新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2016/02/12（在线收听）

The Beijing Hour

Morning Edition

Bob Jones with you this Friday February 12th 2016. Day Five of the Spring Festival holiday

Welcome to the Beijing Hour, live from the Chinese capital.

Coming up on the program.

China's Central Government expresses support for the Hong Kong Authorities to guarantee public safety after recent rioting.

Researchers in America prove Einstein right again, with the discovery of Gravitational Waves

Total shutdown of the jointly run Kaesong Business Park as tensions continue to rise over North Korea's rocket launch.

In Sport - Hebei China Fortune on the brink of signing Ezekial Lavezzi from Paris Saint-Germain.

And in Entertainment - the stars turn out in force for the Berlinale film festival.

All that coming up in the next 30-minutes....

In the 2nd half of the hour, we'll bring you a special edition of People In the Know.

Top

Chinese central government supports HKSAR in safeguarding social security: FM spokesperson

China's Foreign Ministry says the central government firmly supports the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and the police in safeguarding public safety.

Spokesperson Hong Lei made the remarks on Thursday evening in response to the riot that erupted in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on Tuesday.

He said in the statement that the riot had been plotted mainly by a local radical separatist organization.

The spokesperson added the central government would support the Hong Kong police in protecting local residents and property, as well as punishing illegal and criminal activities in accordance with the law.

On Tuesday morning, some rioters barricaded the street, set fires, damaged police cars, pelted police officers with bricks, and assaulted police officers who were knocked to the ground.

The violence caused injuries to 90 police officers and several journalists.

Gravitational waves detected 100 years after Einstein's prediction: Scientists

Scientists say they have detected the existence of gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity 100 years ago.

The detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes as they produced a single, more massive spinning black hole.

David Reitze, executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, made the announcement in Washington on Thursday, revealing that the waves were detected on September 14, 2015, at 5:51 in the morning, EDT, adding that it was an amazing scientific discovery.

"As time went forward, the frequency went up. And what was amazing about the signal is that it's exactly what you would expect what Einstein's theory of general relativity would predict for two big massive objects like black holes in spiraling and merging together."

The gravitational waves were detected by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, in Washington State.

Based on the observed signals, scientists estimate that the black holes for this event were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, and that the event took place 1.3 billion years ago.

Mass, about three times that of the Sun was converted into gravitational waves in a fraction of a second -- with a peak power output about 50 times that of the whole visible universe.

All S.Koreans Withdraw from Joint Factory Park with North Korea

Anchor:

South Korean employees and businessmen have withdrawn from the Kaesong Industrial Complex after North Korea and South Korea decided to shut down the border industrial complex, as tensions mount following North Korea's rocket launch on Sunday.

The jointly run industrial zone was opened in 2004 as an exercise in reconciliation between the two sides.

CRI's Luo Wen has more.

Reporter:

South Korea made the decision to halt operations of the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Wednesday.

On Thursday, all of the 280 South Koreans employees left the factory park and returned to their home country.

All of assets of South Korean companies running factories there have now been frozen completely.

Kim Nam-Sik, chairman of the Kaesong industrial management committee, said it was regrettable that North Korea had decided to freeze assets of companies operating there.

"It is regrettable that North Korea unilaterally froze assets and expelled people. The management committee worked closely with relevant bodies and focused on a safe return of our people. We dealt with this well so that all people could return safely," he told journalists during a news conference.

South Korea's Defense Ministry Spokesperson Moon Sang-Gyun says the military is on stand-by for any emergencies.

"Putting our people's safety as a top priority, our military is fully prepared to deal with any contingency which can happen at the Kaesong Industrial Complex."

Some South Korean workers say they are worried about their job prospects after being prevented from return with their manufacturing materials and other important items.

"I couldn't bring products from Kaesong. I have mixed feelings. What should I do for a living from now on? I'm troubled by this."

The complex generated more than 110 million US dollars in wages and fees for North Korea last year.

South Korea suspects the North has been spending the money from the complex on its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

One South Korean resident near the industrial park says he supports the shutting down of the complex.

"North Korea has caused many problems, but the South Korean government tried to maintain its policy silently. I personally agree with this action to halt the operation of the joint industrial park. It should be a chance for North Korea to realize its wrongdoings."

As of late last year, the complex hosted 124 South Korean companies, employing nearly 55-thousand North Koreans.

Seoul's decision to shut down the factory park came in the wake of Pyongyang's long-range rocket launch on Sunday.

For CRI, this is Luo Wen.

67 dead, 57 missing 6 days after Taiwan quake

The death toll from the earthquake that struck southern Taiwan's Tainan city on Saturday has climbed to 67, with 57 people still missing.

The 16-storey Wei Guan building collapsed onto a road on its eastern side seconds after the earthquake.

So far, a total of 238 people have been rescued from of the building.

According to local meteorological department, heavy rain due to hit Tainan, which has prompted rescuers to speed up their search and rescue operations.

However, the deputy mayor of Tainan, Zen Hsu-zheng, says rescue efforts are facing difficulties.

"The block collapsed on its side, so the walls have now become like the floor, lying on the bottom. It's just too dangerous to take the heavy machinery up there right now."

Meanwhile, the authorities are continuing their investigation into why this particular building collapsed when almost all others in the city survived the quake intact.

Family members of victims are becoming increasingly anxious as they wait for news of their loves ones.

No casualties from Xinjiang 5.0-magnitude quake

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake has struck northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The tremor jolted Xinyuan County on Thursday night.

The epicenter, 60 kilometers away from the county's administrative centre, was located beneath a sheep farm.

No casualties or property damage have been reported at this point.

The local firefighting department has assembled teams ready for deployment.

The railway authorities currently are inspecting lines and facilities.

Four trains in the area have been delayed while safety checks are carried out.

China's first Zika Patient Stays Calm in Quarantine

China's first Zika patient is now recovering in a hospital in east China's Jiangxi Province.

The 34-year-old man checked himself into hospital a week ago after experiencing fever symptoms when he arrived in Ganxian County following a recent trip to Venezuela.

Deng Yichu is the director of the infectious disease department at Ganzhou People's Hospital where the patient is staying.

"He said the disease is commonly seen in Venezuela and it is easy to treat, so he is not worried and has stayed calm whilst in quarantine."

The man initially thought he was infected with the dengue virus and had already seen a doctor in Venezuela after showing symptoms including fever and dizziness.

Wang Yu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, says there is neither a vaccine nor treatment for the Zika virus because it has little impact on public health in terms of both its range and the degree of illness it causes.

"On the one hand, the virus has little influence, as few cases have been detected. On the other hand, the virus infections in adults display only mild symptoms. There have been no reports of any severe or life-threatening cases."

Wang Yu added that there was no need for public alarm regarding the spread of bodily fluids through common human contact such as kissing or sharing tableware.

Meanwhile, mosquito control efforts have been intensified in Ganxian county.

Epidemic prevention workers have carried out mosquito larvae inspection and sprayed pesticides in and around the hospital and the patient's home.

Further measures across a larger area are now under way.

Foreigners View on Chinese Spring Festival

Anchor:

Day Five of Spring Festival - the most important time of the year for people here in China, with its endless round of family celebrations, fireworks and the limitless opportunities to eat.

It's also a time for the many foreigners in the country to learn about China, its people and the traditions associated with this time of year - including lantern watching, riddle guessing, and the cooking of sweet dumplings.

CRI's Niu Honglin has more.

Reporter:

"Hongbao and fireworks."

"Eating these Jiaozi, watching the CCTV program, maybe giving the children hongbao, and all these bianpao, the fireworks."

"Wearing traditional Tang suit and paying some New Year calls to friends and families."

Living in a foreign country can be the most exciting, challenging, and sometimes most confusing experience in a person's life.

Ricardo Akonso, 27-year-old media worker from the United Kingdom, has been working in Beijing for more than two years.

According to him, Beijing is usually crowded and busy, but also convenient and open like all the other international metropolises. But during the festival season, the city becomes restful.

Akonso is also impressed with the fireworks that are commonly seen and heard during Spring Festival.

"There's crazy amount of fireworks going on. It's like a war or something. It's crazy loud and you can't sleep well. I used to live in Dongzhimen in a little compound. It's like all the guys used to set off so many fireworks, so it was very very loud, but it was cool at the same time! "

The word "cool" can hardly summarize every foreigner's attitude toward fireworks. Some even say the whole city feels like a battlefield. And when you least expect it - KABOOM!

Unlike westerners who appreciate the visual aspect of fireworks more, Chinese also find the loudness cheering, since ancient Chinese believed that sound kept evil away.

Diego Torres, who now lives in Madrid, studied in Beijing for more than six years. He specifically mentioned that the long holiday has provided people, especially the young generations, with more options.

"Young Chinese people really love to spend time with their relatives but they also now take the advantage of the holidays to be alone. Maybe they first spend time with their relatives and then travel with their boyfriend or girlfriend. You see these lots of traditions but there is also a lot of free will and innovations."

In the meantime, to those foreigners who married into a Chinese family, the experience can be quite different.

Lee Na Dan from South Korea has lived in Beijing since 2008 and now has a Chinese wife.

Even though he has an Asian background, which includes the custom of celebrating the lunar New Year, the Korean and Chinese festivities are not that alike.

"In Korea, we don't have dumplings during the lunar new year, that's different from in China. We have our own traditional food: a kind of soup that made of rice cake pieces. We play cards with families as well, like people in China. But we return back to our own homes at 8 or 9 at night. There's no such custom of staying up late during the New Year's Eve."

Anurabanda from Sri Lanka has been living in China for over 20 years. He got married with a Chinese woman. He celebrates two different New Year Festivals every year in both countries.

He describes how his family celebrates Sri Lanka's New Year festival every April 14th.

"In Sri Lanka, normally we don't visit relatives on New Year's eve. On the first day of the New Year, couples would visit the husband's parents first, and then the wife's. I have 5 brothers. On the first day of the New Year, my brothers would bring their wives and children to my mother's house. So that would be over 30 people in a room. We eat every meal together. The biggest problem for us is that our cooking pot is not big enough!"

China and Sri Lanka have different traditions during New Year Festival. Many Chinese believe wives should spend the Spring Festival with their parents-in-law, while their parents are visited by sons and daughters-in-law. However, Due to the family planning policy introduced in 1979, most young couples are the only children in their families.

That's why young couples now celebrate spring festival by visiting each other's hometowns in alternate years, inviting both parents to their homes or traveling with both parents.

Chinese Spring Festival starts on lunar New Year's Eve and ends after the Lantern Festival. Foreign people in China can participate in the tradition of lantern watching, riddle guessing, and the cooking of sweet dumplings to help them understand China's ancient culture.

For CRI, I'm Niu Honglin.

U.S. Asian & Pacifica Americans Celebrate Spring Festival in Capitol Hill for the First Time

Organizations representing Asian and Pacific Americans in the United States have held a Congressional Chinese lunar New Year celebration on Capitol Hill in Washington for the first time.

Many of the Congress members of Asian or Pacific origin attending the event have expressed the hope that such a celebration could become a tradition of the U.S. Congress.

Republican, Grace Meng, a U.S. Congresswoman from New York City, announced at the event that the Chinese lunar New Year has become a legal official holiday in New York.

"This year, for us in New York, for the very first time, our public schools were closed for the lunar New Year holiday. (Audience applauding) This was something that we worked on for so many years, but really is due to the strength, the testament, and the unity of our Chinese American and Asian American community, not just in New York City, but throughout the country. I hope that this can happen in more large Asian population cities across the country, and we're working on it to make that happen."

Currently there are about 13 million Asians in the U.S. who celebrate the Chinese lunar New Year each year.

No Chinese citizen reported in German train collision

It's been confirmed that no Chinese citizen was killed or injured in the train collision that took place on Tuesday in Bad Aibling in the southern German state of Bavaria.

The news was released on Thursday by the Chinese General Consulate in Munich, which said it was solid information from the local police in Rosenheim.

The local police say that so far, 11 people were killed by the incident, with another 82 injured, 20 of whom seriously.

Investigation into the cause is still underway, and according to the German Transport Minister, there's no evidence of technical failure, faulty signal operation, or driver error.

Germany promises Iraq 500 mln euros to help rebuild infrastructure, tackle finances

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced 500 million euros, around 567 million U.S. dollars, in credits to Iraq to help it rebuild infrastructure and tackle financial challenges due to weak oil prices.

Merkel made the announcement on Thursday after talks with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Addressing the refugee crisis in Europe, Merkel said that granting credits would also "give the Iraqi people a hope for their own lives so that they don't have to leave their country."

The credits would help Iraq implement stabilization projects, in order to give the country's 3 million internally displaced people the opportunity to return to their original home areas.

IMF chief Lagarde set for second term

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde is poised to win a second term as the leader of the Washington-based institution as no challenger has emerged for the position.

Aleksei Mozhin, dean of the IMF executive board, said in a statement on Thursday that the period for submitting nominations for the position of the next Managing Director closed on Wednesday, February 10.

Only one candidate, the current Managing Director Christine Lagarde, has been nominated.

The IMF kicked off the selection process for the next managing director on January 20.

Mexican prison riot leaves at least 52 people dead

Dozens of people have been killed in a riot in a prison in northeastern Mexico.

Local media say the riot at the prison in the state of Nuevo Leon, left 52 people dead and 12 others injured, including five in a critical condition .

It's believed some prisoners may have escaped.

The riot comes just days ahead of a planned visit by Pope Francis to another prison nearby, in Mexico?s far north.

EasyJet unveil plans for hybrid plane

Anchor:

UK-based budget airline easyJet is working to incorporate an innovative new hydrogen fuel cell system into its future aircraft.

The system would allow its planes to avoid using their engines while taxiing, saving expensive aviation fuel, making them more environmentally friendly.

CRI's Victor Ning has more.

Reporter:

The concept uses a hydrogen fuel cell that captures kinetic energy through the aircraft's wheels as it brakes on landing.

That energy can then be used by the aircraft when taxiing on runways prior to take off, therefore avoiding the need to burn costly fuel through its jet engines.

Water produced as a by-product of hydrogen consumption can be used to top up the aircraft's water tanks.

EasyJet claims this system could save around 50-thousand tonnes of fuel and associated carbon emissions each year.

Ian Davies is head of engineering at easyJet.

"We pulled together a kind of basic idea around could we use a hydrogen fuel cell to power our aircraft now while they're on the ground instead of using diesel engine power or fixed ground power units."

EasyJet plans to begin trailing the new technology this year.

Making the taxiing stage of flight more fuel efficient is of particular interest to easyJet due to the high frequency and short length of its flights.

EasyJet says around 4 percent of its total annual fuel consumption occurs when the airline's aircraft are taxiing on runways.

Aviation expert Tilmann Gabriel from the City University London said that the aviation industry is always looking for means to save fuel, especially during times when the price for barrel of oil was over one hundred dollars.

"So we had for the longest time and all through my career many activities in how to save fuel, how to start engines later in the game towards the runway, how we shut down engines after landing, how we fly the most economic fuel during the cruise speed, there's always an interest to save fuel."

While the aviation industry has experimented with hydrogen fuel cell technology in the past, big airlines and aircraft makers are yet to adopt it.

Gabriel, a former pilot who leads the aviation masters programme at City University London, explained that one reason for this could be the additional weight.

"In the aviation industry, the issue is weight against fuel cost saved. We need to save every kilo of weight to have, again, a very economic flying profile so therefore adding extra batteries or adding extra motors - like in this case to drive the wheels - is much more weight and that costs fuel. So you always have to counterbalance the fuel used for more weight on the aircraft versus the lesser fuel cost when you are saving fuel."

Hydrogen fuel cell technology isn't exactly new. Japanese car manufacturers Toyota unveiled the 'Mirai', its first emissions-free, hydrogen-powered vehicle, in 2014.

The auto maker announced last October an ambitious aim to sell only hybrids and fuel cells by 2050, to radically reduce emissions.

For CRI, this is Victor Ning.

PSG forward Lavezzi close to China move

Paris Saint-Germain forward Ezequiel Lavezzi looks set to become the latest footballer to swap Europe for China after the French champions said talks with Hebei China Fortune were progressing.

According to French media reports, the transfer talks went well and the Argentine could receive an annual salary of nearly 15 million US dollars.

Lavezzi has been with PSG for three-and-a-half years, playing 161 matches and scoring 35 goals.

But this season, he's mainly been on the bench, giving him just three league starts.

The current transfer window shuts on February 26 in China, with Lavezzi ready to continue the path that has already seen Jackson Martinez, Ramires and Alex Teixeira all make big-money moves to the East.

Berlinale 2016 opens

The 66th Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, kicked off Thursday night in the German capital.

The opening gala is always a star-studded event with this year no exception - Actors from the U.S. comedy film "Hail, Caesar!" as well as Berlinale festival director Dieter Kosslick, Jury President Meryl Streep, and other countless movie stars were all in attendance.

Chinese movie "Crosscurrent", directed by Yang Chao will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears, the top prizes, this year.

The story depicts a love story set beside the Yangtze River, interwoven with a sub-plot, which links the past and present together.

The 66th Berlinale runs till next Sunday, with a total of 434 films from 77 countries and regions screened, 18 of which are in the running for the Golden and Silver Bear awards.

China to boost recycling of farm waste

Chinese agricultural authorities have set new goals for the recycling of farm waste to prevent further pollution and to support recycling in the sector.

The goals will cover everything from leftover crop stocks to plastic film, and will take effect by 2020.

They include recycling 80 percent of the plastic film used in agricultural production and crop stalks.

Over 70 percent of livestock and poultry waste is to be processed and 80 percent of forestry waste is to be utilized for other purposes.

Polluted farmland has long been a problem in the world's most populous nation.

It's seen as one of the key problems standing in the way of the modernization drive in the agricultural sector in China.

Weather

Beijing is wet in the day with a high of 10 degrees Celsius; some sleet tonight with a low of 2.

Shanghai, cloudy today with a high of 22, wet overnight with a low of 14 degrees Celsius.

Chongqing overcast with a high of 16 and a low of 6.

Lhasa, sunny in the day with a high of 14; clear tonight with a low of minus 3.

Elsewhere in the world, staying here in Asia,

Islamabad, cloudy, 17.

Kabul, overcast, 0.

Over in North America,

New York, snowy with a high of minus 1 degrees Celsius.

Washington DC, overcast, 2.

Honolulu, cloudy, 27.

Toronto, snowy, with a high of minus 5.

In South America,

Buenos Aires cloudy with a high of 38.

And Rio de Janeiro will be wet with a high of 26 degrees Celsius.

That's it for this slightly shorter Holiday edition of the Beijing Hour.

Recapping our top stories ...

China's Central Government expresses support for the Hong Kong Authorities to guarantee public safety after recent rioting.

Researchers in America prove Einstein right again, with the discovery of Gravitational Waves

Total shutdown of the jointly run Kaesong Business Park as tensions continue to rise over North Korea's rocket launch.

On behalf of the rest of the Beijing Hour team, this is Bob Jones in Beijing hoping you'll join us for our next edition of the Beijing Hour to open a window to the world together.