In This Edition

 

Provinces along China's eastern coast have been alerted as tropical storm Meari, which is expected to be upgraded to a typhoon, approaches from the south.

 

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has arrived in Hungary to start his three-nation European tour, which will also include the United Kingdom and Germany.

 

US House of Representatives rejects a resolution that would authorize continued American military involvement in Libya, but fails to bar funding for mission in the North African nation.

 

The Year of Chinese Culture in Australia, the largest series of cultural events initiated by the Chinese Government to date, officially opens in Sydney.

 

 

Hot Issue Reports

 

Tropical Storm Triggers Floods in Philippines

Eleven people are missing in the Philippines and nearly 50,000 residents have fled to evacuation centers after Tropical Storm Meari triggered flash floods and rough seas.

 

Rubber boats and trucks were deployed to ferry stranded commuters and rescue residents near swollen rivers and low-lying areas.

 

Classes have been suspended, government offices shut, and dozens of flights cancelled.

 

Disaster officials are monitoring water levels in dams and opening the gates of several points that have reached critical level.

 

Evacuee Jane Rose Fernandez expressed her worries.

 

"The floodwater in our place is very high. We are scared, especially at nighttime, and it will be much harder to evacuate at night."

 

Administrator Benito Ramos from the Office of Civil Defense said heavy rains since Thursday have flooded a wide swath of metropolitan Manila and the northern Philippines.

 

Some 5,000 of those forced to evacuate live near the capital, and thousands of commuters have been stranded.

 

A weather bureau official said as of Friday, Meari was about 200 miles east of Basco in the northern Batanes Province, heading northeast toward Japan.

 

The official said rains are expected to continue in Manila and nearby provinces until Saturday, when Meari is forecast to be 311 miles northeast of Basco and on its way out of the country.

 

Tropical Storm Approaches, 26 Killed in SW China Floods

Meanwhile, provinces along China's eastern coast are on alert as the tropical storm approaches and may upgrade to a typhoon.

 

The storm is expected to sweep the northeast part of the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea over the next few days.

 

Formed over an area of ocean located east of the Philippines, the northward-moving Meari is forecasted to be the first typhoon to hit China's coastal regions this year.

 

Zong Zhi-ping, chief weather forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, has issued a warning for local governments to stay vigilant.

 

"In the future, we should pay particular attention to the impact of the fifth tropical storm-Meari on China's eastern coastal regions. Local authorities should be prepared for possible heavy or even torrential rains brought by Meari."

 

Meanwhile, rain-triggered floods have left 26 people dead and 10 others missing in China's southwestern regions over the last four days.

 

Disaster relief authorities say strong floods, plus ensuing landslides and mudslides, have battered wide areas of four provincial-level regions including Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.

 

More than 4 million residents have been affected, and 140,000 have been evacuated. The direct economic loss is estimated to reach 1.5 billion yuan or 240 million U.S. dollars.

 

Wen's Visit to Three European Countries: Expectation

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has arrived in Hungary to start his three-nation European tour, which will also include the United Kingdom and Germany.

 

In recent years, China and Europe have become hot destinations for the two sides top leaders in recent years, as EU and China crank up their cooperation in a broad range of areas.

 

For more on what we can expect from Wen Jiabao's trip to Europe this time, CRI's Zheng Chenguang spoke with Professor Feng Zhongping, Director of the Institute of European Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

 

US House Mixed Votes on US Involvement in Libya

The U.S. House of Representatives has sent mixed messages on American involvement in Libya.

 

In two back-to-back votes, the House first rejected a largely symbolic measure which would authorize President Barack Obama to continue U.S. involvement in the military operation in Libya.　

 

Republican Ted Poe of Texas voiced his opposition to the measure.

 

"Even the administration has said it's not in the national security interests of the United States to be in Libya. So why are we there? We're there because we don't like Gadhafi. Well, there are a lot of bad guys in the world, and if we start picking them off one at a time, we will be at war with most of the world."

 

The vote marked the first time since 1999 that either chamber has voted against a president's authority to carry out a military operation. The last time was to limit President Bill Clinton's authority to use ground forces in Kosovo.

 

But some Democrats accused the Republicans of playing politics with national security. They said the vote would send the wrong message to Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi and American allies.

 

Less than two hours later, the House turned back a Republican-led effort to cut off money for U.S. military involvement in Libya.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has welcomed the House rejection of the second vote, which would have barred drone attacks and airstrikes in Libya if passed.

 

Syrians Express Support for President

Dozens of supporters of Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad have rallied in front of a camera crew from Sky News in the capital Damascus.

 

The government has banned all but a few foreign journalists and restricted reporting by local media.

 

Participants at the rally were outspoken in their support for the embattled president.

 

"We all, all the people, love President Assad, not because he is President Assad, but because he is a good man, a very good man in Syria. All the young people like me, we are all the same age as President Assad, so we know what he thinks, what he wants to do in Syria, and we all believe him."

 

"We don't want anyone, any other countries, to give us orders. We know what our duties are, what our rights are. No one has the right to give us an order - America, Germany or Britain."

 

In a speech last Monday, Assad said protests calling for his ouster threatened to damage the Syrian economy.

 

For now, Assad can count on the support of Syria's small but growing middle class, which has seen life gradually improve since he began opening up the economy.

 

But if the economy crumbles, Assad's main base of support could erode swiftly.

 

Elsewhere on Friday, thousands of Syrian protesters poured down city streets and a main highway to press their demands for Assad's ouster.

 

Activists said security forces opened fire, killing at least 15 people, including two children.

 

Ukraine's Ex-PM Goes on Trial

Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has gone on trial on charges of abuse of office.

 

Tymoshenko insists the charges are a plot by President Viktor Yanukovych to bar her from upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

 

Tymoshenko was charged with abuse of office for signing a deal with Russia in 2009 to buy natural gas at prices investigators said were too high and without authorization by the members of her Cabinet.

 

Tymoshenko denies the charges, saying that she didn't need such permission as Prime Minister.

 

"The gas crisis is over because I managed to negotiate with Prime Minister Putin. We reached an agreement for Ukraine to have a 20-percent discount on the price and to have eleven billion cubic meters of gas at the price of 153.9 U.S. dollars per cubic meter. This would enable Ukraine to get out of the crisis, and we retained these favorable conditions for two years."

 

In early 2009, Russia cut off its gas supplies to Ukraine during a dispute over gas prices and accused the latter of stealing gas, which was transported via Ukraine for EU countries.

 

Russia then decided to reduce its gas exports via Ukraine, making many EU countries suffer gas shortages during the cold winter.

 

Tymoshenko was one of the central figures in the 2004 mass protests dubbed the Orange Revolution that threw out Yanukovych's fraud-tainted election victory.

 

In early 2010, she set her sights on the post of president but lost to Yanukovych in a bitterly personal contest.

 

Obama's New Initiative to Boost Manufacturing Sector

U.S. President Barack Obama launched an initiative on Friday to develop new manufacturing jobs by teaming government up with companies and universities to invest more than $500 million in advanced technologies.

 

Obama visited Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to launch the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, known as AMP, which aims to speed up the development of a new generation of American-made, high-technology products.

 

The White House noted that major new technologies in the past were commercialized into vast industries with the help of government-university-company partnerships. It hopes the AMP will produce similar results.　

 

The program will leverage existing federal funds and future federal departmental budgets to invest with industry some $300 million to jumpstart domestic manufacturing capabilities seen as critical to U.S. national security. Initial public-private investment areas include batteries, composites, metal fabrication, biotechnology and alternative energy.

 

Obama highlighted the significance of the initiative.

 

"This new partnership that we've created will make sure tomorrow's breakthroughs are American breakthroughs.　We're teaming up to foster the kind of collaborative research and development that resulted in those same early discoveries and to create the kind of innovation infrastructure necessary to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the market more rapidly, all of which will make our businesses more competitive and create new high-quality manufacturing jobs."

 

Obama is rolling out the initiative as the U.S. unemployment rate remains at a stubbornly high 9.1 percent, and initial claims for state unemployment benefits are ticking higher after months of decline.

 

The U.S. economy is struggling to gain traction against high energy prices, a still-depressed housing market, tight credit conditions and headwinds from Europe's debt crisis.

 

Australia's Chinese Cultural Year Opens in Sydney

The Year of Chinese Culture in Australia, the largest series of cultural events initiated by the Chinese Government in Australia to date, officially opens in Sydney on Friday.

 

CRI's Liu Yan earlier talked to our Sydney correspondent Chen Xi about the event.

 

Peng Shuai Beats UK No. 1 to Reach Third Round at Wimbledon

Peng Shuai has become the only Chinese player to reach the third round of women' singles at Wimbledon. The 20th seed defeated Britain's No. 1 Elena Baltacha 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Our London correspondent Tu Yun filed this report from Wimbledon.

 

This is the second time the two has met on court. It seems to be a reproduction of the match on hard court in Thailand earlier this year except that the third set here took longer time.

 

Peng Shuai missed three match points before finally wrapping it up after Baltacha blasted into the net.

 

"It's harder because she enjoyed some home advantages here."

 

Other major seeds including Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Maria Sharapova of Russia, and Venus Williams are all safe through. But second-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia was ousted by Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

 

In men's singles, 8th-seeded Andy Roddick was crushed by Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, whom the American had never lost to in their seven meetings prior to this tournament.

 

Lopez says it's his best performance in a Grand Slam.

 

"It's definitely great win for me. I beat couple great players in Wimbledon in the last 10 years. But to beat Andy in this court is very special, of course. I would say maybe the best probably."

 

While some are casting doubts over Roddick's ability to hang on there, the three-time Wimbledon runner-up says he won't quit, at least for now.

 

"It's just the way it goes in sports sometimes. If it was predictable, it would be like watching a DVD. What do you do? You keep moving forward until you decide to stop. At this point I've not decided to stop. So I'll keep moving forward."

 

Other major players including fourth-seeded Andy Murray and seventh-seeded David Ferrer all secured a place in the last 16.

 

For CRI, I'm Tu Yun reporting from Wimbledon.

 

Newspaper Picks

 

China Daily: China's Red Cross Society is under scrutiny on the web today after a 20-year old woman posted pictures of herself on Weibo next to what she claimed are her Maserati and Lamborgini cars, along with other expensive items. The reason she has caught so much attention is because she claims to work for a company called Red Cross Commerce working as the general manager handling advertising on Red Cross Vehicles. Netizens are outraged with many people demanding an explanation to her wealth. Some are saying they won't donate to the Red Cross again. The Red Cross says the company she claims to work for does not exist and they do not have an employee going by the woman's name.