A couple from China

China's work-related deaths drop below 100,000

China's work-related deaths fell below 100,000 last year for the first time in more than a decade, amid an increased government focus on accident prevention, state media reported today.

The State Administration of Work Safety reported that the number of deaths dropped to 91,172 for 2008, a 10.2 percent decline from the previous year, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

China's vast work force, an estimated 800 million people, has fueled decades of export-driven growth, turning their country into the factory for much of the world.
But safety standards continue to lag behind those in developed countries.
Many factories and mines have little or no safety equipment, while worker training is also weak.

China's latest figures indicate that 11.4 workers die for every 100,000 on the job.
In comparison, the United States said last year that there were 3.7 fatal injuries for every 100,000 workers in 2007, the most recent numbers available.

The government has been focusing on workplace safety in recent years, and last year was the first time since 1995 that the work-related death toll was under 100,000, Xinhua said.
In particular, China has sought to focus on safety in its coal mines, which are the deadliest in the world.
In 2007, coal mine accidents claimed 3,770 lives in China.In 2008, the number of coal mine fatalities were reduced by 15.1 percent to about 3,200,
That is a vast improvement from 2006, when about 4,500 people died in numerous mine fires, floods and other disasters.

Officials said safety improved because of government efforts to close illegal mines and improve worker safety.
China shut down 1,054 small coal mines last year.
Government figures show that almost 80 percent of the country's 16,000 mines are small, illegal operations.

China to try critic of government's quake response

A Chinese court today abruptly scheduled a trial for an activist who criticized the government's response to last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake, giving his lawyer only one day to prepare and prompting him to mount an immediate legal challenge.
Huang Qi's lawyer Mo Shaoping said the judge told him Monday that the trial would start Tuesday morning, leaving less than 24 hours for Mo to look through the indictment and build a defense against the charge of possessing state secrets.

"This is a totally illegal process," Mo said. "They are intentionally creating difficulties."
He said the law requires that the defendant be informed 10 days before the trial starts, while lawyers need to be told at least three days ahead.
His assistant has gone to the Wuhou District Court to see if the trial date can be changed.
"If it cannot be changed, we will lodge a strong protest because this is unfair and it deprives Huang Qi of his right to a defense," Mo said.

According to Mo, the judge said he had difficulty reaching Huang's lawyers and family.
Both Mo and Zeng Li, Huang's wife, said their telephone numbers and addresses are recorded in court documents.
"I've been trying to reach the court for weeks but no one would give me the time of day," said Zeng.
She said she was also told of the trial Monday morning and was not sure if she would be allowed to attend.

Huang, one of the country's most outspoken dissidents, posted articles on his Web site 64Tianwang.com criticizing the government's response to the May 12th quake after visiting affected areas and meeting parents who lost their children.
While independent reporting was allowed right after the magnitude-7.9 temblor, access was shut down within days and public complaints by parents who blamed corruption and shoddy construction on school collapses that killed their children became an extremely sensitive issue.

Zeng said Huang's arrest was a result of his work in the quake zone.
"This is because he went to the disaster area a couple of times.
He reported on the shoddy schools and reported about the appeals of the parents of the students.
So he was arrested and charged with possessing state secrets," she said.

The ill-defined charge is often used to clamp down on dissent and send activists to prison.
Human rights groups said Huang was forcibly taken away by three unknown men on June 10th and police informed his mother six days later that he had been detained.

Zeng said police told Huang in October that if he stopped his activist work, he would be released.
Mo said police made no mention of the earthquake in their indictment proposal, adding that he was not allowed to reveal the contents of the document.

Earlier this decade, Huang, 45, served a five-year prison sentence on subversion charges linked to politically sensitive articles posted on his Web site.
Since his release in 2005, Huang has supported a wide range of causes from aiding families of those killed in the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, to publicizing the complaints of farmers involved in land disputes with authorities.