新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2015/04/25（打印版）

Chinese president Xi Jinping among Asian and African leaders reenacting a historical walk to mark the 60th anniversary of the Bandung conference..

In Entertainment... Beijing's second 24 hour bookstore opens its doors here in the Chinese capital...

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Leaders from Asia and Africa, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, have re-enacted an historic walk made by state leaders 60 years ago when participating in the original Asian African Conference in Bandung.

A moment of silence was held in memory of all the leaders who participated in the original conference.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo gave a speech urging his counterparts from the two continents to reinvigorate the struggle of their predecessors from the 1950s.

"In the commemoration of the Asian African conference, I urge…let us reinvigorate, let us ignite the struggle of our great leaders 60 years ago. We have to improve our understanding, to realize world peace, and all forms of violence must be stopped. We have to work together to improve the welfare of our people through economic and trade partnership."

At the Asian African Conference which was held on April 24, 1955, delegates from more than two dozen countries gathered in Bandung to discuss security and economic development.

The summit has adopted a number of documents, including a declaration on reinvigorating the Asia-Africa strategic partnership.

World leaders attending the summit have also focused on maritime cooperation, suggesting it is going to become one of the pillars of the new partnership between Asia and Africa.

A mainland official says that leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Taiwan-based Kuomintang will meet in Beijing in May.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, says leaders of the two parties will exchange views on relations across the Taiwan Straits.

Ma says KMT Chairman Eric Chu will lead a delegation to Beijing after taking part in the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, which is scheduled to be held on May 3 in Shanghai.

The spokesperson describes the occasion as "an important event in the two parties' high-profile exchanges."

Yang Weizhong, the spokesperson for the Kuomintang, says the talks will focus on the prospects for cross-straits relations.

Shao Zonghai is director of the mainland affairs research center of the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan.

"I think one problem is the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. Taiwan really hopes to play an important role in AIIB. However considering the special relationship between Taiwan and the mainland, Taiwan cannot be a member country but could be a member economy of the bank. And the title still has not been decided yet. We can see whether there will be some breakthrough to solve the problem."

"In terms of protecting the interest of Taiwan businessmen, Premier Li Keqiang has made it very clear that the recent document issued by the State Council sticks to the previous preferential policy. This is a promise from the central government for Taiwan businessmen. "

He also believes other motions concerning the wellbeing of people from both sides of the straits will be raised in the meeting.

He believes the meeting will be another milestone in cross-straits relations after the first meeting between the two parties' then top leaders taking place in 2005.

"Mutual trust between the two parties will be enhanced. The meeting will make progress on carrying on the 1992 consensus to promote the peaceful development of cross-straits relations. The meeting will also set a clear direction of the future of the relationship. It will make arrangements to encourage more common people from Taiwan to participate in the cross-straits communications. "

Experts expect the meeting could make clear the direction of the crosss-straits relationship in the future. And this will greatly help to secure the stable development between the mainland and Taiwan.

The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, has adopted an amendment to the 2009 Food Safety Law that includes the heaviest penalties yet for offenders.

The issue of food safety has long been a sensitive area for everyday Chinese people, who have been shocked by a string of food safety scandals in recent years.

They include injecting clenbuterol into pork, recycling cooking oil from restaurant leftovers, selling pork from sick pigs, making medicine capsules with toxic gelatin and passing rat and fox meat off as mutton and beef.

Huang Wei is deputy director with the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee.

She says the revised law gives heavier punishment to offenders, increasing the cost for violating the legislation.

"Illegal production and operation still exist in the current law enforcement process. The entire society strongly demand harsh punishment for such illegal behaviors and increasing the cost for violations. Through the amendment, the food safety law can better crack down on such illegal behaviors."

Touted as the "toughest food safety law," the amendment is considered a move toward achieving the strictest ever supervision system for food safety.

This is widely considered tough in comparison to other punishments such as fines and revocation of certificates.

Bigger fines for offenders are also on the menu. Producers may face fines of up to 30 times the value of their products, up from 10 times under previous regulatory codes.

Huang Wei says the amendment also involves the content of public supervision and regulates the special protection of Informants.

"The amendment specially protects the informants and regulates that companies should not persecute or retaliate against the informants by the means of termination or modification of labor contracts."

He notes that expending public supervision on a larger scale should be a focus in the future legislative work.

"The amendment is relatively lack of the content of precaution. And it covers more contents of supervision from government departments, but not enough from the general public. We need to explore more useful ways in this regard. I think that should be the focus in the future."

A court in east China's Shandong Province says it will review a 1994 rape and murder case involving a man executed for a crime which another person later confessed to having committed.

Nie Shubin was found guilty of the rape and murder of a woman and received a death penalty in 1995 by a local court in Hebei.

Besides the two parties of the case, fifteen people will attend the hearing as independent witnesses including lawyers, lawmakers, political advisors and representatives of the public.

The presiding judge of the review team, Zhu Yunsan, gave the selection criteria of the independent witnesses.

"The basis and criteria of our selection have taken three points in to consideration. Firstly, the independent witness should be objective, impartial and well behaved. Secondly, the chosen person should have some working experience. Lastly, the person should not make any public comments regarding to Nie's case in the past."

Earlier last month, the attorneys acting for Nie claimed to have found several "evident errors" while duplicating Nie's case files, most of which involve legal procedure.

Nie's case drew further public attention following the acquittal of an executed convict in another rape-murder case last December.

A teenager named Huugjilt from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was executed for the rape and murder of a woman in June 1996.

Then in 2005, a self-confessed serial rapist and killer, Zhao Zhihong, admitted to that murder upon his arrest.

As CRI's Min Rui reports, a special campaign was jointly introduced by several municipal law enforcement departments and the local legislative body.

With police patrols being stepped up, the campaign is to mete out severe punishment to those illegal racers, and to build a long-term mechanism to stop such acts.

Police authorities will also strengthen checks on modified cars, which are said to be frequently used in illegal car races.

Hong Daode, professor at China University of Political Science and Law, says drivers tend to take chances due to lax law enforcement.

"The evidence is not hard to obtain, there is CCTV on all major road, so we have the video evidence. I think the reason lies in slack law enforcement. Maybe because some races didn't cause any casualty so the local police just let the drivers walk away with warning. If we don't punish the outlaws, it could be an inducement for drivers to take chances."

Earlier this month, a Lamborghini and Ferrari crashed in a race in an expressway tunnel on in Beijing as the seventh stunt-filled "Fast and the Furious" movie opened in China.

The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau says the very accident took place on Datun Road smashing into walls at speeds of more than 160 km/h.

Pictures of the mangled wreckage of a lime-green Lamborghini, a damaged red Ferrari and other high-performance cars which gone viral on the Internet has emerged discussion.

U.S. President Barack Obama says that his administration is assessing whether or not changes are needed after a counterterrorism operation on an al Qaeda compound inadvertently killed two western hostages.

"We're going to review what happened. We're going to identify the lessons that can be learned and any improvements and changes that can be made."

In the meantime, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest adds that the White House is considering assembling a cross-agency team to handle situations involving American hostages being held abroad.

Earnest calls the group a "fusion cell", which would combine leaders from the FBI, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.

"This would be a working level, operationally focused group of federal employees that would enable a whole-of-government response to overseas hostage events."

According to U.S. officials, a U.S. drone strike in January targeting an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan near the Afghan border inadvertently killed an American and an Italian who had been held hostage for years by the group.

A commemoration has been held in Armenia to mark the 100th anniversary of the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Addressing the event, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan says the centennial commemoration is a driving force in the struggle against monstrous phenomenon like genocide.

"I am grateful to all those who are here to once again confirm your commitment to human values, to say that nothing is forgotten, that after 100 years we remember and we demand."

More than 60 foreign delegations, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande, attended the event to pay tribute to innocent victims of the 1915 genocide.

Armenia and Turkey have long disagreed over the Armenian Genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey were killed and persecuted in the years from 1915-1923.

Tourists were evacuated Friday from the Statue of Liberty in New York City, over reports of a suspicious package.

U.S. Parks Police received a phoned bomb threat at noon, after which police swept the location and detected a possible suspicious package inside a visitor locker.

The visitors were rushed by boat off Liberty Island and back to the Battery Park and the Liberty State Park in Jersey City at noon.

Reports said that there is no indication this is an explosive device, and officials will X-ray the package as a precaution.

Pakistan has said it is seeking details of arrests of a group of al-Qaida suspects in Italy, most of who are Pakistanis and Afghans.

Some of them are believed to have links to the 2009 bombing of a crowded marketplace in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Italian Prosecutor Mauro Mura told a press conference that members of the network had been in contact with two potential suicide bombers who came to Italy in 2010.

"There are some conversations which make it clear that an attack is being programmed and could target the Vatican. The actual location could be the Vatican City."

Italian media said two of the men had provided protection for former al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden.

Italy's chief prosecutor has confirmed that a judge has ordered the presumed captain of the migrant ship that capsized in the Mediterranean sea to remain in custody after appearing for their first day in court.

Prosecutors say they want to charge Tunisian national Mohammed Ali Malek with human trafficking and multiple homicides and his assistant Mahmud Bikhit for aiding illegal immigration.

Malek denies that he was in charge of the heavily overloaded fishing boat that capsized before midnight on last Saturday.

But chief prosecutor Giovanni Salvi says the judge's decision shows that the court feels it has reason to believe Malek may have caused the accident.

"The judge overseeing the preliminary hearing has confirmed the arrest and ordered for them to be detained in custody in prison, in recognition of the roles of the two subjects identified by us: Mohammed Alì Malek, the captain, and Mahmud Bikhit, a crew member who assisted the captain."

Prosecutors have also heard testimony from witnesses who says they were beaten and abused by club-wielding traffickers before they embarked on the ill-fated ship.

"The judge, assisted by the evidence and indications the prosecution has provided, has recognized that the captain is responsible, due to his erroneous maneuvers, for the sinking of the ship which was grossly overloaded."

Salvi also says there were probably other members of the crew but none of the survivors were being investigated, implying that any others had probably drowned.

The ship that Malek allegedly captained capsized in the Mediterranean last week, leading to the drowning deaths of some 700 migrants on board.

A South Korean woman forced into sex work in Japanese military brothels during World War II says she wants Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to apologize ahead of his visit to Washington this week.

"They would take away all of our belongings and force us out of our homes to a foreign country if we didn't join the (comfort women) camp. We first have to save ourselves by agreeing to go and assuming they wouldn't kill us there. We were told we're going to a factory but we found out that it wasn't. We didn't have a choice but to obey them as we couldn't run away."

She describes her body as still covered with scars from her treatment as a comfort woman, adding she was unable to bear children as a result.

Shinzo Abe has said he would uphold past apologies for the war, including a 1995 landmark statement by then-premier Tomiichi Murayama.

But he has also said he wants to issue forward-looking remarks in his own words, sparking concern he wants to water down past apologies.

In a speech in Jakarta earlier this week, Abe alluded to Tokyo's remorse in the past over World War Two without issuing any fresh apology.

Volvo is planning to export its "Made in China" cars to the United States, a step forward for Beijing's ambitions to extend the global reach of the auto manufacturing industry.

On the verge of exporting the first "Made in China" cars to the United States, Volvo aims to show that they are as good as the vehicles it produces in Europe.

The S60 Inscription, based on Volvo's S60L is the vehicle due to be exported from southwest China's Chengdu.

This version is designed for China and an extra three inches of rear seat legroom for buyers who have passengers riding in the back.

To meet safety standards, every vehicle that rolls off Volvo's assembly line in Chengdu needs to go through a five-hour battery of tests on a driving track.

Once a month, which is three times as often as in Europe, Volvo tears apart a finished car to examine the quality of welds and other work.

The Senior Vice President in Charge of China for Volvo Car Group, Lars Danielsson, expresses his confidence in the cars.

"This is a Volvo car coming out of the Volvo production system and it's a lot of credibility into that. I think the US customers really trust us on what we have built up over a long period of time. Of course we have no intention to risk that. We cannot afford it. Then we also are confident about the quality level produced out of this plant."

The move is a new step up in Volvo Car Corp.'s campaign to establish itself as a global luxury brand following its 2010 acquisition by Chinese automaker Geely.

"We have to explore the global market, and exporting products from China to the US is part of the endeavor. Volvo has to realize the localization of research, manufacturing and purchasing and recruiting. In our global layout we have to realize the localization globally."

Currently, a handful of China's young but ambitious auto brands are planning to export to the United States or Western Europe.

The managing director of Gaofeng Advisory Company, Bill Russo, says that provided the cars are of good quality, the location of the factory is not a problem for US consumers.

"I don't think US consumers have a problem with buying cars or anything made in China. It's a market that's rather indifferent to the point of origin. We buy Apple products - they're all made in China. And that doesn't diminish the equity of the brand of Apple. So I think the issue of made in China is largely perception, of quality, but the reality is that internationally branded products made in China are made to the same standards as they would be manufactured anywhere else in the world."

Volvo expects to send about 5,000 units per year to the United States. In June, the first U.S.-bound S60 Inscriptions will be shipped to Shanghai, then across the Pacific to the United States.

Works by modern masters Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, will be offered up at an auction by Christie's in Shanghai today.

Organisers say over 80 items from both Chinese and Western artists will be going under the hammer at the auction.

Among the works showcased at a preview gallery open to the public was Pablo Picasso's "Tête d'homme", and Salvador Dali's melting clock sculpture, "Dance of Time One".

Cai Jinqing, president of Christie's China, says that the auction will also showcase modern Chinese artists.

"Our special night auction will continue with our 20th century and contemporary art section. It's a platform for both eastern and Western art pieces. We will have the works of many great western artists, such as Picasso, Chagall, Andy Warhol, etc. During this session we will also showcase the works of some of our younger Chinese artists, which will include many artists from the post-70's and post 80's generations."

In Chongqing it will be cloudy in the daytime with a high of 25 and continue to be cloudy tonight with the lowest temperature of 18.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is calling for Asian and African countries to continue working towards prosperity by echoing the Bandung Spirit and forging partnerships based on equality.

Widodo made the call during the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the first Asia-Africa Conference, called the Bandung Conference.

Leaders from some 100 countries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, have participated at this year's Asia-Africa Summit and the events to commemorate the anniversary.

Bandung Spirit is a term coined to sum up the consensus reached by a group of Asian and African leaders, including late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, 60 years ago when they convened at Bandung.

China has rejected complaints that its coast guard seized fish caught by Filipino fishermen in the South China Sea, urging the Philippines to stop illegally fishing in Chinese waters.

China's response came after the Philippines said Chinese coast guard members boarded two Philippines fishing boats near Huangyan Island on April 11, and took the crew's catch.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei says Huangyan Island is Chinese territory and the coast guard patrols the waters to maintain order in the area.

He urges the Philippines to respect China's territorial sovereignty and to ensure its fishermen are aware of the illegality of fishing in waters surrounding the island.

A commemoration has been held in Armenia to mark the 100th anniversary of the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Addressing the event, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan says the centennial commemoration is a driving force in the struggle against monstrous phenomenons like genocide.

More than 60 foreign delegations, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande, attended the event to pay tribute to innocent victims of the 1915 genocide.

Armenia and Turkey have long disagreed over the Armenian Genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey were killed and persecuted in the years from 1915-1923.

Prosecutors say they want to charge Tunisian national Mohammed Ali Malek with human trafficking and multiple homicides and his assistant Mahmud Bikhit for aiding illegal immigration.

The ship that Malek allegedly captained capsized in the Mediterranean last week, leading to the drowning deaths of some 700 migrants on board.

It's time to take a look back at some of the headlines making news in the business world this past week in our Weekly Business Review.

Three new Free Trade Zones have launched here on the mainland. China's central bank has once again slashed the reserve requirement ratio for all banks to inject more liquidity into the market. China's bank card clearing market is now open to foreign firms. And German automaker Mercedes Benz has received a hefty fine from Chinese authorities for violating an anti-monopoly law.

Chinese assistant Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen says each of the three different Free Trade Zones has their own characteristics.

"The one in Guangdong will focus on promoting in-depth economic cooperation between the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, especially in the services sector. At the same time, the Guangdong FTZ shoulders the responsibility of upgrading China's manufacturing industry. The one in Tianjin will emphasize the joint development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The one in Fujian deepens cross-Strait economic cooperation and will support the belt and road initiative."

Wang Shouwen says the extent of the FTZs' openness is much greater, as the number of special administrative measures has been reduced from previous 190 to 122 in the negative list.

"You can see in the unified negative list for four free trade zones, we have removed or loosened restrictions in 18 sectors in pilot free trade zones. It shows a great extent of openness."

Under the "negative list", FTZ foreign investments will be prohibited in certain non-ferrous metal mining, air traffic control systems management, postal enterprises and production of radio and television programs.

Foreign investments are restricted to joint ventures with domestic companies in sectors such as oil and natural gas exploration and development, general-purpose airplane design, manufacture and maintenance, and rare earth smelting.

China's central bank on Monday lowered the reserve requirement ratio for all banks by one percentage point, the second reduction in two months.

The Agricultural Development Bank of China, the sole policy lender for agriculture, gets an RRR reduction of two percentage points.

The central bank has also further lowered RRR by 0.5 percentage points for eligible banks that lend a certain amount of loans to agricultural borrowers or small and micro businesses.

Industry estimate says that the cut could free up 1.3 trillion yuan or around 212 billion U.S. dollars into the real economy.

Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of School of Finance at Renmin University of China, says the move is part of the efforts to help promote bank restructuring and combat slow growth.

"In general, it is a measure to cope with market complications and to stabilize economic growth, especially amid increasing pressure from current slowdown. At the same time, there is greater direct support for certain fields, including the farming sector and small businesses."

Mike Bastin, director of the China Business Center based in London, says the move also helps to boost the rural economies.

The central bank previously lowered the reserve requirement ratio for all commercial banks by 50 basis points in February.

On Wednesday, Chinese government announced plans to allow foreign players into the bank card sector.

The State Council has announced that it will open up the market for clearing domestic bank card transactions as of June 1st.

Foreign firms will be able to set up their own clearing companies in China and apply to the central bank for licenses for bank card clearing operations.

Currently, only China UnionPay can provide clearing services for bank card transactions in the country.

The move is part of a promise made in 2012 after the United States filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization, accusing China of discriminating against foreign bank card and credit card firms.

CRI's financial commentator, Cao Can, says the move is a response to the growing demand in China's bank card clearing market.

The first project involving China's 40-billion US dollar Silk Road Investment Fund was announced on Monday during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Pakistan.

The Chinese Fund is going to invest 1.6-billion US dollar in the Karot hydropower project in Pakistan.

The money will be channeled to the China Three Gorges Corporation, which is building the hydropower facility in Pakistan.

Mohammad Mansoor Ali, economics professor at National University of Modern Languages in Pakistan, says the project will greatly ease energy shortages in his country.

"Pakistan is facing especially the energy crisis for past 20 years or so. And the current agreement for establishing new projects for filling this deficiency of energy in Pakistan will change the economic scenario all together in Pakistan. Pakistan has struggled to produce energy for its private sector enterprises development."

Construction of the Karot project is expected to begin at the end of this year and finished by 2020.

A leading official with the China Securities Regulatory Commission confirmed on Wednesday that plans are being looked at to potentially create a cross-strait stock connect system between the mainland and Taiwan.

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect system has seen some 32-billion US dollars flow through it, since it became operational in November.

It's unclear if the proposed new cross-strait stock connect system would allow individual investors from Taiwan into the A-share market.

Authorities in China's Jiangsu Province on Thursday imposed a 350 million yuan or 56 million U.S. dollars fine on German car maker Mercedes-Benz for violating anti-monopoly laws and price fixing.

Investigators have found that the automaker either colluded with its dealers to control prices or directly notified them about quoted prices in order to achieve market dominance between January 2013 and July 2014.

The National Development and Reform Commission ruled the company has violated the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law by excluding or restraining market competition and thus damaging the rights and interests of consumers.

China's regulators last year fined Chrysler, Audi and 12 Japanese companies after anti-trust investigations.

The Apple Watch officially went on sale Friday in the US, Chinese mainland and seven other countries and regions. .

The Sport collection is priced under three thousand yuan, about 400 US dollars, while the Watch starts from 549 US dollars and the Edition starts at 10-thousand U.S. dollars and features rose or yellow 18-karat gold alloys.

It is expected to do well in China, where sales of knock-off versions began soon after Apple's unveiling of the gadget in March.

Apple says that there will be no in-store stock on the launch day, and that in-store purchasing at Apple locations won't be available until around June.

Customers can now only purchase the smart watch online or by reservation in Apple retail stores and from resellers in their regions.

And that concludes this edition of the weekly business review, I'm Wenjie in Beijing, Thank you for your listening.

Barcelona were drawn against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals while Real Madrid will play Juventus.

All eyes will be on Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, who will return to Camp Nou to face his former club.

Guardiola said it is a special, emotional experience for him but at the end of the day, it is a football match.

"It will be a special match as Pep (Guardiola) will face Barca for the first time. And I will face him as coach for the first time, so it is special for me as well. I am sure it will be for all the players as it is the first time they will have Pep on the other side. We will play them in two matches and it is a wonderful thing to look forward to for both Barca and Bayern fans."

Guardiola won the European Cup as a player with Barcelona in 1992 and then won 14 trophies in four seasons as coach, including the Champions League in 2009 and 2011. He joined Bayern Munich in 2013.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid will go to Italy for the first leg of their tie against Juventus as they look to become the first club to retain the trophy in the Champions League era.

Kikcing off round 7 in the League, Shijiazhuang Ever Bright beat Tianjin Teda 4-3 in a goal loaded game.

It was also filled with tension as the referee handed a total of 5 yellow cards, including 2 for Tianjin and 3 for Shijiazhuang.

Houston are leading the series 2-0. Five of their players have been in the Playoff finals and three have championship rings. But point guard Jason Terry said the 3rd game is where it really starts for them and that they have to win in it away.

The Wizards could use more from Bradley Beal and John Wall, who jointly delivered 54 points and 19 assists in game 2.

The Spurs leveled it 1-1 with an overtime win after a hard-fought game 2 thanks to Tim Duncan, who is playing on his birthday this morning.

Turning 39, the oldest player in these playoffs still looks capable of carrying the load for the Spurs. He had 28 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists in a vintage performance in game 2.

Los Angeles' Blake Griffin, having blamed the loss of game 2 "100 percent" on himself, says he is determined to change things and play with the right spirit.

A four-time beaten finalist at the Barcelona Open, David Ferrer remains on course to win the event for the first time after beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets.

Fabio Fognini knocked Rafael Nadal out of action but was unable to conquer Pablo Andujar, who took it 6-1, 6-3.

Ferrer and Andujar will face each other in the semi-finals, where Martin Klizan and defending champion Kei Nishikori will also be battling it out for a spot in the final.

Ding Junhui turned it around 9-7 against four-time world champion John Higgins in a best-of-25 game at the World Championships in Sheffield.

Ding was trailing 3-5 after the first session but secured three crucial frames with 80, 64, 92 breaks.

Defending champion Mark Selby was handed a shock 13-9 defeat by Anthony McGill and tumbled out of the Championships.

Selby's defeat continued the so-called 'Crucible Curse'. No first-time champion has ever made a successful defence of his title.

Frenchman Julien Quesne fired a five-under-par 67 to grab the halfway lead at the China Open in Shanghai.

Quesne made six birdies in Shanghai to put himself in sight of his third European Tour title and first since 2013.

His compatriot and defending champion Alexander Levy looked set for the halfway lead but faltered over the closing stages of his second round.

Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who won last week's European Tour title in Shenzhen, moved into contention for another victory after firing a 68 to move into a tie for fourth.

Paul McCartney has topped the list of the richest musicians in the UK and Ireland with a fortune of $1.1 billion.

The former Beatle took the number one spot on the Sunday Times rich list adding an estimated $30 million to his fortune from last year.

McCartney stays ahead of theater impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber who comes in second with $976 million. Lloyd Webber owes his wealth to creating some of the most iconic musicals ever including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.

In third was rock band U2 whose combined wealth comes to $637 million. Rock and Roll hall of famers dominated the top ten with Elton John, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Sting all sitting within the top.

The 29 year old megastar will receive the inaugural contemporary icon award at the Songwriter's Hall of Fame on June 19.

The award is to honor a performing songwriter who has attained an iconic status in pop culture according to a statement from the hall. Gaga has had a hand at writing most of her hits including Poker Face, Applause and Let's Dance.

Gaga is the latest to be honoured at the ceremony with Jerry Garcia and Cyndi Lauper also being inducted into the hall.

Located in the university hub in Haidian district, the 24 hour store targets students and white collar workers in the area.

Book salons and cultural events will also be held at the store owned by SDX Joint Publishing Company. There is also a bar inside for customers.

The company launched its first 24 hour bookstore near the National Art Museum of China in Beijing last year drawing lots of media attention although some doubted its financial viability considering the booming business of e-books.

Steven Moffat, co-creator of Sherlock has said it's getting more difficult to lure Bennedict Cumberbatch back to the show.

Moffat says that with Bennedict Cumberbatch having gone from a fresh faced tv actor to Hollywood A-lister during Sherlock's five year run, it's becoming increasing difficult to lure the actor back to 221B Baker Street.

The show's co-creator also said that although Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are very serious about the show, they are now bigger than the show. Martin Freeman has since gone on to find huge success after appearing in The Hobbit trilogy and Fargo.

Both Cumberbatch and Freeman are set to make an appearance at the first ever Sherlocked, a Sherlock fan convention this weekend in London.

Career of Evil will be the third installment in her Detective Cormoran Strike series, which is published under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

It follows previous releases The Cuckoos Calling and The Silkworm. Rowling has suggested that the story will be told over seven books, like Harry Potter.

The author was revealed as the real writer of crime novel The Cuckoos Calling after a leak from law firm Russells.

Rowling later revealed that her pseudonym Robert Galbraith did better than she expected it to before being outed.

Wiz Khalifa has extended his stay at the top of the US Hot 100 chart for a second week with his song See You Again for the Fast and Furious 7 film.

The song has spent a consecutive week at number one in the US after forcing Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk down to two last week.

The Weekend jumps three places to three this week with Fifty Shades of Grey track Earned It while Maroon 5 are at four with Sugar.

Further down in the charts, David Guetta and Nicki Minaj are at 27 with Hey Mama and Carly Rae Jepsen is back in the charts with I Really Like You at 39.

In Chongqing it will be cloudy in the daytime with a high of 25 and continue to be cloudy tonight with the lowest temperature of 18.

Chinese president Xi Jinping among Asian and African leaders reenacting a historical walk to mark the 60th anniversary of the Bandung conference..

On behalf of the Beijing Hour staffers, this is Spencer Musick in Beijing hoping you'll join us for our next edition of the Beijing Hour to open a window to the world together.

新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2015/04/25（在线收听）