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This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Chinese scientists have used a targeted antibody to significantly reduce H7N9 avian flu symptoms in monkeys.

The study demonstrates patients infected with H7N9 virus often end up dead after severe pneumonia and systemic inflammation caused by acute lung infection. Part of the high death-rate of H7N9 is due to very limited effective treatment options.

The research results have been published in the British medical journal "Clinical Infectious Diseases". In the study, African green monkeys were inoculated with the H7N9 virus and treated intravenously with an antibody. The treatment markedly reduced lung infections and systemic inflammation.

The results show promising progress on helping treat the virus in humans.

The study was led by Sun Shi-hui from Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, and Zhao Guang-yu from the Academy of Military Medical Science.

Since the H7N9 avian flu killed three people in China in March 2013, the flu has repeatedly cropped up in winter and spring seasons.

The study concludes "complement inhibition may be a promising adjunctive therapy for severe viral pneumonia".

This is NEWS Plus Special English.

Chinese experts emphasized safety when giving children medication, as they called for improved healthcare for 20 percent of the nation's population.

Experts from a children rehabilitation center say that improper use of antibiotics is blamed for more than one third of China's deaf-mute children under the age of seven.

China has more than 3,500 categories of drug products, with fewer than 60 for children's use only.

Many instruction books do not contain information for children's dosage, or only have descriptions such as "children use with caution" or "a reduced amount must be used".

Some Chinese parents are found to have considered their children "miniature adults" and given their children reduced amounts of adult medications.

Experts have warned of adverse reactions when doing this. They attribute the problem to the severe shortage of pediatricians in China.

China has fewer than 70 children's hospitals with less than 260,000 hospital beds for children. According to the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the figures mean that China is lacking at least 200,000 pediatricians by the standards of developed countries.

This is NEWS Plus Special English.

More than 30,000 Beijing couples have applied to have a second child since the city eased its one-child policy in February last year.

According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, of the 30,000 applicants, almost 29,000 were approved. The number is lower than the 50,000 expected.

An official from the commission says many couples who are allowed to have a second child have chosen not to do so, but this does not mean they won't have a second child in the future.

The official says the major reason for not having a second child include the consideration for the economic and time cost for raising a second child, and the idea that having one child is enough.

Beijing is still preparing for an increase of 50,000 births each year. An extra 1,000 beds will be added in hospitals in Beijing within three years.

You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

A short, sharp flash of radio waves from a mysterious source up to 5 billion light years from Earth has been detected by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia. The organization is Australia's national science agency.

Swinburne University of Technology PhD student Emily Petroff "saw" the burst live, the first time anything like this has been seen by astronomers around the world.

Lasting only milliseconds, the first such radio burst was discovered in 2007 by astronomers combing old data archives for unrelated objects.

Six more bursts, apparently from outside the galaxy, have now been located with Parkes telescope in New South Wales, and a seventh in Puerto Rico.

Astronomers worldwide have been vying to explain the phenomenon.

Petroff said these bursts are generally discovered weeks, months or even more than a decade after they happened; and she just happened to be the first to catch one in real time.

Confident that she would spot a "live" burst, Petroff had an international team of astronomers poised to make rapid follow-up observations, at wavelengths from radio to X-ray.

After seeing the burst go off, the team swung into action on twelve other Parkes telescopes around the world, as well as space based telescopes.

The 64-meter wide Parkes radio telescope in the central west of New South Wales claimed a place in history in July 1969 when it received television transmissions of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon.