Hello and welcome to this edition ofCRI Roundupon Saturday, January 5. I'm Qizhi 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...

• China's new labor contract law took effect on New Year's Day.
• China set a quota on exports of milled grain products to stablize domestic food prices.
• Pakistan postponed parliamentary elections due to violence triggered by the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
• And crude oil prices set a record high of 100 dollars a barrel.

China's new labor contract law took effect on New Year's Day.
The regulation is meant to protect employees from being sacked without cause and requires employers to contribute to employees' social security accounts.
It also sets wage standards for employees on probation and working overtime.
Hu Shaozhong works in a restaurant in Beijing and said the new law better protects employees' rights.
"When we signed contracts with our companies according to the new law, the specific items in our new contracts show more concerns about employees. We can see that the new contract law can better protect our rights."
In the past, some employees were hired under one-year contracts because employers refuse to sign longer-term contracts. And some others worked under the hollow shell of the promise of a contract without ever actually receiving one.

China has started a temporary quota policy on the export of milled grain productsin a move to guarantee enough domestic supplies. Items covered include wheat, corn and rice powder.
Zhang Yansheng is a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency.
"The target of all the measures is essentially to curb grain exports boosted by climing international prices, further maintain the domestic supply and demand effectively and stablize the food prices in the country."
Officials say the policy's duration depends on the domestic market situation.

Pakistan's election commission on Wednesday decided to postpone parliamentary electionsfor another month because of violence triggered by the assassination of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The poll was to be held on January 8 and will now take place on February 18.
More than 7 thousand candidates will contest the elections for some 340 seats in the National Assembly. There are also nearly 730 seats in other four provincial assemblies.
President Pervez Musharraf has requested a team of investigators from Britain to assist in the investigation into the killing of Bhutto, a former opposition leader.
"We decided to request a team from Scotland Yard from the United Kingdom to come. I am grateful to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, that I made the request and he accepted it. And by the grace of God, this team will soon arrive in Pakistan and assist our teams in our investigation."
The Pakistani government has blamed al-Qaida-linked militants for Bhutto's death, but the militants have denied any involvement.

Crude oil futures set a record close on Wednesday,the first trading day of 2008, after briefly hitting 100 U.S. dollars a barrel on concerns of tight supply and the weak U.S. dollar.
At the same time, tensions in oil producing nations like Nigeria have increasingly made investors nervous and invited speculators to drive prices even higher.
Ira Eckstein, President of Area International Trading had this to say about the hike.

"I think that when we go to 120 and stay there for six months, that's going to have a significant impact on the economy. I think one print at 100 (US) dollars now is a non-event on the economy."
On Thursday, oil futures in New York rose to a new record of 100 dollars and nine cents a barrel after the US government reported a larger-than-expected decline in crude oil inventories and an unexpected rise in heating oil supplies.

And that concludes this edition of "CRI Round Up". Remember, if you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to listen to any of our programs online, you can visit our website at:www.crienglish.com. I'm Qizhi in Beijing. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned for more on China Radio International.