Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich of Switzerland is the city with the highest quality of life in 2006, while Baghdad, for the third year running, has the lowest, a survey published by human resource company Mercer on Monday shows. Zurich, Geneva and Vancouver made the top three in the list while Bangui in the Central African Republic and Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, joined Baghdad in the bottom three. The top three cities in the list are all unchanged from last year. Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. In this region, Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in 4th position. Other highly-rated cities include Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, standing at position 79. Chicago is one of the biggest climbers in the rankings since 2005, rising to 41st from 52nd due to reduced crime rates, while Cairo is one of the biggest fallers, sliding nine places to 131st out of 215 cities. "(This was) due to political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area," Mercer said. Asia-Pacific Auckland and Wellington have both moved up the rankings from 8th to 5th and 14th to 12th places respectively, while Sydney remains at position 9. In Asia, Singapore ranks 34th followed by Tokyo, Japan's highest scoring city, at position 35. Hong Kong's modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport which is considered one of best in the world, has pushed it up from 70th to 68th position. The top-ranking city in China's mainland is Shanghai in 103rd place. "Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labour and manufacturing expertise," explained Mr. Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. Mercer bases its annual survey on 39 quality-of-life factors, from political stability to schools, bars, restaurants and the environment. The top ten cities in the list: Zurich, Switzerland Geneva, Switzerland Vancouver, Canada Vienna, Austria Auckland, New Zealand Dusseldorf, Germany Munich, Germany Sydney, Australia Berne, Switzerland (Agencies)

本周一，美世人力資源咨詢公司公布的一項調查顯示，2006年全球生活質量最高的城市為瑞士的蘇黎世；而巴格達則連續三年墊底。 蘇黎世、日內瓦和溫哥華位居排行榜前三名；排名墊底的三座城市中，除巴格達外，還有中非共和國的班吉和剛果共和國首都布拉扎維。 排行榜前三位的城市和去年相比沒有什么變化。 得分排在前三十名的城市中近一半集中在西歐地區。維也納位居蘇黎世和日內瓦之后，排名第四。其他幾個得分較高的城市包括杜塞爾多夫，法蘭克福和慕尼黑，分別排在第六、第七和第八位。雅典是西歐地區得分最低的城市，位于第79位。 芝加哥是2005年以來榜上排名進步最大的城市之一，從52位升至41位。這主要歸功于芝加哥犯罪率的下降。而開羅則是榜上排名下降最多的城市之一，下滑9位，跌至215個城市中的第131位。 據美世公司介紹，開羅及其周邊地區的政局動蕩和恐怖分子的襲擊是其排名下滑的主要原因。 亞太地區的奧克蘭和惠靈頓分別從榜上的第8位和第14位攀升至第5位和第12位，而悉尼則仍然位居第九。 亞洲的新加坡名列第34位，位居其后的是日本得分最高的城市東京，排行第35位。香港排名從70位升至68位，這主要得益于其現代化、高效的基礎設施。香港的機場被認為是“世界上最好的機場之一”。 中國內地排名最靠前的城市是上海，居于榜上第103位。 美世高級研究員Slagin Parakatil 先生解釋說：“北京和上海正處于上升期，兩個城市的生活質量在未來幾年應該會有快速提高。這主要和充足、低成本的勞動力以及生產制造技術帶來的國際投資的增長有關?！? 美世公司此項年度調查的根據是39項反映生活質量的指標，包括政治穩定、學校、酒吧、餐館以及環境等。 排行前十位的城市： 瑞士蘇黎世 瑞士日內瓦 加拿大溫哥華 奧地利維也納 新西蘭奧克蘭 德國杜塞爾多夫 德國法蘭克福 德國慕尼黑 澳大利亞悉尼 瑞士伯爾尼 (中國日報網站編譯)