Dense smoke engulfs a street barbeque vendor in Qingdao [url=http://www.epicreactwomens.com/nike-epic-react-flyknit-white-fusion.html]Cheap Nike Epic React Flyknit White Fusion Womens[/url] , East China's Shandong province, May 13, 2013. Banning street barbecues is Beijing’s latest effort at improving air quality. [PhotoCFP]

BEIJING - China has scaled up air quality control in Beijing to make sure the capital's air pollution to be much improved by the time of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

BBQ is the latest target as Beijing announced on Wednesday to ban restaurants from operating outdoor barbecues, which authorities say are a major contributor to smog, in selected suburban areas.

China is going all out to bring "Olympic Blue" to Beijing.

'Olympic Blue', derived from the coined phrase 'APEC Blue', refers to fresh air and clear days that may come with the Olympics.

During last November's APEC meeting, host Beijing imposed strict pollution controls which led to a big drop in pollutants in the air. Thus, Beijing netizens coined a phrase 'APEC Blue' to describe the clear blue sky.

Air pollution, which had haunted the city for quite a long time, is believed to be one of the major problems hurting Beijing's chance for the 2022 Games.

The first quarter of the year has witnessed Beijing's average PM2.5 density drop significantly, thanks to the capital's continuous air pollution control efforts and favorable weather conditions during this period.

The average density of PM2.5 (airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter) dropped by 19 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, according to Beijing's environmental protection bureau.

The average densities of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide also dropped by 8.8 percent, 42.9 percent and 11.4 percent respectively in Beijing.

Chen Tian, head of the Beijing environmental protection bureau, attributed the remarkable air quality improvement to the reduction of coal burning, a drop in construction activities and good air conditions to disperse pollutants.

Last year, Beijing realized a record high of 2.8 million-tonne cut in coal use. In March, two sets of coal-burning power generation facilities of two plants were shut down in Beijing.

The capital will continue to improve its energy structure to keep coal consumption under 15 million tonnes, phase out another 200,000 vehicles and close more than 300 polluting factories this year.

Beijing has 5.5 million registered vehicles, which discharge 700,000 tonnes of pollutants a year.

"We will accelerate promotion of new energy cars to control emissions of vehicles," said Li Kunsheng, an official of the bureau.

Policies about the fees over traffic jamming or fuel burning and dust at construction sites will be adopted, according to Zhang Gong, vice mayor of Beijing.

Meanwhile, the air quality in nearby Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province also improved in the first quarter.

The PM2.5 density dropped 15 percent in Tianjin and 25 percent in Hebei Province respectively year-on-year in the first quarter.

Beijing and the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province have been working together to fight air pollution in recent years. The region has been ordered by the central government to cut PM2.5 from 2012 levels by 25 percent by 2017.

The International Olympic Committee will vote on Beijing's bid race against Almaty, Kazakhstan, on July 31 in Kuala Lumpur.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on Thursday to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, after GOP-controlled Congress repeatedly failed to repeal or replace it.

Suggesting that premiums under Obamacare "have gone skyrocketing," Trump labeled his executive order as "first steps to providing millions of Americans with Obamacare relief" before signing the document at the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Though the executive order won't be able to wipe away the country's health care reform law, the president can use it to direct how the law is carried out.

The order, according to Trump, asks several government departments to take action to "increase competition, increase choice, and increase access to lower-priced, high-quality healthcare options" while costing the U.S. government "virtually nothing."

The Trump order proposes to allow more small businesses to form associations to buy affordable and competitive health insurance and expand these associations and health care plans across state line so as to create what the president called tremendous competition and low prices.

Besides, Trump said the administration will explore ways to make short-term limited duration insurance "more widely available," a kind of health insurance policies not allowed to last more than three months under Obamacare rules.

He also instructed to find ways to allow more businesses to use tax-free health reimbursement arrangements to compensate their employees for their healthcare expenses.

The executive order is viewed as Trump's most concrete action to undo the ACA, a signature domestic policy by former President Barack Obama, after Senate Republicans had repeatedly failed to pass legislation to dismantle the 2010 law, a promise Trump has made to his voters.

Trump said congressional Democrats broke the U.S. healthcare system seven years ago "by forcing the Obamacare nightmare onto the American people," saying that "the cost of Obamacare has been so outrageous it is absolutely destroying everything in its wake."

Those proposals, Trump noted, "should have been done a long time ago, and it could have been done a long time ago," but White House officials said the changes could take at least six months to take effect.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who stood behind Trump at the signing ceremony, backed the president's move, saying that it would "reduce government interference and provide more afforda. [url=http://www.wholesalecheapnfljerseysfootball.com/]http://www.wholesalecheapnfljerseysfootball.com/[/url]   [url=http://cheapauthenticjerseysnba.com/]http://cheapauthenticjerseysnba.com/[/url]   [url=http://cheapauthenticjerseyscollege.com/]Cheap College Football Jerseys[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalesoccerjerseysatcheap.com/]Wholesale Soccer Jerseys From China[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalemlbjerseysatcheap.com/]Wholesale Authentic MLB Jerseys[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalejerseysnhlforcheap.com/]Cheap Jerseys[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalejerseysnflforcheapest.com/]Cheap Jerseys China[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalejerseysncaacheap.com/]Cheap NCAA Jerseys[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalejerseysnbacheap.com/]Cheap Basketball Jerseys[/url]   [url=http://www.wholesalejerseyscollegecheap.com/]Cheap College Soccer Jerseys[/url]