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Zhou Siyuan has always been unwilling to read the classics “Gulliver’s Travels” and “The Lord of the Rings”, as being a dwarf in reality is far from the romantic notions of those books.

Zhou, a 16-year-old teenager finishing junior middle school in Xixian county in central China’s Henan province, is only 115 cm tall and looks like a primary school boy.

“The boy stopped growing taller when he was seven. Our fellow villagers nicknamed him ‘Midget Melon’ and thought he was good for nothing. Few of them were willing to talk to him, though he was actually a good student,” Zhou’s mother, Song Wei, said, on the verge of tears.

But she became happier when she said Friday her son had grown nearly 10 cm taller during the past year, after receiving injections of growth hormone. Zhou, together with four other dwarfs, had been provided with the medication free of charge for six months.

Lack of growth hormone often causes dwarfism.

“The most important things are my son has become optimistic and more willing to communicate with others,” Song Wei said.

Zhou’s growth during the past year was brought about in a program called Red Cross Angels, sponsored jointly by the Chinese Red Cross Foundation and Changchun Gensci Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. based in Changchun, capital of northeastern China’s Jilin province.

Initiated in 2008, the program targets dwarfs in poverty-stricken areas of the Chinese mainland and will provide appropriate medical care valued at 5 million yuan (732,064 U.S. dollars) for 200 teenage dwarfs over five years.

During the past year, 80 youngsters from more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions and cities throughout China have benefited from the program.

Zhou Kuiqing, deputy head of medical aid department of the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, said dwarfs, who have been discriminated or ignored in Chinese society, should receive more love and care from people. Commercial firms and organizations are encouraged to contribute financially to their care.

Three years ago, the paediatric hospital affiliated to the Fudan University based in Shanghai conducted a survey of nearly 70,000 teenagers which found incidence of dwarfism was 3.77 percent.

Shen Shuixian, a senior doctor from the hospital, estimates that there are now approximately 8 million dwarfs across China, the group growing annually by 160,000 members.

Shen said, in addition to lack of growth hormone, disfunction of the thyroid gland, chromosome and bone growth abnormality, and premature birth could also lead to dwarfism.

The period from birth to three years is critical for medical treatment to prevent dwarfism. Medical treatment for children older than three with the condition often costs 200,000 to 300,000yuan, which is quite a considerable amount of money for ordinary Chinese people, said Shen.

Besides effective help based on improving medicine, many dwarfs suggest that city planners should keep their interests in mind when arranging transport services and planning commercial complexes and provision of public services.

For instance, bank counters and handles of lavatory doors could be lowered, and some special passages ways, similar to those designed for other physically challenged people, could be built for dwarfs.

More important, dwarfs said they hoped they could enjoy equal rights as other people did in marriage and employment.

Lu Jiarui, 29 and 116-cm tall, said though she had a college diploma in English language teaching, she cherished little hope before graduating from Changchun Normal University four years ago.

“Actually, college life was among the most lost and helpless years for me, since almost nobody is willing to hire people like us dwarfs,” she said.

Now Lu works as an English interpreter with the Changchun Gensci Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. With the support of the company, she has launched a website on children’s growth to disseminate related medical information. She has also established an online community for dwarfs, which provides them with social contact.

Lu said the Red Cross Angels program recently conducted a questionnaire-based survey of 5,000 netizens. The survey found more than 50 percent of the respondents did not know children’s height should be observed intensely from birth to three years; and that nearly 70 percent of the surveyed thought dwarfism was innate, and could not be treated medically.

“I don’t want to see other children missing their best opportunity for medical treatment and becoming a dwarf like me. So I determined to run my website successfully, “Lu said.

During the past three years, with the help of companies and individuals, clubs for dwarfs have been established in Chinese cities including Shanghai, Nanjing, Changchun, Chongqing and Xi’an.

“Our goal is to launch a national dwarfs club to help them acquire better medical help, provide work solutions and find their soul mates,” Lu said.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has confirmed 84 more cases of A/H1N1 influenza, bringing the country’s total number of flu patients to 2,226, local newspaper the Labor reported Thursday.

Out of the new cases, 45 patients are in the south, eight in the north, and 31 in the central provinces, said the ministry.

At the regular meeting of the National Steering Committee on Human Influenza Prevention on Wednesday, the Health Ministry asked localities to enhance the surveillances towards groups having high possibility of acquiring the A/H1N1 virus. They include people coming back from the infected areas and students, especially those at the primary schools.

At public places like schools and offices, if the first cases are detected and confirmed positive to the A/H1N1 virus, other suspected cases will be quarantined and treated immediately afterwards without taking A/H1N1 test, said the ministry.

So far, 1,252 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. The rest is being quarantined and treated.

Vietnam has reported two deaths of A/H1N1 influenza since the first case was confirmed in the country.

It’s easy to be blown away by the view, at sunset, of the whitewashed lighthouse at Cabo de Sao Vincente, Portugal. The southwesternmost point of Europe stands on a tall craggy cliff, with nothing but the Atlantic Ocean all around.

Even better, however, is the journey back–a drive along the Algarve coast that takes you from sparse seaside bracken, through tiny tiled-roofed villages, and along sparkling sandy beaches.

The route is just one of the stunning drives that Europe has to offer. Whether it’s breathtaking glaciers, ocean views or farmers’ lush fields that catch your eye, Europe has it all–and often just a short trip away.

“In the U.S., distances are huge and the landscape can often be the same, while in Europe–in the space of a few hours–you can drive from the Mediterranean to farmland and forest and even the Pyrenees,” says Chris Mark, director of trip planning at bespoke travel firm Butterfield & Robinson.

Expert Advice

To find the continent’s most breathtaking road trips, we asked a group of eight travel and motoring experts to pick their favorites. The result? Drives to satisfy every taste, whether it’s racing ’round a historic rally track or a gentle amble through the lanes of a picturesque coastline.

If adventure and Alpine scenery sound alluring, Austria’s Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse offers an ideal mix of the two. Thirty-six hairpin bends may not be for the faint of heart, but the route provides a close-up view of the country’s highest mountain and glacier, sure to make the journey worthwhile.

“There’s the thrill of driving along on your motorbike, and in good weather the view hundreds of miles around is breathtaking,” says Honda Hornet rider Christian Schoeberl, ground manager for Central & Eastern Europe for Intrepid Travel, who enjoys making the journey in his personal time.

An equally thrilling experience can be had along Sicily’s Targo Florio. The route still plays host to rallies but its sleepy villages, fields and narrow turns make the road one of Europe’s finest drives, says Nick Smith, managing director of driving holiday and event specialist Dettaglio.

For a more gentle experience–that also avoids tourist traps–there’s the coastal road that runs from near the Italian city of Brindisi all the way down to the “heel” of Italy’s “boot.” Unlike many of Europe’s picturesque ocean drives, this one is at sea level, allowing you to stop off for a quick dip in the warm waters, says George Butterfield, chief executive of Butterfield & Robinson.

If all this sounds a little too ordinary, head to–often unfairly overlooked–Eastern Europe. In Russia, the Road of Life out of St. Petersberg to Lake Lagoda is lined with memorials marking the role it played in supplying the city during the great winter siege of World War II. But it’s also a peaceful break from the buzz of the city.

“In Russia, the minute you leave the city you are right in the countryside and the difference between the two is huge,” says Ala Osmond, director of Eastern European travel specialist Exeter International. “With the forests of skinny white birch trees, it almost has a fairytale-like feel.”

And if stunning roads on their own aren’t enough to entice you, traveling around Europe is only getting easier. With Switzerland being the latest country to sign the Schengen Agreement, effectively creating a borderless zone across countries including Germany, Spain and Greece, traveling is simple.

Says Nick Smith of Dettaglio, “With effectively no borders, the ease of access to a smorgasbord of different culture, scenery and culinary experiences is second to none.”

Traveling is getting cheaper, too. While European currencies are teetering just a little below their last year’s level (the greenback will only go 5% further than it did last year), the price of oil has practically halved, making your travel fund go a lot further. All the more reason to hit the road.

China’s anti-drought authority has demanded more efforts to fight drought in the north, and warned possible drought in the south as affected regions continued to experience high temperatures and less rainfall.

A long-lingering drought in China was threatening 133 million mu (8.67 million hectares) of crops, the office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has said.

About 58.28 million mu of crops are seriously affected by the drought. A total of 4.61 million people and 4.05 million heads of livestock faced difficulty in accessing to drinking water, as of midday of Friday, according to the headquarters on Saturday.

The drought hit north and northeast China since late July. Zhang Xu, an official with the headquarters said the drought was spreading due to lack of rainfall.

Meanwhile, Hunan and Hubei provinces in central China experienced high temperatures and less rainfall over the past two days and the drought was likely to continue, warned the headquarters.

Last week, the Ministry of Agricultural raised a third-level emergency response to the drought, and asked local governments to struggle to put possible output reduction at the minimum.

It has dispatched three working teams to organize and guide anti-drought efforts in the worst-hit provinces of Liaoning and Jilin, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Two powerful explosions rocked central Baghdad on Wednesday as plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the area near the heavily fortified Green Zone, said witnesses.

A witness in central Baghdad told Xinhua that the two massive blasts were apparently caused by two car bombings at the garage of a government building in front of the al-Rasheed Hotel at the edge of the Green Zone, which houses some Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies, including a U.S. one.

The Iraqi police could not immediately give any comment on the incident.

Young people are a driving force in promoting ties between the United States and China, said a statement issued Thursday by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Youth and non-governmental exchanges played a “positive role” in developing Sino-U.S. relations, Li Yuanchao, head of the department, said in the release.

The release came one day after Li’s meeting with a delegation from American Council of Young Political Leaders.

Li opened the meeting by recalling his fond memories of a visit to the United States 22 years ago at the invitation of the Council.

The meeting ended with a 30-minute question-and-answer period, during which, Li, also member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, took questions from the delegates on his career and bilateral issues.

China hoped all social sectors of the two countries could contribute to the construction of a “positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st Century”, as agreed by presidents of the two countries in April, he said.

The delegates, who were on the visit to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the ties between the Council and All-China Youth Federation (ACYF), said in the release they would foster young leaders, and strengthen youth exchanges with China.

Founded in 1966, the Council is a bipartisan, non-profit educational exchange organization, which has conducted 56 exchange visits with the ACYF since the two organizations forged ties.

Five mining workers died and one was injured Sunday after a train carrying coal from the tunnel to the ground derailed in central China’s Hubei Province, local authorities said.

The accident occurred at 4:30 p.m, at the private Shiba colliery with 200 workers and an annual production of 90,000 tonnes in Wangying Township, Lichuan City, local work safety administration said.

The injured was treated in a hospital, but his condition was unavailable.

Local police and work safety officials were investigating the cause of the accident.

The single largest opposition party of Nepal, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) staged scheduled demonstrations across the country on Sunday.

The UCPN-M cadres took out a rally from Ratnapark in the downtown of Kathmandu. Former tourism and civil aviation minister Hisila Yami and few other central leaders of the party led the rally.

Similar demonstrations were organized outside the capital. There were no reports of violence or arrests during the demonstrations, according to local news website Nepalnews.com.

The rallies are part of the UCPN-M’s month long agitation since Friday when its lawmakers had obstructed the meeting of Legislature Parliament.

The UCPN-M parliamentaries chanted slogans demanding that Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal address the issue of “civilian supremacy” as per his commitment expressed in the parliament a month ago.

The UCPN-M on Monday announced it would obstruct the parliament from Friday if the government failed to meet their demands, which include “correcting the President’s move to reinstate the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rookmangud Katawal”.

Dubbing President Yadav’s move, to reinstate CoAS Katawal on the same day of May 3 when the UCPN-M-led cabinet sacked the CoAS, as unconstitutional, the UCPN-M chairman Prachanda resigned from the post of prime minister on May 4.

The UCPN-M has been pressing the government for its correction. It claimed that until “the issue of civilian supremacy” is addressed and the president’s move is corrected, the party would obstruct the House business.

Government officials have been called on by a senior Chinese official to handle public complaints carefully and in accordance with the law, in order to maintain social harmony and stability ahead of China’s National Day celebration in October.

Zhou Benshun, secretary general of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC) of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks Thursday during a three-day PLAC training program on the handling of representations from the public.

In China, both central and local governments have departments where officials receive members of the public and letters of petition and complaint.

Zhou said government officials should try to address and resolve public complaints and disputes at village or county levels. He said: “Problems can be solved without coming to Beijing.”

He urged the officials to address complaints according to China’s laws and regulations, but said “judicial authority must not be sacrificed in the process.”

National Day in China this year will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Fourteen people have been arrested for allegedly disrupting public order and traffic after a civil disturbance triggered by a chef’s death in central China’s Hubei Province, local authorities said Tuesday.

The 14 include the brother and a cousin of the 24-year-old Tu Yuangao, whose death sparked a civil unrest in mid-June in Shishou City, said Liu Runchang, a spokesman of the municipal government.

Another 17 people had been put in police custody.

Tu’s body was found lying at the gate of the Yonglong Hotel in Shishou on the evening of June 17.

Police found no suspicious injuries. An initial investigation found that the chef had killed himself by falling from a high building, which sparked doubt and anger among Tu’s family and the public.

The hotel was burnt and several vehicles were smashed in the unrest.

Experts from the Ministry of Public Security and Tongji Medical Institute carried out an autopsy and X-rays and tested for poisons, showing Tu committed suicide.