Chinese Health Ministry Is Confident to Control the A/H1N1 Influenza

Chinese Health Ministry is confident to control the A/H1N1 influenza sweeping over the country

China's Health Ministry has said no evidence has shown that the A/H1N1 virus has mutated into a form of severe syndrome in the country.

It says the flu has entered a period featured by high frequency and quick increase in the number of infected cases and it could last through March next year.

Liang Wannian is vice director of the health emergency office under the Ministry of Health.

"So far the virus appears having little chance of mutating into a form of severe syndrome. Most of the infected cases are children and young people. The state of the disease is relatively mild. So basically the condition is under our control. "

Yet Liang also reminded the country's health workers that as the weather continues to get colder and the regular flu season begins, prevention and control work will become tougher.

As of Saturday, more than 3.78 million Chinese people have been inoculated with the A/H1N1 flu vaccine, with no reports of serious adverse reaction.

Latest statistics show that the Chinese mainland has reported more than 46 thousand confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases, 75 percent of whom had recovered.

Central heating follows first snowfall

Beijing's heating was switched on two weeks early yesterday, as the city's residents shivered from the first snowfall of the season.

As temperatures plunged to 4 degrees Celsius, the urban administration commission said last night that it had moved up the date for switching on central heating in housing and public buildings, originally November 15.

This was the capital's earliest snowfall in 22 years. Forecasters said the snow started out as sleet at about 2 a.m. and became heavy snowfall at about 5 a.m.

The first snow of the season usually hits Beijing in late November, meteorological statistics show. The earliest snowfall since the founding of the People's Republic of China was on Oct 30, 1987.

Space-program Legend Mourned

The death of legendary scientist Qian Xuesen has plunged many Chinese into deep sorrow and people across the country are mourning the scientist known as China's "father of the space program".

Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, died in Beijing on Saturday morning at the age of 98. He led the country's missile and aviation programs and played a significant role in developing China's first man-made Earth satellite.

A memorial hall has been set up at Qian's home in Beijing for the public for six days. Yesterday morning, people showed up with flowers to give their condolences despite heavy snow.

Qian, seen as one of the country's greatest scientists and a patriot, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States in 1935 and later at the California Institute of Technology. He came back to China in 1955.

New electronic driving test

An electronic exam system will replace human test-givers at Beijing's driving test sites from next year.

Usually, an examiner sits in the car with the driver to give the test. But when the proposed electronic examination system comes into effect, machines will record and report every move to the control center and automatically score the student.

Currently nine driving schools in Beijing have installed this system.

Man hopes to resurrect the work of dead poets

In the movie of the same name Mr.Skold, the leader of the Dead Poets Society at an all-boys school, was played by Robin Williams.

In real life, it's a balding amateur poet who drives around in his "Poemobile," visiting and documenting the graves of dead poets and calling attention to their works.

49-year-old Walter Skold, founder of the Dead Poets Society of America, just finished a three-month road trip in which he visited the graves of 150 poets in 23 American states.

Skold boasts that he set a literary land speed record of over 1.6 graves a day during the course of his 24,140-kilometer journey.

He's making a film documentary called "Finding Frost: Digging Up America's Dead Poets." Next year, he hopes to scout out America's dead poets buried in Europe.