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This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mike Fox in Beijing, sitting in for Mark Griffiths. Here is the news.
China's biggest property developer Wanda Group and Internet giants Baidu and Tencent have unveiled a new e-commerce venture in a challenge to industry leader Alibaba ahead of its stock offering in the United States.
The three companies will integrate their online and offline sales, with e-commerce services in Wanda's 107 shopping malls, as well as its hotels and resorts. The companies will invest 5 billion yuan, or more than 810 million U.S. dollars to start.
The venture adds to competition for Alibaba, who's Taobao, Tmall and other platforms account for some 80 percent of Chinese online commerce. Alibaba is preparing for a U.S. initial public offering that analysts say might value it between 150 billion and 200 billion dollars.
The new venture will develop services including online finance which will pose a challenge to Alibaba's popular banking service, Yu'ebao.
China has the world's most populous Internet market, with more than 600 million web users. Experts estimated that online shopping might triple from 2011 levels to 400 billion dollars a year by 2015.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Tesla Motors in the United States and Chinese state-owned phone carrier have announced plans to build 400 charging stations for electric vehicles in a new bid to promote popular adoption of the technology in China.
Under the plan, China Unicom provides locations and basic services for the stations in 120 Chinese cities, while Tesla operates the stations. The two companies will also build 20 "supercharger stations" in some of these cities to offer high-speed charging.
Promoters of electric vehicles see China as a promising market thanks to Beijing's support for the technology to reduce smog. But the lack of charging infrastructure is seen as a major hurdle to winning general acceptance.
Tesla delivered its first home-made electric sedans to Chinese customers in April and planned to invest several hundred million dollars to build a charging network in China.
China has around 78,000 electric vehicles on the road, mostly public buses and taxies.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mike Fox in Beijing.
Google's secretive research laboratory is trying to build a fleet of drones designed to bypass earthbound traffic so packages can be delivered to people more quickly.
The ambitious program escalates Google's technological arms race with rival Amazon.com, which is also experimenting self-flying vehicles to carry merchandise bought by customers from its online stores.
Google calls its foray into drones "Project Wing".
Although Google expects it to take several more years before its fleet of drones is fully operational, the company says test flights in Australia delivered a first aid kit, candy bars, dog treats and water to two farmers after traveling a distance of roughly one kilometer a few weeks ago. The video of the test flight can be seen on YouTube.
Besides perfecting their aerial technology, Google and Amazon still need to gain government approval to fly commercial drones in many countries, including their home country, the United States.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration currently allows hobbyists and model aircraft makers to fly drones, but commercial use is mostly banned.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
With the holiday shopping season approaching, Samsung and LG unveiled small improvements to their computerized wristwatches to sway customers.
Samsung's latest version can do more without a smartphone to go with it, while LG's has a round screen.
Samsung's new Gear S can receive notifications directly from social networks, calendars and other apps. It can also make and receive phone calls. Samsung has also unveiled a headset called Gear Circle. Both products will be available starting in October.
LG Electronics, meanwhile, unveiled a watch with a 1.3-inch circular screen, marking a departure from the rectangular design found in previous smartwatches from LG and others.
Motorola is also expected to come out with a round-face smartwatch soon.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mike Fox in Beijing.
An experimental Ebola drug has healed all 18 monkeys infected with the deadly virus in a study. The move boosted hopes that, once more of it can be made, the treatment might help fight the outbreak raging through West Africa.
The monkeys were given the drug, ZMapp, three to five days after they were infected with the virus and when most were showing symptoms.
The drug also completely protected six other monkeys given a slightly different version of the virus three days after infection. These two studies are the first monkey tests ever done on ZMapp.
Experts said it's not possible to estimate a window of opportunity for treating humans, but it was encouraging that the animals recovered even after advanced disease developed.
ZMapp had never been tested in humans before two American aid workers who got Ebola while working in Africa were allowed to try it. The rest of the limited supply was given to five others.
Ebola has killed more than 1,500 people this year and the World Health Organization says there could be as many as 20,000 cases before the outbreak is brought under control. A few days ago, it spread to a fifth African country - Senegal, where a university student who traveled there from Guinea was being treated.
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