News & Reports 2010-11-13

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In This Edition

The 16th Asian Games opens in central Guangzhou in a blaze of pyrotechnics as China staged the biggest sporting gala since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Leaders of the G20 group of major economies agree to come up with "indicative guidelines" to tackle the trade imbalances affecting global growth.

Iraq's parliament has approved the key leadership positions, in the first step toward forming a new government.

Chinese medical experts caution the widespread use of antibiotics 1 is making more and more of us prone 2 to the so-called superbugs.

Hot Issue Reports

Asian Games sets sail on Pearl River

The 16th Asian Games has opened in spectacular fashion on the banks of the Pearl River in the Chinese city of Guangzhou Friday night.

This is the biggest sporting gala since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The much-anticipated opening ceremony lived up to the hype, with a four-hour festival of fireworks, aero-acrobatics and pageantry.

Chinese Premier 3 Wen Jiabao declared open of the games.

"I declare the sixteenth Asian Games open."

The extravaganza drew on Guangzhou's rich maritime 4 history and indigenous 5 Ling Nan culture in a purpose-built arena 6 nestled on a small island on the Pearl River, decked out with a water stage, giant screens, fountains and the city's skyline behind it.

Chinese Olympic diving champion He Chong ignited a giant firework whose flare 7 shot up and lit the cauldron.

Before the lighting 8 of the cauldron, the team of Afghanistan headed the athlete parade, which was concluded by host China with Olympic women's rowing champion Jin Ziwei as the flag bearer.

People were amazed by the firework display of the ceremony.

"Today is the opening day of the Guangzhou Asian Games. I heard there would be a grand fireworks display and thousands of fireworks would be set off, so I came here with several friends. It was amazing and so beautiful."

"I came late because I travelled all the way here from Shenzhen just to see the fireworks. It was so beautiful, especially the one with a red frame and a yellow star inside. It is a symbol of our country."

The Asian Games run from Nov. 12-27 with around 10,000 athletes from 45 countries taking part in 42 sports.

G20 reach "indicative" guidelines on currency and recovery

Leaders of the G20 group of major economies have agreed to come up with "indicative guidelines" to tackle the trade imbalances affecting world growth.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Voice objection to US Monetary 9 decision

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang is joining a number of other world leaders in voicing strong objection to United States' recent decision to buy 600 billion US dollars in US Treasuries 10.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's APEC leaders meeting, Tsang says that the possibility of an economic "tsunami 11" is a real danger.

"Please don't think that I am overly optimistic about the recovery.　On the contrary, I'm pretty much concerned about impact of the US second round of quantitative 12 easing on Asian economies."

Tsang also suggests that we could possibly see a repeate of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990's if things go bad.

"You can see rapidly emerging bubbles in different pockets of Asia.　And if any one of these bubbles burst, in whatever countries we have in here, whether it is in the securities market, or whether it is in the property market, it will be highly infectious."

The APEC economic talks are scheduled to start Saturday.

Maliki reappointed Iraqi prime minister

Iraq's parliament has approved the key leadership positions, in the first step toward forming a new government.

This comes after a breakthrough deal ending the eight-month political deadlock 13 in Iraq.

Jalal Talabani has now been re-elected as the Kurdish Iraqi president, despite a walk-out by members of Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc 14 led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

"I swear to abide 15 by article 76B of the constitution, to assign the post of prime minister to the candidate of the largest block in the parliament, which is the Alliance Block. Therefore, I shall ask my dear and capable brother, Dr Nouri al-Maliki to form the new cabinet."

Maliki remains 16 prime minister, ending an impasse 17 that is believed to have been exaserbating sectarian violence in Iraq.

The deal on the top government posts brings together Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds in a power-sharing arrangement. But the walkout by Allawi underlines the Sunni minority's reluctance 18 about the deal, which ensures continued Shiite domination.

But for average Iraqis, most just are just glad to see the stalemate end.

"Today, the parliament holds the first session. And we hope that the new government will be good and benefit the Iraqi people. And we hope that the new government will be fair with Iraqi citizens."

"The formation of a new government is a great accomplishment 19. I hope that it is a good step forward to solve all crises Iraq is passing through, God willing."

The Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition 20 won the most seats in the March parliamentary elections, but not a majority, which is why the situation has remained unsettled.

A new government won't be formally in place for several weeks.

Karachi CID building attack funerals to be held

Funerals were set to be held for the victims of Thursday's attack on the anti-terrorist police headquarters in Karachi, which left 20 dead.

Investigators 21 are sifting 22 through the debris 23 and examining internal video footage at the site.

A truck filled with explosives slammed into the Criminal Investigation 24 Department building last night and then blew up.

The building is used to hold and interrogate 25 militants 26, including those from banned organisations. It's not clear how many were inside at the time.

Many houses in the surrounding area were damaged by the blast.

Naeem Butt's house in front of the CID building was destroyed by the force of the blast.

"We were in the house when this incident took place. All of a sudden, around 8:15 in the evening, I heard sound of a heavy gunfire. There were also small explosions of hand grenades. The firing continued for 8 to 10 minutes. Then suddenly there was this blast. Our house collapsed 27 with the explosion. When we got out of the house, we saw everything engulfed 28 in a cloud of dust."

The group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation 29 for U.S. air strikes in the country's northwest tribal 30 areas.

EU budget talks stalled over austerity calls

European Union nations and the EU parliament have failed to agree on a new budget for the 27-member bloc, with member countries calling for spending restraint.

The European Parliament is demanding a 6.2 percent increase in the budget, while the maximum that is going to be allowed by Britain and ten other member states is 2.9 percent.

Belgian State Secretary Melchior Wathelet chaired the meeting.

"Discussions on the 2011 budget have been particularly encouraging but as you can understand other political considerations are attached to the budget, and to these we haven't found a solution so no global agreement on all issues."

Britain is now pushing through deep cuts in its own public spending, and all other EU member nations have been curbing 31 their spending as well to meet the challenges of the financial crisis.

The EU budget currently hovers 32 around 130 billion billion Euros, and is primarily used to fund agriculture and aid programmes to the EU's poorer regions.

Talks between the two sides will continue on Monday, when they will face a midnight deadline.

Food Prices Drive Up CPI

With inflation surging here in China, many are now watching helplessly as their grocery budget errodes before their eyes. CRI"s Liu Min reports what's causing the spike 33 in food prices, and what the government is proposing to do about it.

Experts Call for Stop of Antibiotics Abuse

With winter weather now starting to set in, particularly here in northern China, a medical expert says that while China has entered the annual peak period for the flu, the chances of a large-scale outbreak are low.

Despite this, experts are still cautioning that the widespread use of antibiotics is making more and more of us prone to the so-called superbugs.

Chinese vase fetches US$69 million at UK auction 34

An 18th century Chinese porcelain 35 vase discovered when a house was being cleared out has been sold in a London auction for some 69 million US dollars.

Bainbridges, the auction house, says the final price for the 16-inch vase - an imperially-commissioned piece decorated with a fish motif 36 - far exceeded the pre-auction estimate of around 2 million dollars.

The final amount is thought to be the highest ever paid for any Chinese artwork sold at auction.

Luan Grocholski is a valuer with Bainbridge.

"The more I looked at it, the better it became, so that was the point at which I said if this is real we're into millions."

After fierce competition among potential Chinese buyers, the vase was eventually bought by a Chinese bidder 37, who turned up to bid on behalf of an undisclosed buyer.

The auction house - a small, independent company in London that runs auctions 38 and valuations for people clearing their homes - says the vase is of exceptional quality and that it knew the estimated price was "a bit conservative."

Media Digest

From the Shanghai Daily: The Chinese cyber buzzword "geili" - which describes something as "cool," "awesome 39" or "exciting" - has received an "official seal of approval" with an appearance in the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

"Geili" was featured in a headline on the front page of People's Daily this week. While the meaning was slightly different, in the newspaper it meant "empower," millions of people online here in China now seem delighted and surprised to see it used by the Party newspaper.

Online jargon 40 is usually considered too casual for standard written language, and is thus excluded from language guidelines.

"Geili" is created from two Chinese characters "gei" and "li." Literally 41, it means "giving power," but is now widely accepted as an adjective describing something that's "cool."

From Cell Magazine: A group of Austrian and U.S. scientists have now identified a gene 42 that could affect human susceptibility to pain.

The gene was uncovered while they conducted genetic 43 screens in fruit flies. Of the 600 pain-related genes 44, the scientists zeroed in on those with mutations that appeared to be specific to pain. Finally, a gene called alpha 2 delta 45 3 was chosen for further study.

Studies of mice lacking alpha 2 delta 3 demonstrated that this gene controls sensitivity to noxious 46 heat in mammals as well as flies.