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This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

China is striving to become an innovation powerhouse by 2020.

A national program for science and technology was recently adopted as part of the Five-Year Plan for national socioeconomic development.

Premier Li Keqiang said the plan fully demonstrates that the country has given top priority to innovation. He added that the plan is a fresh impetus to the national movement of supporting and encouraging innovation launched in 2013.

With science and technology parks and entrepreneur roadshows, Chinese cities are fiercely competing to win reputations for accommodating business startups and mass innovation.

So far, more than 200 maker-space projects, 1,600 business incubators, and more than 100 high-tech zones and science and technology parks have been created nationwide. They help concentrate resources for innovation and nurturing start-ups launched by business executives, scientific researchers and even college students.

According to data released by the local government in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, the total number of newly registered enterprises jumped 34 percent in the city last year, compared with the previous year. The number of invention patent applications was up by more than 35 percent in the same period.

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The latest anti-terrorism regulation in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will help to prevent terrorists from using religion to attract people into terrorist activities.

The new regulation took effect earlier this month. Under the regulation, people who expand the concept of halal to include other areas of life will face detention and fines. The concept in Islam means adherence to dietary laws.

In recent years, the region has seen many cases of terrorists and extremists making people believe that bank notes, ID cards and marriage certificates are not halal, so people become isolated from modern society and are easily radicalized.

The new regulation is a legal interpretation of China's Anti-Terrorism Law. It also punishes those who use the preaching of religious teachings to promote terrorism or extremism.

An anti-terrorism expert says the detailed regulation has been drafted to deal with the anti-terrorism situations that are unique in Xinjiang. The area faces a greater terrorist threat than any other place in China.

Xinjiang has always been China's front line against terrorism. The penetration of religious extremism has led to an increasing number of terrorist attacks in recent years.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

When China introduced the one-child family planning policy more than 35 years ago, elderly people, who traditionally relied on their children for care, were told to look to the State to provide support.

The policy was intended to reduce family sizes and people's reliance on their children, so there would no longer be any point in having a large family, especially many sons. The story didn't unfold as expected though, especially for the large number of disabled elderly people and their struggling families.

Du Ping, a resident of the Jianye district of Nanjing, the capital of East China's Jiangsu province, has become increasingly frustrated after many failed attempts to hire a long-term qualified care worker for his 73-year-old father.

The elderly man was diagnosed with dementia in 2014 and is also paralyzed and incontinent, so he is dependent on other people.

Du resumed his search two weeks ago, when the most-recent caregiver quit, even though her monthly salary was 5,000 yuan, roughly 750 U.S. dollars. That's almost twice the average salary of 3,000 yuan per month for a caregiver in the city.

Du said the salary is a considerable sum of money, almost half of the couple's combined monthly income. It will cost even more if they place his father in a nursing home.

This is Special English.

Chinese scientists are scheduled to perform the world's first genetic editing trial on humans this month in an attempt to find a cure for lung cancer.

A group of oncologist from Sichuan University will inject patients with cells that have been modified using a new gene-editing technique.

The technique, CRISPR, was named "2015 Breakthrough of the Year" by US journal Science. It allows scientists to selectively edit genome parts and replace them with new DNA stretches.

The leader of the trial, Lu You, said his team was formed at the end of last year and the trial received ethical approval last month.

Lu and his team plan to select ten volunteers, all advanced lung cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy, radiation therapy and other types of treatment. He has received a lot of applications and is now busy screening and drawing up the final list.

The treatments will lasts between eight weeks and three months and the trial project will last at least 12 months.

Doctors will extract T cells, a type of immune cell, from a patient's blood and then knock out the gene that encodes the PD-1 protein, which normally limits the cell's capacity to launch an immune response.

The edited cells will be multiplied in the lab before being reintroduced to the patients. This process will hopefully kick start the T cells to launch an attack on the tumor cells.

This is Special English.

Chinese geneticist Han Chunyu defended the authenticity of his gene-editing technique after the head of a genetics lab in Australia said the lab was unable to replicate it.

Han's paper describing his research findings on a new gene-editing technology called NgAgo was published online in early May by Nature Biotechnology, a monthly scientific journal of Nature Publishing Group. It drew instant international attention.

Three months later, a group of peer scientists began to question the research's viability, largely because they have not been able to replicate the results so far.

Forty-two-year-old Han is an associate professor at Hebei University of Science and Technology. He has vowed to repeat the experimental results.

The new technology had been touted as being better than the current mainstream gene-editing technique CRISPR in precision, efficiency and flexibility.

According to a regional news portal in China, it's about more than just the science. It comes with a potentially huge business impact, especially for companies already heavily invested in the CRISPR technology.

The portal said NgAgo is a possible replacement for CRISPR once it is widely confirmed; and it will inevitably undermine colossal business interests and investments based on CRISPR.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

A huge deposit of potassium, which China desperately needs for agriculture, has been discovered in the northwestern province of Qinghai.

The Ministry of Land and Resources announced that almost 160 million tonnes of potassium chloride was found during a preliminary exploration in the western part of the Qaidam Basin.

The ministry expected more deposits to be discovered.

The Ministry has called the discovery a "milestone", as China currently imports 70 percent of its potassium.

Around 30 million hectares of farmland in China uses potassium; and 6 million tonnes of potassium fertilizer is imported every year.

Canada, Russia and Belarus own 60 percent of the world's potassium fertilizer resources and production.

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Chinese colleges have signed strategic agreements with their counterparts in Southeast Asian countries to train skilled railway transportation talent for ASEAN member countries.

The agreements involve a number of Chinese universities including the Beijing Jiaotong University and Guiyang Vocational and Technical College. The Chinese universities will enroll international students for two-year training programs and four-year bachelor's degree programs.

As China has inked an increasing number of contracts with ASEAN countries to build new railways, the need for technicians capable of railway construction, operations and maintenance is growing.

Under the agreements, faculty members and students from the two sides will conduct more visits to each other's countries for academic and cultural exchanges.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

Former Olympic hurdles champion Liu Xiang has filed a lawsuit against online ride-hailing service provider Didi for using his image without authorization in online ads.

In the indictment, Liu says the company released news of his retirement and six images of him through its official microblog account in 2015.

Liu said the company violated his rights of publicity for commercial use and misled the public to believe Liu had been hired as the company's brand spokesman or had cooperated with the company.

Liu requested the company to apologize, delete the web links and photos, as well as pay compensation of more than 1.2 million yuan, roughly 190,000 U.S. dollars.

It is not known when the hearing is scheduled.

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More than 40 percent of employees in Taiwan have plans to leave the island to broaden their vision and seek better opportunities.

According to an online survey released by a business services company based in Taiwan, around 10 percent of respondents said they were considering setting up businesses outside Taiwan. They cited reasons which included the highly competitive market and unfavorable environment for new businesses on the island. Catering services and public relations firms were among the most desired businesses.

According to the survey, the Chinese mainland was the first choice of destination, followed by Japan and the United States.

Daniel Lee, who carried out the survey, said the Chinese mainland was the top choice because good business relationships are already well-established, in addition to the benefits of Chinese language and culture.

More than 21 percent of respondents said they already had working experience outside the island.

The survey was conducted last month and it involved the interviewing of more than 500 office workers in Taiwan.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

Pengzhou city in southwest China is known as a home of longevity, with 50 centenarians among its population of 780,000. The seniors share some common traits for living longer, which include being optimistic and eating simple food.

Pengzhou is located 36 kilometers northwest of Sichuan Province's capital Chengdu. It has a warm weather, with abundant rainfall as well as a beautiful natural environment. Most of the long-living seniors live in the rural areas and spent the whole life in farm work.

Most of the seniors eat coarse grains and vegetables, and avoid overeating.

However, unlike most seniors in the area, 103-year-old Lin Yongqing's favorite foods are eggs and meat. Lin eats six meals a day, and his wife, who is in her 90s, is always around to cook.

Lin was an accountant in a bank and a bank cashier when he was younger. In his late years, he became keen on counting bank notes as a hobby and sometimes can do it all day long. Lin also smokes cigarettes.

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“中美大学生对话”（From University to the World）是中国国际广播电台英语中心品牌活动，迄今为止已经举办四届。金秋十月，我们将首度在美国纽约举办“2016中美大学生对话”。届时，中国国际广播电台《圆桌议事》（RoundTable）的主持人赫扬将带领获邀的中国大学生到美国与来自美国纽约大学的小伙伴们一起展望中美两国的未来，就相关话题直接对话，活动过程将通过网络平台第一时间呈现给全世界网友！

现在，我们诚邀三位中国大学生赴美参加本次对话活动，并承担中国大学生赴美参加本次活动的全部费用。只要你是在校中国大学生并年满18岁，英语够棒，头脑够灵活，反应够快，对你的祖国够了解，就有机会跟我们一起去纽约！

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2016-08-08 Special English

This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

China has urged authorities at various levels to report natural disasters in a timely and accurate manner, and those who try to conceal the truth will be punished.

The Civil Affairs Ministry says authorities must be aware that any lies will be exposed on the Internet and through new media, as the public now actively participate in disaster relief and in the supervision of officials.

The ministry says once major natural disasters occur, local civil affairs authorities should quickly assess the situation and release all relevant information. The disasters it referred to include floods, mudslides and landslides.

It notes that the authorities should not wait to be forced to release relevant information or do so under pressure from the public nor be late and inaccurate in the information released.

Last month, the mayor of Xingtai City in north China's Hebei Province apologized for inadequate response to a disaster, as well as late, inaccurate reporting of floods that killed at least 25 people in the city.

This is Special English.

Chinese tourists on the country's blacklist for uncivilized behavior will face restrictions when they take flights, join travel groups or take overseas trips.

Under a newly revised draft of travel regulations, tourism authorities at provincial and national levels can maintain the records and share the information with travel agencies and other industry organizations.

The records can also be shared with other government agencies including public security, customs, inspection and quarantine, border protection, transportation and finance.

Punishments can be imposed by travel agencies and related organizations based on the record.

Several incidents involving Chinese tourists have had a negative impact in China and overseas. The China National Tourism Administration introduced a rule last year to deal with the problem by keeping records of the violators. Nineteen people have been recorded on the blacklist so far.

The bad behavior includes violating order on public transportation, damaging public facilities, ignoring social customs at tourism destinations, as well as involvement in gambling or prostitution.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

China's on-demand mobility firm Didi has announced that it will take over Uber's China business, in a deal that could value the merged China operation at 35 billion U.S. dollars.

Uber will take a stake worth almost 6 percent in Didi. The Chinese company did not disclose the stake it will take in Uber.

Uber China's on-demand mobility service will continue to operate independently.

The deal follows China's legalization of on-demand mobility services.

The two companies have been locked in a bitter battle for customers in China, marked by huge customer discounts since last year.

Uber is one of very few foreign tech firms that have been able to compete with their Chinese rivals head-on in China. While Didi holds a majority share in China's on-demand mobility services, Uber has managed to establish a foothold, and has made inroads into lower-tier cities this year to further challenge Didi's dominance.

The competition has seen the two companies locked in a discount war in an attempt to poach passengers away from each other's platforms.

While Uber has generated over 1 billion dollars in profit from its top 30 cities worldwide, the company has not yet turned a profit in any Chinese city, even though it provides more trips in China than any other country.

This is Special English.

（全文见周六微信。）

This is Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.

China will launch a Water Cycle Observation Mission satellite around 2020, to help in forecasting hydrological events including flood and drought.

The satellite is the first geoscientific satellite to provide integrated observation of key elements of the global water cycle. China announced its plans for the satellite as the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium was held in Beijing recently.

The satellite was jointly initiated by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The academy has completed key research and tests of the satellite's payload in anticipation of further development.

A chief scientist of the project said this year's floods in southern China are an example of how water cycle movements can affect people's lives. The satellite is expected to play an important role in flood prevention, drought relief, agriculture, water resource management as well as food and environmental security.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences will cooperate with their counterparts in the United States and Europe to initiate a satellite constellation aiming to form a worldwide water cycle observation network.

The first joint satellite development program between China and France is scheduled to be launched in 2018. The program is dedicated to ocean wind and wave observation.

This is Special English.

China's new generation space tracking ship has been formally launched following a 60-day trial period. The vessel will perform maritime tracking of manned spaceflight Shenzhou-11 and other space missions later this year.

The Yuanwang-7 vessel, designed by China, marks a new high for China's space tracking technology.

The construction of the ship started in 2014. The 220-meter-long, 40-meter-high vessel has a displacement of 25,000 tons. It is capable of resisting strong typhoons and carries supplies to last for 100 days.

China boasts a fleet of seven Yuanwang space tracking ships, which have carried out some 70 expeditions and traveled more than 1.5 million nautical miles in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Shenzhou-11 will carry two astronauts to dock with Tiangong-2, China's second orbiting space lab to be launched later this year. The docking is expected to allow two astronauts to live in space for up to 30 days.

Previous generation space tracking vessels were launched in 1979, making China the fourth country to master space tracking technology after the United States, Russia and France.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.

Although many people cite religious beliefs as their motivation for the unauthorized release of animals into the wild, religious leaders do not condone the practice.

In 2014, the Buddhist Association of China and the Taoist Association of China released a joint statement, urging followers to adhere to the law when contemplating releasing animals.

The Taoist Association of China said it has repeatedly appealed to followers to respect the ecosystem as well as the laws and regulations, before they free any animals into the wild.

However, it conceded that the association's appeals have mainly fallen on deaf ears. There is a growing chain of interest involved in freeing animals. There are professional providers and purchasers of animals. Many people who claim to be devoted to freeing animals for the good of wild life are actually only interested in making money. The association said the lack of effective law enforcement is an important factor in the continuation of the practice.

Both Taoists and Buddhists regard the release of captive wildlife as a demonstration of compassion and kindness, which will result in merit or good karma.

In addition to the Chinese mainland, the practice is found in many other parts of the world where Taoist and Buddhist beliefs are popular.

This is Special English.

（全文见周日微信。）

This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

China has decided on a one-year campaign against hospital-related crimes to protect medical personnel and institutions.

Starting this month, nine agencies, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Public Security, will focus on crimes committed in hospitals or against medical staff.

The campaign sets out to improve order and safety at medical institutions.

Abuse and violence against medical staff, including some fatalities, and have harassments of staff at medical institutions, have prompted similar campaigns since 2013.

Around 4,000 organizations have been set up to mediate medical disputes and helped in 71,000 conflicts, with an estimated success rate of more than 85 percent.

The authority said medical disputes and hospital-related crimes have decreased since 2013, while doctor-patient relations have generally improved.

This is Special English.

New pill-sized robots that patients swallow to perform examinations of the digestive tract have been put into use in more than 100 Chinese hospitals.

The robot contains a magnetic positioning chip, a probe and a light. It was created by a Chinese joint venture company based in Silicon Valley in the United States.

The new invention is an alternative to a conventional endoscopy in which a probe is passed over the tongue and down the throat. It provides a 360-degree examination of the patient's stomach in 15 minutes, without causing discomfort.

The inspection results are as good as a traditional gastroscopy, but the capsule robot is easier to control and clean, which greatly reduces the risk of cross-infection.

China has a high rate of digestive tract disease. It has seen 400,000 new cases of stomach cancer on a yearly basis in the past five years. The figure represents a 42 percent of fatalities caused by the cancer worldwide.

Success in treating stomach cancer lies largely in how early it can be detected. But the discomfort associated with conventional methods makes many people reluctant to have them, affecting early detection of stomach conditions.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

The chances of having natural quadruplets are around one in 800,000. The chances of having a set of identical quadruplets are one in 11 million to 15 million, according to abcnews.go.com.

On July 7, four babies beat the odds. The identical baby girls have been born in Shanghai. The girls were delivered by Caesarean section after 31 weeks of pregnancy. They are all in good health, weighing between 1,100 grams and 780 grams.

Doctors at the hospital said the babies' condition is better than expected. Although their weight is low, their maturity is good. Only one of the newborns breathes with a ventilator when being transported.

The girls were transferred to a children's hospital and are under intensive care.

The girls' parents already had a son and a daughter. The 29-year-old mother is worried about the economic burden that comes with raising six children. The girls were conceived without the help of fertility drugs.

The hospital has seen births of quadruplets in 2004 and 2007.

This is Special English.

（全文见周六微信。）

This is Special English. I&`&m Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
Chinese scientists are expanding the capacity of an underground facility designed to detect elusive dark matter particles.
The scientists are still searching for evidence to prove the existence of the hypothetical dark matter, an invisible substance thought to account for over a quarter of the universe&`&s mass-energy balance.
The Jinping Underground Laboratory started operating in 2010. The laboratory is located 2,400 meters under a mountain in Sichuan Province. It features a store of xenon, one of the few materials that interact with dark matter. There are also cosmic rays which interfere with attempts to observe dark matter that generally cannot penetrate to such a depth underground.
Researchers at the laboratory said they have started a new phase of experiment. The lab now stores 300 kilograms of xenon, an expansion from the 50 kilograms in previous experiment.
In the future, the total amount of xenon stored in the lab will be increased to a number of tons, but it will depend on when the research funding is in place.
The new experiment will last around a year, and will go further on the way to find dark matter signals.
But the researchers said they may need to keep up their current fast pace if China is to win the race in this sector. International competition in the hunt for dark matter is fierce. Many countries are building larger detection equipment with cutting-edge technology.
This is Special English.
The bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao has moved a step closer to completion as two main bridge structures have been connected.
Macao&`&s legislature has described the connection as a milestone for the world-class project; but said there will still be many challenges before the project is finished.
By early July, 80 percent of a 7-km tunnel has been completed. A full-scale effort can now begin on the bridge deck pavement and traffic engineering.
The 55-km bridge is comprised of the offshore bridge and tunnel, boundary crossing facilities in Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao, as well as routes connecting the three cities.
The main structure of the bridge is made up of the underwater tunnel and a bridge spanning 23 kilometers. Artificial islands will be built at both ends of the tunnel.
According to the authority, the amount of iron used in the main structure alone weighs around 400,000 metric tons, enough for around 60 Eiffel Towers in Paris.
The completion of the Hong Kong section of the bridge, built independently by the Hong Kong SAR government, was postponed for a year to the end of 2017, after it was reported that the artificial islands had shifted between six and seven meters in September.
This is Special English.
Earthquake monitoring stations across China are making use of nature to supplement their man-made early warning systems.
Researchers have found that many species of animals and birds behave abnormally in the buildup to a large quake.
Although odd behavioral displays do not necessarily mean a tremor is on the way, they can be a good indicator. That&`&s according to Sun Delei, deputy chief of the quake monitoring and forecasting department at the Earthquake Bureau in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Sun&`&s bureau designated the Xinjiang Ancient Ecological Garden as an earthquake monitoring station on June 16, bringing the number of such centers in the city to 28.
It was chosen because it is home to a large number of animals, including the Ferghana horse.
Most of China&`&s earthquake monitoring stations keep animals and birds on site, including horses, pigs, dogs and parrots.
Keepers at each center record the animals&`& behavior daily, with any abnormalities reported and studied to find out if they relate to an upcoming quake.
Before the magnitude-4.2 quake in Urumqi on December 24, more than 60 parakeets that had been asleep suddenly jumped down from their perches, and the parrots were squawking for almost 30 minutes.
The development of monitoring stations was stepped up by the China Earthquake Administration in the wake of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan that left more than 69,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands injured.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Liu Yan in Beijing.
A hospital in Shanghai has announced that a healthy baby girl has been born from an embryo frozen 18 years ago.
A 45-year-old woman gave birth to the girl, weighing 3,300 grams. The embryo was implanted into her womb in November at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai.
The woman suffered from blocked fallopian tubes and began trying to get pregnant in the Shanghai hospital in 1998 through IVF, or in vitro fertilization. She had three failed implantations, one with a fresh embryo and two with frozen ones.
At the beginning of last year, she went to the hospital again and had the embryo implanted.
Frozen embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius. Shanghai health department said in 2013 that a medical institution should keep a client&`& embryos for no more than five years. However hospitals usually have to store the embryos for much longer because most clients do not ask to halt the service.
This is Special English.
Four chronic illnesses, namely cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease, topped the causes for premature deaths in Beijing.
A report released by the Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission said it was the first time a health department has released the premature mortality rate, defined as someone who dies before the age of 70.
An official at the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that when a person dies at 40 years old, he or she is considered to have lost 30 potential years of life.
The premature mortality rate is a measurement that gives more weight to the death of younger people; and it could be a guide to the health department to take a preventive action.
Of the four causes of premature death, cancer was listed at No 1. It contributed to 27 percent of all deaths in Beijing last year, an increase of 4 percent over 2014.
The report also found that lung cancer, colorectal and liver cancers were the top three that led to death in Beijing last year.
The report said that what calls for special attention is that thyroid cancer has seen a significant growth among women in Beijing. In the past ten years, thyroid cancer among women in Beijing climbed from 2 to 15 per 100,000 people.
This is Special English.
Robots, tiny drones and brainwave sensors exhibited on the sidelines of the Summer Davos in Tianjin have offered a glimpse into the future. The event was held by the World Economic Forum and also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions.
Kevin Chen spent most of the event introducing his "RoboBees" to curious visitors to the Exploration Zone. The tiny and light machines, roughly the shape of a bee, can fly and perch by flapping their wings 120 times per second, rather than using blades, as most unmanned aerial vehicles do.
Chen, a Chinese PhD candidate at Harvard University, used artificial muscles custom-made from carbon-fiber sheets to power the RoboBees. They can be used to spread pollen or search for people buried after disasters.
RoboBees were not the only animalistic drone at Summer Davos. Also on show were robots imitating the movement of snakes and spiders and designed to assume search and rescue tasks.
One of the most popular exhibits at the Exploration Zone was a brain-machine interface developed by San Francisco firm Emotiv.
When a user puts on a headset, his or her brainwaves are linked wirelessly to a small white ball and can light it up with different colors. Testers at the zone were able to move the balls with their minds.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Liu Yan in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That&`&s [email protected]. Now the news continues.
A top scorer student of the national college entrance exam has been rewarded an apartment by a local property developer in Enping City of Guangdong Province.
The exam results were announced in June in the province and Wu Zhengtao became the top scorer among all the exam takers in the city. He was granted a big apartment measuring 133-square-meter.
Wu said he never expected to win a top scour nor the apartment.
When responding to learning tips, Wu said the outcome is the result of hard study. He said he always squeezes out time to study and make full use of the time after class.
Wu was born into an ordinary family and is the only child of his parents. His mother went to Venezuela two years ago and works at a grocery store. His father runs a business in Enping City.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Liu Yan in Beijing.
The panda twin cubs born in Macao a couple weeks ago are in good health.
Macao&`&s Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau said in a report that the bigger panda cub has grown from 135 grams at birth to 167, and the smaller one from 53 to 78 grams.
Macao has formed a specialized team to take care of the cubs and their mother.
The bigger cub is strong and can feed by itself while the smaller one is fed by panda experts who collect milk from the mother.
The bureau said on June 26 that a female panda Xinxin has given birth to a pair of male twin cubs.
Xinxin and a male panda named Kaikai were chosen from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China&`&s Sichuan Province as a gift of the central government to Macao.
This is Special English.
（全文见周日微信。）

This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

Installation has been completed on the world's largest radio telescope as the last 4,000 pieces of panels were fitted into the center of the big dish.

Hoisting of the last piece of triangular panel to the reflector lasted around an hour. It was a landmark step for the telescope's planned launch of operations in September.

The telescope is the size of 30 football pitches. Around 300 people, including builders, experts and reporters, witnessed the installation at a karst valley in Pingtang County in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

Renowned science fiction writer Liu Cixin said at the site that the telescope is of great significance for humans to explore the universe and extraterrestrial civilizations. Liu won the Hugo Award for Best Novel last year.

Scientists will begin debugging and trial observation of the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope.

Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who built the telescope said the project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life.

The radio telescope will be the global leader for the next 10 to 20 years.

This is Special English.

China will be among a handful of nations that are able to build two types of satellites, both geostationary and orbiting, to monitor the entire globe.

China will put another 14 weather satellites into service by 2025, in addition to the current seven, in a bid to better monitor weather patterns to benefit society.

Since 1988, China has launched 14 satellites in its Fengyun series for meteorological observation and related services. Seven of them are still in operation.

The satellites are expected to provide complete global weather monitoring and put China on the short list of countries that build both types of satellites. The United States and Europe are also able to build both types.

The national meteorological authority said the seven weather satellites in operation scan the entire world every 25 minutes, and certain regions every six minutes.

Currently, more than 2,500 domestic users, including companies and institutes, have received data from the satellites.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

China has released a new draft regulation for adoption, which for the first time allows children who were abducted to be adopted by Chinese citizens; and the adoption is allowed if the police cannot find their biological parents within 12 months.

The police are responsible for locating abducted children's biological parents or other guardians. The draft regulation has been publicized to solicit public opinion.

New provisions in the regulation also involve the adoption of abandoned children, and those who find abandoned children should report it to the police immediately.

If efforts fail to locate the children's biological parents within three months, the police will render the abandoned children eligible for adoption.

Compared with the current regulation, the draft also simplifies some procedures, removing some unnecessary paperwork and certificates.

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The Ministry of Education says there were more than 1,300 vocational colleges for higher education in China last year.

The colleges were attended by 10 million students last year, accounting for 40 percent of all college undergraduates. The vocational institutes also provided on-the-job training to 20 million people last year.

The ministry said vocational colleges offer occupational courses and are important to transforming higher education from an elite area to one for the masses.

By the end of last year, all the provincial regions in China had established financial support systems for vocational colleges. Annual financial subsidies on each student should be no less than 12,000 yuan next year. That's roughly 1,800 U.S. dollars.

A budget of 5 billion yuan from the government is also expected in the next five years, to promote the combination of production and study and build a modern vocational education system.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

A hospital in Shanghai has announced that a healthy baby girl has been born from an embryo frozen 18 years ago.

A 45-year-old woman gave birth to the girl, weighing 3,300 grams. The embryo was implanted into the woman's womb in November at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Fudan University in Shanghai.

The woman suffered from blocked fallopian tubes and began trying to get pregnant in the Shanghai hospital in 1998 through IVF, or in vitro fertilization. She had three failed implantations, one with a fresh embryo and two with frozen ones.

At the beginning of last year, she went to the hospital again and had the embryo implanted.

Frozen embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius. Shanghai health department said in 2013 that a medical institution should keep a client' embryos for no more than five years. However hospitals usually have to store the embryos for much longer because most clients do not ask for the service to be halted.

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Four chronic illnesses, namely cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease, topped the causes for premature deaths in Beijing.

A report released by the Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission said it was the first time a health department has released the premature mortality rate, defined as someone who dies before the age of 70.

An official at the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that when a person dies at 40 years old, he or she is considered to have lost 30 potential years of life.

The premature mortality rate is a measurement that gives more weight to the death of younger people; and it could be a guide to the health department to take preventive action.

Of the four causes of premature death, cancer was listed at No 1. It contributed to 27 percent of all deaths in Beijing last year, an increase of 4 percent over 2014.

The report also found that lung cancer, colorectal and liver cancers were the top three that led to death in Beijing last year.

The report said that what calls for special attention is that thyroid cancer has seen a significant growth among women in Beijing. In the past ten years, thyroid cancer among women in Beijing climbed from 2 to 15 per 100,000 people.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Robots, tiny drones and brainwave sensors exhibited on the sidelines of the Summer Davos in Tianjin have offered a glimpse into the future. The event was held by the World Economic Forum and is also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions.

Kevin Chen spent most of the event introducing his "RoboBees" to curious visitors to the Exploration Zone. The tiny and light machines, roughly the shape of a bee, can fly and perch by flapping their wings 120 times per second, faster than using blades, as most unmanned aerial vehicles do.

Chen, a Chinese PhD candidate at Harvard University, used artificial muscles custom-made from carbon-fiber sheets to power the RoboBees. They can be used to spread pollen or search for people buried after disasters.

RoboBees were not the only animalistic drones at Summer Davos. Also on show were robots imitating the movement of snakes and spiders designed to assume search and rescue tasks.

One of the most popular exhibits at the Exploration Zone was a brain-machine interface developed by San Francisco firm Emotiv.

When a user puts on a headset, his or her brainwaves are linked wirelessly to a small white ball and can light it up with different colors. Testers at the zone were able to move the balls with their minds.

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A top scoring student in the national college entrance exam has been rewarded with an apartment by a local property developer in Enping City in Guangdong Province.

The exam results were announced in June in the province and Wu Zhengtao became the top scorer among all the exam takers in the city. He was granted a large apartment measuring 133-square-meter.

Wu said he never expected to win a top scour nor the apartment.

When responding to learning tips, Wu said the outcome was the result of hard study. He said he always squeezes in time to study and make full use of the time after class.

Wu was born into an ordinary family and is his parents' only child. His mother went to Venezuela two years ago and works at a grocery store. His father runs a business in Enping City.

Wu lives in an old 80-square-meter apartment with his grandparents and his father. He said he hopes the new home will improve the living conditions of the family.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

The panda twin cubs born in Macao a couple weeks ago are in good health.

Macao's Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau said in a report that the larger panda cub has grown from 135 grams at birth to 167, and the smaller one from 53 to 78 grams.

Macao has formed a specialized team to take care of the cubs and their mother.

The larger cub is strong and can feed by itself while the smaller one is fed by panda experts who collect milk from the mother.

The bureau said on June 26 that a female panda Xinxin had given birth to a pair of twin male cubs.

Xinxin and a male panda named Kaikai were chosen from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan Province as a gift from the central government to Macao.

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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

A Chinese university information website has released a list of 30 fake colleges. The move came as students begin applying to universities following the annual college entrance exam last month.

This is the sixth such list released by sdaxue.com. Prior to the latest release at the end last month, the website had already exposed some 400 universities as fake since 2013.

Internet users from across the country reported the names of fake colleges to the website through e-mail and social media. Website staff then investigated each case.

The fake colleges are located in 12 provinces and major cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

Most of the exposed schools in the past used deceptive names and official websites that resembled those of well-known universities. In the newly found cases, 22 of the 30 fake universities imitated the names of private institutions that provide training courses for the national adult education examination, which can also be used to seek a university degree.

The fake universities send enrollment notices, along with a bank account, earlier than real universities, and ask students to send tuition fees to the bank account before a deadline.

Police also found that three fake colleges from the mainland shared the same IP address registered in Hong Kong, suggesting the same scammers are operating multiple fake colleges.

Education authorities are coordinating with police to investigate and close the fake colleges.

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China has issued a regulation that defined prosecutors' responsibilities when supervising compulsory medical care, including the institutionalization of people with mental health conditions.

According to the regulation, prosecutors should demand reassessment of committed patients if there is any doubt about their assessment.

The regulation said prosecution agencies should demand a review of the decision, if they find someone does not meet certain criteria or a court's judgment is in question.

The review should be completed within 20 work days by prosecutors of the same level as the court that made the decision. Moreover, it stipulated that prosecutors must supervise medical care provided to subjects and the discharge process.

Prosecutors are also required to demand correction in cases where subjects are denied visits or correspondence with relatives or legal representatives, or denied regular evaluations, among other irregularities.

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China is working on a Wild Animal Protection Law to regulate the release of captive animals to the wild.

According to the draft law, only authorities at provincial level and above are allowed to organize activities involving the release of state-protected animals to the wild.

Any organization or individual releasing captive animals for certain purposes should choose indigenous species that are fit to survive in the wild, and the release should have no impact upon local people or harm the ecosystem.

The draft said that anyone who frees captive animals in a reckless manner and thus causes property damage or physical injury to others, or jeopardizes the ecosystem, will be held accountable.

The draft also noted that agencies involved in this area should disclose information regarding the issuance of documents used for the hunting, captive breeding, sale, purchase and use of protected wild animals.

Law makers said the new draft has improved the country's wild animal protection and regulation systems, properly managed the relationship between protection and utilization, balanced views of all parties involved and addressed public concerns.

China's Wild Animal Protection Law was initiated and passed in 1988. It took effect the following year.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

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This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

China's top education authorities are cracking down on toxic running tracks on campuses nationwide to protect students' health.

The Ministry of Education said on its website that any existing synthetic running tracks on campuses that are judged by environmental protection and quality inspection departments as failing to meet quality standards will be removed immediately.

It said it will work with other government departments to investigate newly renovated tracks during the summer holidays and suspend all the ongoing or planned construction of tracks at schools.

Synthetic running tracks have allegedly made students ill at schools in a number of provinces and cities since last year, attracting widespread public attention.

Problems have been found in raw materials, production, contract bidding, installation and supervision.

Several government departments, including education, housing, environmental protection and quality inspection, have been involved in joint efforts to find solutions.

The Ministry of Education said the safety of students and their health is its top priority. It said it has paid great attention to the incidents since they were first reported last year and has conducted inspections, drafted regulations and revised standards.

The ministry said it will continue to cooperate with other departments to repair the problems to ensure that the tracks at schools meet standards.

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A draft Cybersecurity Law is urging the authorities to handle cybersecurity threats from abroad more forcefully.

The law has been submitted to the top legislature for a second reading. It has a new article stating that China must monitor and deal with threats from abroad to protect the country's information infrastructure from being attacked or disrupted.

The draft law includes sanctions against threats to cybersecurity.

Experts said China should encourage businesses and institutions to evaluate and certify their cybersecurity status.

China supports research on data security protection and the opening of public data sources. The draft law stipulates that big data applications must make information anonymous and clearly defines limits on the use of citizens' personal information.

The draft stipulates that operators must comply with social and business ethics and accept supervision by both government and the public.

It includes protections for key information infrastructure and stipulates that Chinese citizens' personal information and other data collected in China should remain in the country.

This is Special English.

China is working on a Wild Animal Protection Law to regulate the release of captive animals into the wild.

According to the draft law, only authorities at provincial level and above are allowed to organize activities involving the release of state-protected animals into the wild.

Any organization or individual releasing captive animals for a variety of purposes should choose indigenous species that are fit to survive in the wild, and the release should have no impact upon local people or harm the ecosystem.

The draft said that anyone who frees captive animals in a reckless manner and thus causes property damage or physical injury to others, or jeopardizes the ecosystem, will be held accountable.

The draft also noted that agencies involved in this area should disclose information regarding the issuance of documents used for the hunting, captive breeding, sale, purchase and use of protected wild animals.

Law makers said the new draft has improved the country's wild animal protection and regulation systems, properly managed the relationship between protection and utilization, balanced views of all parties involved and addressed public concerns.

China's Wild Animal Protection Law was initiated and passed in 1988. It took effect the following year.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

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