介绍:
This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Chinese lawmakers have called for stricter management of traditional Chinese medicine production.
During panel deliberations recently, legislators discussed a draft law on Traditional Chinese Medicine, tabled for a third reading at the bimonthly session of the National People&`&s Congress Standing Committee. The legislators agreed that the quality and safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine materials should be ensured with improved regulations.
Legislator Jia Chunmei said during the discussion that bad materials lead to ineffective treatments, and cause people to mistrust Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Legislators applauded the draft as it stresses enhanced supervision over farms producing Chinese medicine materials, adding that growth hormones used for herb cultivation should be brought under control.
Legislator Zhang Boli said the overuse of growth hormones will sacrifice quality for quantity.
Meanwhile, legislators urged specific rules that clarify the civil and criminal responsibilities of those who violate the Traditional Chinese Medicine law.
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Anhui Province in eastern China will be the first in the country to drop the Public English Test System, an English proficiency test for Chinese students. The province will stop using the system this year and more areas will follow suit.
China plans to finally combine the two most popular English proficiency tests into one by 2020.
China has around 300 million English learners who often have to take multiple, overlapping English tests.
The Ministry of education has revealed that a new English proficiency evaluation system will be put into use this year and may be put forward across China by 2020.
The new system will correspond with international standards and set nine grades for testers ranging from elementary school graduates to English majors and exceptional talents.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Facebook is taking new measures to curb the spread of fake news on its huge and influential social network. Focusing on the worst offenders, Facebook will partner with outside fact-checkers and news organizations to sort honest news reports from made-up stories that play on people&`&s passions and preconceived notions.
Facebook will make it easier for users to report fake news, in only two steps when they see it. If enough people report a story as fake, Facebook will pass it to third-party fact-checking organizations that are part of the nonprofit Poynter Institute&`&s International Fact-Checking Network.
Five fact-checking and news organizations are working with Facebook on this, including ABC News and The Associated Press, and the group is likely to expand.
Stories that failed the fact check won&`&t be removed from Facebook, but they&`&ll be publicly flagged as "disputed", which will force them to appear lower down in people&`&s news feeds. Users will be able to click on a link to learn why that is. And if people decide they want to share the story with friends anyway, they can, but they&`&ll get another warning.
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German officials are stepping up their criticism of Facebook, saying the social network is doing too little to stop hate speech and could face stiff fines unless it deletes illegal content faster.
In an interview published recently, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said his ministry was checking whether it would be possible to make social networking sites legally liable for illegal posts.
Maas told media that if other measures fail to work, they have to think about fines in the end, and that would be a strong incentive to act quickly.
Germany has seen a sharp increase in vitriolic posts on social media in recent years amid a heated public debate over the influx of more than a million migrants since the start of 2015.
The country has laws against speech deemed to be racist, defamatory or inciting violence, a response to Germany&`&s Nazi legacy. But authorities have struggled with the deluge of often anonymous postings on foreign-owned websites.
Facebook, based in California in the United States, says it takes the issue seriously and has hundreds of contractors reviewing posts at a Berlin office. But it is reported that staff members there complain of inconsistent rules and overwork.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The United Nations children&`&s fund and its partners have kicked off a mass measles vaccination drive, aiming to vaccinate 54,000 children under 10 years of age in southern Somalia.
The United Nations Children&`&s Fund, UNICEF, says the vaccination drive follows a serious of outbreaks in southern Somalia.
A UNICEF representative in Somalia says measles is one of the most deadly vaccine-preventable diseases but sadly, it is far from being the only one in Somalia.
Many of the children suspected of suffering from measles in Kismayo had not been vaccinated against the disease, although there are 16 free vaccination posts in the area.
The U.N. agency has supported the swift delivery of 55,000 doses of measles vaccine to the area along with Vitamin A supplementation to boost immunity. The vaccines are funded by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, and Japan.
According to UNICEF, measles is a key indicator of the strength of a country&`&s immunization systems. Somalia has one of the lowest immunization rates in the world.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease and a leading cause of death among young children in Somalia.
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U.S. researchers have found that a low-dose of aspirin may inhibit the normal function of blood platelets and reduce their ability to up-regulate a protein which plays an important role in cancer cell proliferation and survival.
The mechanism means that low-dose aspirin, or "baby aspirin", may have some benefits in helping cancer prevention, especially colon cancer, in addition to protection against cardiovascular disease.
The researchers from Oregon State University say the benefit of aspirin may be due to its effect on blood cells called platelets, rather than acting directly on tumor cells.
Early cancer cells live in what&`&s actually a pretty hostile environment, where the immune system regularly attacks and attempts to eliminate them. Platelets can play a protective role for those early cancer cells. Inhibition with aspirin appears to interfere with that process.
For the first time, the study shows the ability of platelets to regulate cancer cells.
The anti-cancer benefit of aspirin occurs at very low doses. Higher doses are used to treat inflammation, headaches or pain. The new findings have enabled doctors to use low doses of aspirin, to minimize the risk of inner bleeding. Inner bleeding is a serious concern with any anti-platelet medication.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That&`&s mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues.
French car maker Renault has opened China&`&s first experimental zone for self-driving cars in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
An electric autonomous driving, or AD, car by Renault has started operating on a 2-kilometer-long lakeside road in the Sino-French Wuhan Ecological Demonstration City.
Visitors are allowed to experience the autonomous vehicle in the zone, which was jointly built by Renault and its Chinese cooperation partner, the Dongfeng Company.
Autonomous systems can make car travel safer and passengers less stressed. It will make driving more enjoyable in tedious conditions, including traffic congestion.
The Renault Group plans to gradually introduce the "eyes off" technology in its core range of vehicles by 2020. Drivers are also expected to be able to take advantage of in-car connectivity safely when conditions and the law permit.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Babies born with congenital Zika virus infection may develop microcephaly, or abnormal smallness of the head, months after birth.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published its latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report described 13 infants in Brazil with congenital Zika virus infection who did not have microcephaly at birth, but experienced slowed head growth as early as five months after birth.
Among the infants, 11 later developed microcephaly.
Congenital Zika virus infection without microcephaly at birth has been reported previously.
However, this is the first series of infants with laboratory evidence of congenital Zika virus infection documented to have poor head growth with microcephaly developing after birth.
The new findings have raised the alarm for the seemingly healthy babies born to mothers who were infected with the Zika virus worldwide.
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A report has found that Australia&`&s use of illegal methamphetamines including ice is at an all-time high.
Odyssey House, one of Australia&`&s largest drug rehabilitation organizations based in Melbourne released its annual report recently. It said the number of people who admitted to amphetamine use went up 53 percent in 2016.
The report said that half of the amphetamine users in Australia were seeking help for their addiction while heroin and opium use went down 45 percent last year.
The report says the growth in ice addiction was proof that the Australian government needed to increase long-term funding to fight ice addiction.
The report found that two thirds of Australian drug users last year were over the age of 30, with users reporting their first intoxication at a much earlier age than a decade ago.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The surgeon who created the life-saving Heimlich maneuver for choking died in Cincinnati in the United States recently. Dr. Henry Heimlich died of a heart attack at the age of 96.
Heimlich&`&s son, Phil Heimlich, said his father was a great man who saved many lives, and he will be missed not only by his family but by all of humanity.
Dr. Heimlich was director of surgery at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati in 1974 when he devised his treatment to reverse choking that made his name a household word in the United States.
Rescuers using the procedure abruptly squeeze a victim&`&s abdomen, pushing in and above the navel with the fist to create a flow of air from the lungs. The flow of air can then push objects out of the windpipe and prevent suffocation.
The maneuver has saved the lives of thousands in the United States alone. It earned Dr. Heimlich several awards and worldwide recognition.
The maneuver was adopted by public health authorities, airlines and restaurant associations across the world.
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Lights, baubles and other decorations are often used to decorate Christmas trees in Australia during the festive season, but one local woman was shocked to find a tiger snake playing the part of the tinsel.
After spotting the stowaway snake wrapped around the tree in her home, the woman called a professional snake handler Barry Goldsmith who happily relocated the "moving decoration".
Goldsmith&`&s photo of the slippery critter went viral on Australia&`&s social media overnight. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he&`&d never seen anything quite like it.
He said that although he has found snakes around the base of Christmas trees in amongst the presents in the past, he has never found one up inside a Christmas tree.
Goldsmith said it is a one-off thing, like lightning striking, and it&`&s not going to happen again for sure, not this year.
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