Xi calls for creating broad cooperation platforms for women worldwide

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called for creating broad cooperation platforms for women worldwide.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women in Beijing, Xi emphasized the importance of women in reforming and improving the global governance system.

"Women are crucial in reforming and improving the global governance system. We must support them in assuming their historic responsibilities, enabling them to play a substantive role in global governance and share in its benefits. We should support the central role of the United Nations, urging it to pay more attention to the needs of women in developing countries, create broad cooperation platforms for women from all countries, and continually deepen exchanges and mutual learning, so as to help women across the world thrive and shine together," said Xi.

Co-hosted by China and UN Women, the two-day meeting gathers heads of state, government leaders, parliamentary leaders, deputy prime ministers, ministerial officials, leaders of international organizations, and friendly personnel from various continents.

Xi calls for creating broad cooperation platforms for women worldwide

Xi calls for creating broad cooperation platforms for women worldwide

Xi calls for creating broad cooperation platforms for women worldwide

Xi calls for creating broad cooperation platforms for women worldwide

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight