12-23-2005

中国天主教徒要求归还建筑物 (Chinese Catholic Clergy Insist On Return of Buildings)

中国一些天主教神父和修女将在他们宣称属于他们的一座空建筑物里度过圣诞节。他们试图说服有关当局归还房产。

在被警察包围了的天津这座没有暖气的建筑里，有一些人在被当局劝说后离开，但仍有13人坚持留下。

这座房子以前为西北地区山西省的天主教徒拥有，1949年内战后被新中国共产党政府没收。

这些神职人员说，政府在10多年前答应归还这座建筑物，但是从来没有兑现过。

A group of Chinese Catholic priests and nuns will spend Christmas in an empty building they claim is theirs as they try to persuade authorities to return it.

Surrounded by police in the unheated building in the northern city of Tianjin, the 13 stayed after authorities persuaded the rest of their group to return to their parishes.

The building was owned by Catholics from the northwestern province of Shanxi before it was seized by the new Communist government after the 1949 civil war.

The priests say the government promised to return the building more than 10 years ago, but has never acted on its promise.

世卫要求中国提供禽流感病毒样本 (WHO Asks China for Bird Flu Samples)

世界卫生组织要求中国分享有关爆发致命的H5N1型禽流感病毒株的信息。世卫西太平洋地区负责人星期五说， 中国今年已经有至少26次禽流感疫情，但是却没有和国际卫生机构分享任何实验室样本。这位官员说，北京抗击禽流感的经验对全球防治这一疾病是非常关键的。

中国积极推动防治禽流感的运动，宰杀了数以百万计的禽鸟，并且展开为全国50多亿只鸡、鸭和其它禽类接种疫苗的项目。

自2003年以来，至少有70人死于禽流感，其中中国已知有两人死于禽流感。

The World Health Organization has asked China to share information from its outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.

A WHO official (Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Pacific) said today (Friday) China has had at least 26 outbreaks of avian flu this year, but has not shared any laboratory samples with international health organizations. The official said Beijing's experience in combating avian flu is crucial to the global fight against the disease.

China has embarked on an aggressive campaign to fight bird flu, destroying millions of birds and mounting a program to vaccinate all of its more than five billion chicken, ducks and other poultry.

Two people are known to have have died from bird flu in China, out of at least 70 deaths since 2003.