介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
Beijing's bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in line with China's regional development strategy has impressed a visiting International Olympic Committee team.
The IOC Evaluation Commission has conducted a five-day inspection tour to Beijing and Zhangjiakou, in the neighboring Hebei province. The commission inspected proposed venues and assessed their ability to jointly host the winter games.
The commission is chaired by Russian IOC member Alexander Zhukov who is impressed by Beijing's bid.
He said Beijing has maximized the use of existing world-class sports venues, and has taken advantage of its experience in hosting major international events.
According to Beijing's candidacy file to the IOC, the city will "fully mobilize the legacy of the 2008 Summer Olympics", by using 11 existing venues in downtown areas for most of the ice events. It will upgrade skiing resorts in the co-host city for snow sports if the bid is successful.
Six new venues, including an indoor speed skating rink in Beijing and a cross-country skiing center in Zhangjiakou, will be built under a budget totaling 1.9 billion U.S. dollars.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
China's cultural department is seeking the return of a Buddha statue, which concealed the body of a monk on an exhibition tour in Europe.
New evidence has emerged, supporting the idea that the 1,000-year-old relic had been stolen away from China.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage says the statue was stolen from a temple in a village in East China's Fujian province in 1995. The conclusion has been based on photos, local archives and witness statements.
The statue was on show in a "Mummy World" exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum. It was borrowed from a museum in the Netherlands. The Dutch owner later withdrew it from the exhibition.
In a recent statement, the collector said the statue was obtained in 1994 from his Chinese friend. It was shipped to the collector's home in Amsterdam from a workshop in Hong Kong in 1995, the same year a Buddha relic was reported missing in China.
The statue attracted wide attention recently after a scan revealed it contained a mummy of a 12th century Buddhist monk. Researchers found the mummified figure was named Zhang Gong, and is an ancestor of a local clan in the province.
Zhang Gong was known in the local area for his excellent medical skills and efforts in Buddhism education. He died at the age of 37. His body was mummified and was later made into a statue, which has been worshipped in the village ever since.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.
Museums in China are already doing it, and some museums in the United States have done it or are considering it: banning selfie sticks.
A selfie stick is an extendable pole on which a user can set a smartphone to take photos. It has become one of the most popular tech accessories for tourists. Many museums are banning the use of selfie sticks out of concern for the safety of other museum visitors and artifacts.
The Art Institute of Chicago in the U.S. has had the ban in place since January. They believe the apparatus are potentially harmful to works of art and to visitors in the gallery.
Selfie sticks have become enormously popular in China, and many museums are taking measures against the use the apparatus.
Beijing's Palace Museum says selfie sticks are "not suggested to be used" within the institution.
The Nanjing Museum in the central Chinese city of Nanjing has prohibited the use of selfie sticks. The sticks have been listed as a dangerous item, alongside camera tripods and umbrellas.
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Chinese square-dancing, which is known for generating widespread public complaints about the loud noise, will be regulated and supervised by China's sports and culture departments.
Developed as a positive form of exercise, Chinese square-dancing is generally groups of older women dancing in open spaces to loud music and strong drum beats. It has sparked heated debates online.
Complaints over the noisy music and even pictures of Chinese grannies occupying sites such as New York's Sunset Park and the square in front of the Louvre in Paris have made headlines overseas.
To regulate and promote square-dancing, the Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of Sports have collectively introduced a set of square-dancing drills.
The 12 drills have been created and designed by a panel of dancers and fitness trainers. The dances are accompanied by pop music pieces including last year's hit "Little Apple". They will be introduced to local fitness sites in China's 31 provinces and municipalities in the next five months.
However, the authorities have not yet worked out detailed standards for square-dancing, such as the recommended volume of music, permissible time for practice and prohibited sites for dancing.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
China is to survey all levels of government websites, clearing up dormant sites and making the existing sites "more pragmatic". The census will continue till December in order to "learn the general situation of e-government".
The survey will cover websites at all levels of government, ministries, subordinate departments and institutions across the country. It will determine whether the websites are useful, regularly updated and whether questions raised by the public via the sites have been dealt with appropriately.
Results of the survey will be made public when it is completed. China's e-government developed rapidly since the central government website "gov.cn" went online in 2006. Transparency has since become a major yardstick assessing government's work.
Scientists have found a new gene linked to body fat distribution and it may help explain why you have an apple or pear shape.
Researchers from Duke University in the U.S. found a gene called "Plexin D1". It controls both where fat is stored and how fat cells are shaped. These are known factors in health, and can indicate future diseases.
The study found a new molecular pathway that determines how fat is stored in the body, and as a result, affects the overall metabolic health.
The team used zebra-fish for the study. The results show those genetically engineered to lack Plexin D1 had less abdominal fat than their normal counterparts. Abdominal fat makes people a characteristic apple shape.
Previous research has shown that people with an apple shape are more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease than those who have bigger hips and thighs and are described as being pear-shaped.
The results indicate that the genetic architecture of body fat distribution is shared between fish and humans and is serving an important role.
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