hello and welcome to this edition of on saturday, september 22. i'm wenjie in beijing.
let's take a look at some of the major events that have happened in china and around the globe during the past week:
the un general assembly rejects a proposal to include taiwan's bid for u.n. membership on its agenda.
a key u.n. general assembly committee on wednesday decided not to include taiwan's bid for u.n. membership in the united nations' agenda for the general assembly.
this is the 15th straight year the assembly has thwarted taiwan's attempt to become a member of the world body.
addressing the session, china's ambassador to the u.n., wang guangya, said he wasn't surprised by the outcome.
"i think that the outcome is good because the overwhelming majority of the members in the general committee support the one-china principle, so therefore i think this issue has already been decided by the general committee, so they decided not to include this item for the agenda this year."
on tuesday, u.n. secretary-general, ban ki-moon, asserted that taiwan's bid to apply for u.n. membership is legally impossible and that the organization recognizes the people's republic of china as the only legitimate representative of china to the u.n.
china will dispatch a contingent of military engineers to darfur in sudan to join un peacekeeping forces in the region.
the 315-member engineering unit comprises three engineering platoons, one well-digging platoon, and a small hospital unit.
they will be deployed to help locals to rebuild their country early next month in advance of the larger 26,000-strong africa union-un peacekeeping force that is likely to start deploying early next year.
a powerful typhoon, wipha, slammed into east china's coastal region and claimed a few lives in the province of zhejiang this week, before downgrading to a tropical storm and moving northwards.
the storm destroyed thousands of houses, wrecked fish farms, and disrupted power in more than 100 communities.
in zhejiang alone, nearly 1.8 million residents were relocated before the arrival of the typhoon, making it the largest mass evacuation in the history of the province.
as wipha heads north, local authorities are trying to restore electricity and transportation services as soon as possible.
the ministry of agriculture says a bird flu outbreak in southern china has been brought under control.
following massive slaughter of poultry in the affected areas, there have been no more reports of new cases.
jia youling, china's chief veterinary officer, says medical experts are racing against time to avoid human infection.
"a group of medical experts are on the scene in dealing with the aftermath treatment. on the medical front, meanwhile, samples have been sent to the national bird flu laboratory for further diagnosis. these are all part of our emergency plan in coping with public health crisis.''
the agriculture ministry says it will send 12 working groups to supervise bird flu control efforts, especially preventing spread of the disease.
pakistan announced thursday the country will hold its presidential election on oct. 6.
general pervez musharraf's term as president expires on nov. 15 and he is seeking another five-year term.
in greece, conservative prime minister costas karamanlis won the parliamentary election on sunday with a diminished majority in parliament.
to succeed a second four-year term, karamanlis had to overcome not only widespread anger over devastating forest fires last month, but also a financial scandal and a split in the right-wing vote.
"i thank you for your trust. today you have spoken. and you spoke loudly and you spoke clearly. you chose the path the country will follow for the coming years."
and that concludes this edition of if you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to listen to any of our programs online, you can visit our website at: . i'm wenjie in beijing. thanks for listening. stay tuned for more on china radio international.