LISBON Wholesale Jerseys China Free Shipping , March 26 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque on Thursday said that the news that country's 2014 budget deficit reaching 4.5 percent of gross domestic product was "very positive and encouraging."


"The figures that were published today for the 2014 deficit are better than what we were forecasting," Albuquerque said, adding that it "boosts confidence" that the target for this year is within reach.


The finance minister, who was speaking at the inauguration of the new Easyjet base at Porto airport in northern Portugal Wholesale Jerseys Online , said that citizens would "understand the need for the sacrifices that were made" over the past three years of harsh austerity measures implemented by the government.


Earlier on Thursday, the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed that the country's public deficit stood at 4.5 percent of GDP in 2014, below the government's forecast of 4.8 percent in September last year.


Portugal exited its 78-billion-euro bailout program three years after it signed with the troika of its international lenders -- the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in May last year.


The Portuguese government has been implementing harsh austerity measures to achieve its objective agreed with the troika under the bailout program Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping , including spending cuts and tax hikes.


According to the commitments made by Portugal under the bailout program, the country's deficit last year should have been reduced to 4 percent of GDP.




BEIJING， April 17 (Xinhua) -- The recent two months have witnessed some unusually active seismic activities across the globe， as a string of powerful earthquakes have jolted Ecuador， Japan， Myanmar， Afghanistan and Indonesia， killing dozens of people and triggering several tsunami alerts.


Many cannot help wondering: Is this just coincidence， or is our planet once again on a "quake mode" that will trigger one major tremor after another?


Even experts find it difficult to draw a quick conclusion， but they have noted that both the magnitudes and frequencies of the recent quakes are still "within a normal range."


It is hard to judge whether the Earth is experiencing another seismic active period， Randy Baldwin， a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey， told Xinhua.


He said that the quake-prone zones around the world could see strong shocks coming at any time， but so far there have been no signs of connection between seismic activities in different zones.


The causes of the earthquakes are complicated， experts say， while pointing out that the geographic location of Japan and Indonesia， both of which sit right on the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt， is the main factor behind their frequent quakes.


The belt， which extends all the way through the U.S. Pacific coast， China's Taiwan， the Philippines and New Zealand， releases about three quarters of quake-discharged energy from the interior of our planet. It has earned a befitting name - the Pacific Ring of Fire.


While it seems too early to sound the alarm against a new wave of disastrous earthquakes， some scientists insist that certain "high risk zones" do require a close watch.


The southern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China always has a high geological activeness， and is now entering a "clustering period" of massive quakes above magnitude 7.0， warned Xu Xiwei， a researcher at the Institute of Geology under the China Earthquake Administration.


"We have to make further studies to better understand the seismic trends in that region，" said Xu.

Ni Yulan

Observers slam hidden agenda to promote ideology


The US is trying to smear China's image and stir trouble, analysts said, as US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday recognized 14 women for International Women for Courage Award Wholesale Jerseys From China , including Chinese activist Ni Yulan.


"The purpose of such an award is to demonstrate that the West supports and sides with justice, and therefore proves that China does not support justice and suppresses activists … Behind [the award] there is a hidden agenda to promote the political ideology of the West," Wang Sixin, a law professor at the Communication University of China Wholesale Jerseys China , told the Global Times on Wednesday.


Kerry on Tuesday recognized 14 women for the women's courage award for advocating for human rights, democracy and gender equality. One of the recipients, Ni Yulan, a Chinese activist Wholesale Jerseys , told the Voice of America's Mandarin service that she was barred from traveling to the US as local authorities refused to issue her a passport.


"The fact that Kerry was present at the award ceremony shows that the award is guided by the US government with the help of the US media," Wang said.


"The US media are in fact driven by politics and often serve US national interests," Wang noted.


His opinion was echoed by Liu Huawen, a human rights scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.


"The topic of human rights is an old Western trick of political correctness. They often choose to stir up stories of certain people that would spark public debate Cheap Soccer Jerseys ," the human rights scholar told the Global Times on Wednesday.


"Ni was an advocate against demolitions, female, disabled and a longtime dissident of the Chinese government. It's easy to label her [as a fighter] and achieve the best effect," Liu said.


Ni Cheap Jerseys From China , 56, is a self-proclaimed civil rights lawyer and allegedly began practicing in 1986. She was arrested twice, first in 2002 for "disrupting public services" and in 2011 for "fraud" and "trouble-making," Wu Danhong Cheap Jerseys China , an assistant professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday about his face-to-face talks with Ni.


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