新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2013/08/09（打印版）

Special reports takes a look at the decline of bookstores here in China as digital books gain popularity.

Beijing will be sunny today, with a high of 35 degree Celsius in the daytime, and it will be clear tonight with a low of 24.

In Shanghai, it will be sunny today, 40 the high, and it will be clear tonight, the low of 30 degrees Celsius.

Lhasa will see showers in the daytime the temperature's at 27, and tonight will be clear with a low of 13 degree Celsius.

In Shanghai, it's now the fourth consecutive day in which the city's temperatures are expected to climb above 40 degrees Celsius.

Su Yongfa, a 23-year-old tourist from central China's Hubei said he was not prepared for the high temperatures. 　　

"My deepest impression is it is so hot in Shanghai. It is not only just hot, the heat wave this year lingers longer. It would be so nice to have some rain, that would cool it off. It is baking hot here, and my feet are already on fire."

The meteorological observatory of the provincial capital Wuhan issued its first red alert this year for high temperatures.

It is predicted that four cities in the province will likely see temperatures higher than 40 degrees Celsius today.

Meanwhile, seven provinces and municipalities including Chongqing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi and Fujian are forecast to see tempratures as high as 42 degrees Celsius within the next three days.

The heat wave has been baking the country's southern regions since July, creating water shortages, power supply worries and harvest concerns.

For its part, the ministry of civil affairs has earmarked 1.65 billion yuan to fight the drought and more cash will be used to aid relief efforts.

Muslims here in China and across the world are marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

In Beijing, thousands of Muslims have gathered in the city's largest mosque to mark the Eid ceremony with prayers.

"Today is a big day for Muslims across the world, I want to take this opportunity to send our greetings. 'Salam' to Muslims in different countries, Salam Aleikum."

This year's Muslim Food Festival has also been launched at the Niujie Mosque in Beijing, with 26 popular Muslim restaurants across the city taking their food to the festival.

The public holiday has been extended to five days in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, to allow Muslims to have more time to attend religious rituals and visit relatives.

The festival is also celebrated by the 150-thousand Muslims in Minxian and Zhangxian counties of Gansu Province which were hit by a major earthquake last month.

Over in Egypt, rival political camps have each held large gatherings to celebrate Eid.

"I am very sad about what is going on in Egypt. Today is Eid and the Egyptian people are divided into two sides, two different thoughts and it's a shame because both sides are Muslims. Regardless of being Muslim or Christians. We are doing our prayers here and the other camp is doing their prayers, and we both are Muslims."

While Muslims in Yemen pray for peace and safety as the government has just foiled an al-Qaeda plot to take over key cities in the south.

"The entire world is suffering from terrorism, not just Yemen. We have implemented many security plans and God willing those brave soldiers on the ground will achieve security and safety for Yemenis and the foreigners living in our country."

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has issued a new call for the Taliban to lay down its arms.

"Come and serve your soil and put down the weapon which the stranger has put on your shoulders and that you kill your people with. Put it down and serve your people."

The statement comes after a bomb attack killing at least 14 women and 2 children in a cemetery in the east.

During Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the year in the Muslim calendar, religious followers refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset to show their devotion to the faith.

31 people have died and over 50 others injured following a suicide bomb attack at a police officer's funeral in southwestern Pakistan.

The bombing happened when local policemen gathered to mourn an officier shot dead earlier that day in front of his children.

"There were dead bodies on the ground, 10 to 12 bodies lying on the ground. There were 10 to 15 people who were in a critical condition, and they were immediately taken to a combined military hospital."

The funeral was being held in an open field outside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.

Authorities say the bomber blew himself up with 10 kilogram of explosives on his jacket when policemen approached him for questioning.

The province of Balochistan is home to separatists who have been waging a low-level insurgency against the governments for decades.

The bombing comes a day before Muslims in Pakistan were to start celebrating the religious holiday of Eid that marks the end of month of fasting, Ramadan.

Israel has given preliminary approval for the construction of more than a thousand new apartments in occupied West Bank settlements.

This comes before Israeli and Palestinian negotiators head into the second round of their US-brokered peace talks in Jerusalem next Wednesday.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog said the move if greenlighted by the government could complicate the peace talks.

"The government of Israel through the civil administration, a military body in the IDF, approved over 1,000 housing units in the West Bank settlements. This puts into question Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu's true intentions going into the negotiations table."

Peace talks between the two sides previously broke down in 2010 over Israel's settlement construction.

The two sides only resumed negotiations last month, after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry manuvoured for months to get both back around the negotiation table.

On Sunday, the Israeli government put 91 settlements on a national priority funding list, it includes 9 from the West Bank.

Settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

A United Nation's report is now saying Colombia's coca cultivation has fallen by a quarter in the last year.

The UN report says the drop is due to manual eradication and the spraying of the plant from the air.

It also suggests a large number of coca farmers have moved onto to other illegal acitivities such as mining.

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon says the government plans to slash coca production even further this year.

"If we meet our goals this year, and we have to complete them, esteemed officials present here. That is to say, they must be met, because to complete them pays, has results, produces benefits for the country. If we meet these goals, surely we will be thinking next year to have about 30,000 hectares of coca."

Official data earlier this week showed Bolivia's cultivation fell for the second consecutive year in 2012.

This has forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes in the mountains.

The fire broke out Wednesday night and grew to more than 9 square miles within a few hours.

"Depending on what the wind does, it (the fire) could actually change direction as the cooling starts and starts moving in the opposite direction and as we move to that we definitely will have a different firefight on our hands."

The growing trend towards online education here in China is starting to raise questions about its effectiveness, and its overall viability.

While more and more people are choosing to take part in distance education in so-called Massive Online Open Courses, the drop-out rate for these programs is around 90-percent.

To that end, CRI's Zheng Chenguang spoke earlier with Lu Jingyan, Assistant Professor with the University of Hong Kong.

Lu Jingyan, Assistant Professor with the University of Hong Kong, speaking with CRI's Zheng Chenguang.

A memorial service has been held in Zhouqu County in Gansu Province to remember those who were killed in a massive mudslide there in 2010.

The deadly mudslide killed more than 14-hundred people and injured some 22-hundred others.

The slide also left around 15-thousand homeless, while at the same time, damaging around 60-thousand other homes.

The local government of Zhouqu Country launched the reconstruction as soon as the rescue effort came to an end.

Two new residential areas have been built in Zhouqu where over 3-thousand apartments are being provided to the relocated people of the town.

Precautionary systems for future geographic disasters have also been laid out in the region.

"We are able to broadcast the disaster warning massages though radio station and people can hear them from loudspeakers installed in many places amid the town. In emergency situations, I may turn on the warning system and speak through the microphone. Meanwhile, we can also send short messages to residents through mobile phone, or residents can report the disaster situations to the radio station and we broadcast them."

A mudslide drain has also been built as a precaution through the most seriously landslide-hit area in the Sanyan valley.

The artificial drain is over 2-kilometers-long, 18-meters-wide and 7-meters-deep, with 20 hectares of trees planted on the side of the valley.

The mountainous landscape and fragile soil conditions make Zhouqu an area vulnerable to mudslides.

Officials say the current situation in the area is partially caused by a lack of farmland.

However, plans to reclaim arable land from the local mountains have been rejected due to environmental concerns.

On the economic front, the four-week moving average of the number of Americans who initially applied for unemployment aid declined to the lowest level since November 2007.

In corporate news, Tesla Motors shares jumped 14.3-percent due to better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter.

Groupon shares also soared 21.6-percent thanks to an increase in second-quarter sales that topped market estimates.

Lender Commerzbank and insurer Aviva led a rally among financial shares after their first-half updates.

Let's check in with some of the key events on the corporate front in China this week.

Doug Young joins me on the line, associate professor at Fudan University and former China company news chief at Reuters.

The WeChat platform, a mobile social networking application developed by Tencent, China's largest Internet company by market capitalization, released its version 5.0 on Monday.

The new features of WeChat 5.0 include social games, scanner tools and most importantly payment integration.

The WeChat payment function can integrate bank accounts with a customer's WeChat account.

It allows WeChat's more than 300 million users to make purchases on several e-commerce platforms.

Last month Tencent had announced a partnership with China Unicom to launch the nation's first subscriber identification module card customized for WeChat.

The partnership is also the first tie up between a telecommunications carrier and an Internet company.

The SIM card provides online top-up services, more traffic volume and faster Internet access to WeChat users.

1)Would the newly added payment app of Tencent be a threat to Alipay's dominant role in E-commerce market?

2)Talking about competition in the tech and communication field, we saw previously Chinese telecom carriers blamed Tencent for creating a lot of Internet traffic. But now one of the major carriers has established partnership with Tencent. How would you explain the change? Do we expect more of this kind of partnership in the future?

Huawei will establish a London-based team to manage the Chinese telecoms manufacturer's international finances.

The office, to be based in the City, will carry out a broad range of financial activities, including treasury and risk management functions.

The company has hired several senior bankers to run the office and has quietly begun recruiting in the City for the team.

Huawei confirmed the center in London is part of its 1.3 billion pound investment in the UK market.

1)Why does Huawei want to open a branch in London, given the higher cost and potential entry barriers overseas?

2)With the overseas expansion, do we expect any changes with the company's products and business?

Doug Young, associate professor at Fudan University and former China company news chief at Reuters.

The General Administration of Customs is reporting exports have increased 5.1-pecent through this past month to just under 186-billion US dollars.

"Exports are driven by the recovering demand from international markets while the surge on imports shows domestic economy is gradually bouncing back, thus helped the double digit increase in home-grown demand."

There was an overwhelming improvement in commodity imports last month, with iron ore jumping 17 percent from June.

In Shanghai, it's now the fourth consecutive day in which the city's temperatures are expected to climb above 40 degrees Celsius.

Also the meteorological observatory of Wuhan issued its first red alert this year for high temperatures.

Chinese government confirms a fleet from the China Coast Guard has recently been patrolling waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei says the patrols are designed to "exercise China's inherent sovereignty" over the Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islets.

Hong Lei also says the fleet spotted a Japanese vessel which is believed to belong to a right-wing Japanese politician illegally sailing in the region.

It merges China's maritime law enforcement functions of four agencies responsible for fisheries administration, maritime surveillance, customs enforcement and border control.

Taiwan authorities are planning to cancel the sanctions they had been applying against the Philippines.

The announcement comes after Philippine investigators recommended homicide charges be laid against 8 coast guard officers involved in the fatal shooting of a fisherman from Taiwan in May.

The Philippine investigation has determined the coast guard personnel were not in enough danger to justify firing on the fisherman's boat.

Those to face homicide charges include the coast guard patrol's commanding officer and seven of his crew.

Authorities on Taiwan have been imposing sanctions on the Philippines to rebuff the Philippines' initial response to the killing.

As part of the sanctions, authorities froze the hiring of Filipino workers and discouraged travel to the Philippines.

The General Administration of Customs is reporting exports have increased 5.1-pecent through this past month to just under 186-billion US dollars.

A survey of nearly 5000 Shanghai residents has found that 53.3 percent prefer reading books to reading digitally, though the latter has jumped in popularity this year.

The proportion of people who prefer reading on devices like tablet computers and e-readers was up 14.6 percentage points from the previous year's survey.

Thursday marks the opening of this year's Naadam Festival in Xilin Gol, situated on the grasslands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Featuring a range of sporting and artistic events, the Naadam fair is the region's largest traditional festival, and this year's event involved around 3,000 athletes from across the region.

Hong Kong prosecutors are demanding a heavier sentence for a former government official from China's mainland who strangled a stray cat to death.

The 48-year-old man was given a jail term of three months for animal cruelty on Friday. Animal activists called the sentence a "humiliation" of justice.

The region's Department of Justice appealed for a review and a hearing will be scheduled.

Qingdao Agricultural University publicized the list of rare plants and their location to raise the awareness of protection among the public, but citizens used the information for personal gain and caused new damage to the few rare species.

The plants were assumed to be taken for personal collections, to be sold for profit or eaten.

A 62-year-old teacher was detained on suspicion of raping seven underage girls in Jiangxi province.

Six of the girls, aged from 8 to 9, were diagnosed with venereal diseases and have been hospitalized.

It was widely speculated that the giant rubber duck would make its debut on the Chinese mainland at the Summer Palace on Sept 16. But the Beijing Design Week committee said the time and location of the debut has not yet been confirmed.

The big rubber duck is a well-known floating sculpture. The previous showcase in Hong Kong caused widespread sensation in China.

A man with facial tumors was manipulated into begging passersby to pay 10 yuan to pose alongside him for photos in Shenzhen, claiming to use money to cure his facial tumors.

The man said he was trying to "sell ugliness" He appealed for passersby to take photos with him that would "emphasize their beauty." But the ruse was later exposed to be scam plotted by a begging mastermind.

With online book transactions and e-reading becoming increasingly popular here in China, many of this country's bricks and mortar bookstores are struggling to stay afloat.

On top of this, the surging property market is also making their survival even more difficult.

The first Jifeng Bookstore opened in 1997. The brand used to have 8 franchises and was known as Shanghai's cultural landmark, but now, only two remain.

"Last year, the rent of our bookstore exceeded our maximum budget. We were still trying to make it through, but if the rent rises again, we won't be able to."

A similar situation is taking place in Nanjing, Mou Bingwen is the manager of Popular Bookmall in Nanjing.

"The biggest problems are the soaring rent in the context of a downtrend market and the rising cost of labor resources."

Obviously, the popularization of online book buying and the changing of people's reading habits have also placed significant pressure on traditional bookstores. More readers are now reading on electronic books, mobile phones or gadgets such as iPads.

Meanwhile, some bricks and mortre bookstores can survive by initiating new modes of operation. One Popular Bookmall store in Shanghai is being promoted as a women themed bookstore. Another bookstore brand, One-way Street Bookstore is gaining popularity through holding cultural activities.

"We carefully select each book and we hold high-standard public welfare cultural salons each weekend: these are our specialties."

More than 500 salons have been held at One-way Street Bookstore in the past seven years. And One-way Street also uses Weibo as an effective platform to attract many mobile internet uses.

Another bookstore, Fenglinwan turns their focus to meet the specific demand from enterprises. By making customized libraries for enterprises, Fenglinwan also stepped out of the traditional, single operating mode.

An economic commentator with CCTV says that the government should provide preferential policies to these bricks and mortor bookstores. But it's not just a matter of giving subsidies, there should be a focus on restoring the habit of enjoying paper books among the public and the atmosphere provided by bookstores.

It's been a solid day for Chinese compeditors this Thursday at the World Badminton Championships taking place in Guangzhou.

Chinese men's singles star Lin Dan was victorious today, taking out Malaysia's Chong Wei Feng in straight sets, 22-20, 21-10.

2nd seeded Chen Long only needed 49-minutes to dispatch Malaysia's Darin Liew 21-18, 21-15.

He was hammered this afternoon by world number-1 Malaysian Lee Chong Wei 21-12, 27-7.

On the women's singles side, top seeded Li Xuerui is easily through to the next round.

It was 6th seeded Tai Tzu-ying from Taiwan downing Bulgaria's Linda Zetchiri 21-13, 21-16.

Hong Kong's Yip Pui-yin is done. The 16th seed was bounced by Thailand's 4th ranked Intanon Ratchanok in straight sets.

In Men's doubles, it was the Chinese duo of Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng taking down a Malaysian pair in straight sets.

In women's doubles action, it was the Chinese team of Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang hammering South Korea's Lee Hee-so and Shin Chan-seung 21-7, 21-3.

On the mixed doubles bracket, it was second-seeded Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei dispatching a duo from Indonesia in straight sets.

China's Li Na has secured her quarterfinals spot from a tie-break at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

It is after a hard-fought battle against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic, winning 3-6, 6-1, 7-6.

Zheng Jie was ousted in the first round by Germany's Mona Barthel in the singles match.

Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant has once again delighted fans in Shanghai, his last stop of summer China's tour.

The five-times NBA champion watched a skills competition and awarded autographed T-shirts to the winners.

"It's my first time to see Kobe in person. I feel so excited and happy. But it's a pity that I didn't catch a basketball. But I'm satisfied to see him. I hope Kobe will come to China again and I can meet him more often. I wish Kobe will recover from his injury as early as possible then he can get the dream sixth champion."

"I'm so excited because I was so close to him today. Although I did not get his signature, it did not diminish any love for him. We loved him for so many years, from 2000 until now. We are satisfied to see him play basketball."

The 34-year-old LA Lakers player had surgery on an injured Achilles tendon in April.

Bryant is due to be the highest-paid player in the NBA next season at $30.5 million.

He started his tour of China last Saturday in Hong Kong, then visited Shenzhen and Xi'an before finishing in Shanghai.

The iconic Luzhniki arena will host the 14th edition of the IAAF World Championships

Tomorrow thousands of athletes, coaches, and fans will descend on Moscow to take part in the 2013 World Athletics Championships.

The 14th session of the IAAF World Championships will take place in the Grand Arena, the centerpiece of the sprawling Luzhniki sports complex.

Anzhelika Biryukova, who works in the PR department at the Luzhniki venue, said the stadium has a long tradition of playing host to prestigious sporting events.

"The Grand Sports Arena was opened in 1956, so our arena is quite old already. Since 1956 it was renovated 3 times – for the 1980 summer Olypics, for Moscow's 850th anniversary in 1997, and for the UEFA Champion's League final game in 2008."

After numerous renovations throughout the years, Russia's top sports venue is classified as an "elite stadium".

"The stadium must have refreshment rooms, toilet rooms, coat-check rooms. There are special requirements for changing rooms, the athlete's area, the VIP-guests lounge, the press center, TV-studios must be available, We must have a doping-control room, there are quite a few parameters used to evaluate the category of the stadium."

The World Athletics Championships will be the last major event staged at the Luzhniki arena, before it closes to undergo several years' worth of renovations ahead of the 2018 football world cup.

Lee is best known for movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the recent Oscar-winning Life of Pi.

The new film will be an epic look at the world of boxing in the 1960s and 1970s, as seen through the eyes of its biggest rivalries and greatest fights.

The series of iconic fights, connected by a single narrative, will include Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier's 'Thrilla in Manila'.

A young Chinese director has conquered fierce competition to make it into the shortlist for the Venice Film Festival's Horizon Award.

28 year old Wang Xiaowei's short film "Backwater" is the only mainland entry to be selected as a finalist for the prestigious award.

Previous Chinese directors to make the cut include Jia Zhang Ke, who took home best screeplay for "A touch of Sin" at this year's Cannes.

"Backwater" is only Wang's second ever production and centres on a painter's dialogue with a taxi driver on a hot Beijing afternoon.

The Horizone Award will be presented at 70th Venice International Film Festival, which will run from August 28 to September 7.

Mary Poppins inspired movie 'Saving Mr Banks', is to close this year's London Film Festival late October.

Directed by John Lee Hancock, the film stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as author PL Travers.

The story depicts the war of wills between Disney and Travers over the best way to bring Poppins to the big screen.

London Film Festival is to open with another Tom Hanks movie, maritime drama 'Captain Phillips'.

Hanks stars as Richard Phillips, the US sailor taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009.

Hanks is already attracting Oscar attention for both roles in 'Saving Mr Banks' and 'Captain Phillips'.

'Captain Phillips' world premiere will take place at the New York Film Festival on 27th September.

Niall Horan revealed that his "footballing hero" brought his children to see the band perform at the Staples Centre.

One Direction are playing a total of four dates in the Californian city as part of the North American leg of their 'Take Me Home' Tour, ahead of concerts in Australia and New Zealand.

The boyband met Cristiano Ronaldo and other Real Madrid stars earlier this year, with Horan describing the experience as "very exciting".

Their upcoming movie One Direction: This Is Us opens on August 29 in the UK and on August 30 in the US.

Green Day have been cleared for using an image during their 2009 tour that closely resembled work by illustrator Dereck Seltzer.

The artist designed 'Scream Icon' back in 2003, and the image has since appeared on posters and street art throughout Los Angeles.

Green Day adapted the scene for a video backdrop during their rendition of 'East Jesus Nowhere'.

The judge acknowledged that Green Day's use of 'Scream Icon' was fair, and was "transformative and not overly commercial".

The band did not include the artwork on any of their merchandise or promotional material, which worked in their favour.

The 9th Circuit did overturn a $201,000 payment of the attorney's fees to Green Day.

They stated that, even though Seltzer lost, he had not been "objectively unreasonable" by suing.

新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2013/08/09（在线收听）