitals. It was also ranked one of the eight world's best cities to eat well.

Beijing's total retail sales in consumer goods reached 531 billion yuan in 2009, up 15.7 percent on a year earlier.

Chaoyang district and Haidian district were the areas where most of the money was spent, with both seeing retail sales of more than 100 billion yuan.

"Consumption has played a dominant role in driving the capital's economic recovery, which contributed a lot to Beijing's GDP growth last year," Cheng Hong, Beijing's vice-mayor, said at a work conference yesterday.