The Chinese government is planning to spend nearly $200 billion on homes for low-income families this year. They are trying to make it easier for people to buy a place to live as property prices in most Chinese cities are still increasing every month. Chris Hogg reports. The government’s promising to build or renovate 10 million households for low-income families this year and next. Officials will provide about 40% of the cost. The rest will be raised from the families or companies who benefit from the programme. It’s an ambitious target, perhaps too ambitious. The state-controlled media here says, last…

There is growing concern for people who have been injured and are dying in the ongoing Libyan conflict. The UN has been granted access, although because fighting is happening in so many different places, providing assistance is very difficult. Jonathan Marcus reports. What increasingly looks like a civil war in Libya is an unusual conflict, since outside humanitarian agencies have so little role in the country. Independent eyes and ears on the ground are essential if there is to be any proper assessment of the humanitarian conditions, and where urgent medical aid needs to be sent. The lack of any…

There have been protests in Australia over government plans to introduce a carbon tax. People who are against the plans say that if other countries don’t introduce a similar tax, it could have a negative impact on Australian jobs and businesses. Phil Mercer reports. Protestors say they are just ordinary Australian workers and taxpayers who feel betrayed by the government’s plans to put a price on carbon. They insist it would damage the economy and drive up the cost of living by making energy far more expensive. Man 1: “There is a ground swell of people that have finally had…

A team of scientists is preparing a new attempt to drill through the Earth’s crust to the mantle below for the first time ever. The team will soon drill beneath the Pacific to test the viability of such an operation, and say an attempt to reach the mantle could begin in 2018. Neil Bowdler reports. They’ve selected prospective sites under the Pacific Ocean where the crust is at its thinnest – just six kilometres. Dr Damon Teagle, of the UK’s National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, is leading the quest. He likens the bid to the retrieval of Moon rocks by…

The Tokyo Electric Power Company has been criticised for not telling the public very muchabout emergency repairs at the Fukushima nuclear power station. Engineers are still trying tocool down the nuclear rods and prevent a major radiation leak. Mark Gregory reports.Usually, governments take the lead in national emergencies, but not in this one. Staving offcatastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima power complex has been primarily the responsibility of acommercial concern: The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, which runs the site.There’s mounting concern in Japan at Tepco’s handling of the crisis. In particular, the firmhas been accused of failing to communicate. There’ve…