New workers given forged notes on payday

New staff of a fabric-dyeing plant in Shunde, Guangdong Province joyously received their very first salary. But their excitement vanished when the fresh cash they got turned out to be counterfeit, reported the Guangzhou Daily last Thursday.
A newly enrolled worker surnamed Hu learnt the truth when he tried to pay for some goods with one of his new bills in a convenience store. Hu darted out of the store to tell his fellow workers and found 20 other of the new comers experienced the same ordeal.
"The fifteen 100 yuan notes the plant gave me are all fake," said a worker preferred to remain anonymous fearing he would be fired.
According to the report, many workers were laid off after they questioned their superiors about the fake notes and refused to back to work until the counterfeit issue was resolved.

[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/society/11020309/20070515/images/14096532_2007051510401664069600.jpg[/img]

Iranian leader works to end US-Gulf ties

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first visit to the United Arab Emirates came just days after Vice President Dick Cheney called on Gulf nations to blunt Iran's efforts at regional dominance.
It also came as the United States and Iran agreed to talk in Baghdad about Iraq's deteriorating security. Although seen as a political turnabout, potential for real progress is low as tensions - and sharp words - continue to escalate.
In stark contrast to Cheney's low-key visit, Ahmadinejad was greeted at the airport Sunday with a red carpet and the top leaders of the Emirates. But no Emirati leaders joined Ahmadinejad at his public events, and there appeared to be an effort to give the Iranian leader a warm welcome but keep a distance from his statements.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/international/11020308/20070515/images/14096300_2007051509593315433300.jpg[/img]

Area of Arable Land May Drop Below Red Line

Experts have warned that China's arable land might drop below the red line of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) in six years' time due to rampant illegal use.
The Ministry of Land and Resources recently announced the land use plan for this year, saying the area of cultivated land to be used for construction will be basically the same as last year.
But official statistics show construction took up 289,000 hectares of farmland last year, slightly more than the planned 267,000 hectares. The area of arable land has shrunk by 307,000 hectares in the past year.
"If arable land shrinks at such a pace, the red line will be breached in six years," an official was quoted by Shanghai-based China Business News as saying.
For China, retaining 120 million hectares of arable land until 2020 is the bottom line to guarantee its food safety.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/china/11020307/20070515/images/14096703_2007051511145029798600.jpg[/img]

DaimlerChrysler sells Chrysler to U.S. private equity firm

Berlin, May 14 (Xinhua) -- DaimlerChrysler confirmed on Monday that it is selling the majority stake in its money-losing U.S. arm Chrysler Group to the U.S. private equity firm Cerberus, ending a nine-year transatlantic marriage between the two car giants.
Under the deal announced by DaimlerChrysler chief Dieter Zetsche, Cerberus would pay 7.4 billion U.S. dollars for an 80.1 percent stake in Chrysler, which will become the first of the big Detroit automakers to be privately owned.
Daimler, which acquired Chrysler in 1998 for 36 billion dollars in a bold move to try to become a truly global player, will retain a 19.9 percent stake in the U.S. car maker.
"We're confident that we've found the solution that will create the greatest overall value, both for Daimler and Chrysler," said Zetsche while announcing the deal. "With this transaction, we have created the right conditions for a new start for Chrysler and Daimler."

[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/business/news/11021613/20070515/images/14096064_2007051510045659014300.jpg[/img]

Development Finance Key for Sino-African Economic Ties

The Development Finance and Sino-African Cooperation Forum opened on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at the Shanghai International Convention Center. Co-hosted by the African Development Bank Group and People's Bank of China, the forum aims to push forward communication and understanding between development financing institutions in China and African countries.
According to Xiang Junbo, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and director of its Shanghai headquarters, the unique role of finance in supporting less-developed areas in China and Africa is crucial for economic globalization.

[img]http://images.china.cn/images1/200705/393578.jpg[/img]

Beautiful Dongjiang in Hunan

The Dongjiang Lake is in Zixing county of Chenzhou, 38 kilometers from the center of Chenzhou. The lake is close to the Beijing-Guangzhou railway and the 107 national highway. The whole area covers about 160 square kilometers and is considered the "Dongting Lake of southern Hunan." The lake scenes are beautiful, full of many islands and trees, giving it the nickname of the "Eastern Swiss" Lake.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/tourism/recommendations/11020848/20070515/images/14097417_200705151511528565000.jpg[/img]

Attack in Northwestern Pakistan Suicide Bombing: Police

A blast which killed more than 20 people in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar Tuesday was carried out by a suicide bomber, senior police officers said.
Police said that at least 21 people were killed and scores of others were injured in the powerful bomb blast in a hotel in Peshawar.
Local TV reports put the death toll at 25 and the injured at 40.
"There is no crater on the ground and roof of the hotel totally collapsed, which has proved that it may be a suicide attack," Police Additional Inspector General Fayyaz Tooru said.
Tooru said that police had also recovered two legs separated from a body which might be of the bomber.
Another police officer Abdul Majeed Marwat also said that it was a suicide bombing.
Police earlier believed that a device was planted in the hotel.

[img]http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2007/05/15/4084peshawar.jpg[/img]

Shiqian Treasure in a small town

Travel has historically been so difficult that even the provincial tourism bureau pays scant attention to the area. Local legend lays the blame on a long-ago regional leader with a shaky grasp of development economics. He allegedly opposed the building of a railway on the grounds that "it would make the price of eggs go up."
Change cannot be far away. A modern highway smoothed my ride into a tidy new main street much like those in small towns all over China. But once off the bus, I quickly discovered another side to Shiqian, because the town's charms are all within a few minutes' walk.
Shiqian lies in a deep valley, strung along both banks of the Longchuan River. Everything of interest, however, is on the east bank, starting at the southern end with Shiqian's most celebrated feature: hot springs. These have been known for hundreds of years and in pre-Revolutionary times were well developed for use by the townsfolk. The springs rise some distance up the mountainside, so in the old days local officials built their bathhouse at the town's highest point in order to get the hottest, cleanest water. Below that was the public men's bath and, right at the bottom, the women's bath, whose water was also used for washing clothes.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/tourism/recommendations/11020848/20070510/images/14087882_200705101152043246200.jpg[/img]

Chen Yifei's Masterpiece Hits Record High

The oil painting "Eulogy of the Yellow River", by the late artist and film director, Chen Yifei, was sold at 40.32 million yuan on Sunday's China Guardian 2007 Spring Auctions, to become the most expensive oil painting in China's auction history.
China News Service reported that the deal was made after fierce competition of bidders at the auction. The price finally reached 40.32 million yuan or above 5 million US dollars to make the work the most expensive of Chen Yifei's and also a record among domestic oil paintings.2,000 paintings and sculpture works auctioned in this spring sale.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/culture_history/news/11020710/20070514/images/14094166_374497.jpg[/img]

Shaolin Kong-fu performances attract visitors

Shaolin martial monks practise Kong-fu on a wall of embossments depicting martial arts moves at the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, central China's Henan Province, May

[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/culture_history/news/11020710/20070511/images/14089417_2007051109312630407400.jpg[/img]

Rice: No new Cold War between U.S., Russia

Rice arrived in Moscow on Monday for a two-day visit, aimed at easing tensions triggered by a series of disputes between the two nations.   "I know people talk about and throw around terms like new Cold War. As somebody who came out of that period as a specialist in it I think the parallels...frankly, have no basis whatsoever," the top U.S. diplomat told reporters.  "It's not an easy time for the relationship. It's not. But it's also not a time in which I think any sort of cataclysmic things are happening," she added.
Rice and Russian officials were expected to discuss bilateral and international issues, including Iran's nuclear issue, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Kosovo and U.S. plans to deploy anti-missile components in central Europe, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
They will also make arrangements for a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush on the sidelines of a G8 summit next month in Germany, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/international/11020308/20070515/images/11020308_1179187218338_1.jpg[/img]

Discovering Tutankhamun

The belated discovery of Tutenkhamun’s tomb is an archeological epic and the stuff of legend-as well as vindicating the maxim “if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”. Howard Carter had been searching for a missing tomb in the Valley of the Kings for five years and had already mounted five unsuccessful expeditions. Having persuaded his patient patron Lord Carnavon to finance a final bid, Carter returned to Egypt in 1922 for a last-ditch effort. On November 4 a water carrier trying to secure his water jug came across an unusual rock-a step, actually. Feverish excavation followed revealing the tomb entrance. That very day Carter’s canary was killed by a cobra-symbol of the pharaohs-thus launching the legend of their enduring curse.It took Carter and his team weeks to explore the complex. This despite it being unusually small for a king’s tomb, with its cramped rock-cut corridors.


[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/tourism/news/11020847/20070426/images/14066671_2007042615151347067200.jpg[/img]

Special：Mark Berthold's Works

King Tut’s abrupt and unexpected death-still a source of speculation-had required the appropriation of a mere courtier’s unfinished tomb. Although the outer rooms had been looted long ago, the burial chamber itself remained untouched: the first intact royal tomb ever discovered. It displays Egypt’s preoccupation with eternity. Egyptian’s believed, like many still, that man like the sun could die and be reborn. To protect the deceased’s body and house the soul throughout eternity they constructed elaborate tombs. On their monuments they left testimonies to their faith and their books of the dead as guides to immortality. Wall paintings were to help the dead king reach the afterlife as they supplied answers to questions he would be asked and spells to deflect dangers along the way. So here we see wailing women bidding farewell to the royal occupant of the coffin.

[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/tourism/news/11020847/20070426/images/14066671_2007042615151359647500.jpg[/img]

that it restores the breath of life to he or she who has

More oblique are the hieroglyphic symbols and their decoding required the discovery of the Rosetta stone during Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. These photos of mine were taken without flash and the low-light conditions required a stabilizing tripod or the shutter speed would have been too slow to avoid camera shake and consequent blurring of the fine details displayed.Fame is funny thing. King Tut died around 1300BC aged just 19 but having already ruled Egypt for almost a decade as half man, half god. Yet as Ramses the Great later appropriated Tut’s contribution to the monuments at Karnak, the only undisturbed historic evidence of Tut’s role remains on the walls of his tomb. The Egyptians believed that to speak the name of the dead is to make them live again; that it restores the breath of life to he or she who has vanished. If so King Tut is very much alive and well and when the exhibition of treasures Tutankhamen and the Golden age of the Pharaohs [[url]http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tut/[/url]] reaches London it is likely to eclipse the two million visitors attending the last such show there in 1972. Long live the King!

[img]http://english.china.com/zh_cn/tourism/news/11020847/20070426/images/14066671_2007042615151370186200.jpg[/img]