Starting today, 33 museums in Beijing will have free admission.
Most of the museums will limit the number of visitors per day by issuing tickets.
The public will still have to pay to see such historical sites as the Forbidden City.
Indian carmaker Tata buys Jaguar and Land Rover
Tata, maker of the world’s cheapest mobile will soon sell the most expensive too.
Ford Motor Co. is selling Jaguar and Land Rover for $2.3 billion. That’s less than half the price Ford paid for the two luxury car brands.
US death count in Iraq reaches 4,000
The United States Military says the number of US soldiers who died in Iraq has reached 4,000.
The new tally comes just days after the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
Currently 160,000 US soldiers are stationed there.
Chinese women’s team has new coach
The China Football Association has fired French coach Elisabeth Loisel who took the helm of the women’s team as recently as last October.
Shang Ruihua is the new coach, who has only a few more months to get the team in shape for the Olympics.
Ding out of China Snooker Open
China’s Ding Junhui was knocked out of the 2008 World China Snooker Open in Beijing Yesterday. He was beaten by World No. 3 Shaun Murphy 5-4.
Hong Kong’s Marco Fu was also defeated 5-2 by Mark Selby.
World champion John Higgins has reached the quarterfinals.
Full
Olympic torch relay kicks off
The torch relay for the Beijing Olympics began earlier this week in Olympia, Greece.
In a ceremony, an actress dressed as a high priestess ignited the flame using a concave mirror to focus on the sun’s rays.
The torch is spending six days in Greece before being handed over to the Beijing Olympic Organizing officials on March 30.
On March 31, the torch will be arrived in Beijing at a celebration in Tiananmen Square.
The relay will span 130 days, covering 137,000 kilometers.
Beijing’s T3 in full use, new terminal opens in Shanghai
Two new airport terminals began full operations in both Beijing and Shanghai this week.
Over 20 airlines moved over to Beijing Capital International Airport’s Terminal 3.
T3 now handles 60 percent of the airport’s passenger flow.
Meanwhile, Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport opened Terminal 2. It is twice the size of the first one, at 546,000 square meters.
Fifteen airline companies are now based in Terminal 2, mostly foreign ones, like Northwest Airlines and Air India.
Sarkozy visits UK
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in London to create a “new Franco-British brotherhood”.
His model-turned-singer wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy accompanied him.
The aim of the trip is to put aside differences over the Iraq War and revitalize relations with both the UK and the United States.
He met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Queen Elizabeth II, and addressed members of both Houses of Parliament.
KMT wins Taiwan election
Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) party won the island’s leadership election by a landslide this past weekend.
Ma Ying-jeou, former KMT chairman, and his running mate Vincent Siew got 58.45 percent of the votes. Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) got 41.55 percent of the votes.
Taiwan residents also rejected two “referendums” to launch a bid to join the United Nations.
Analysts say the people are more concerned about maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.
Picture Show
Democratic rivals related to Hollywood’s sexiest
A genealogical study links Hillary Clinton to Angelina Jolie, and Barack Obama to Brad Pitt.
The New England Historic Genealogical Society found one of Obama’s distant cousins from 1769 is related to Pitt.
Clinton shares a common ancestor with actress Jolie in 1718 in Quebec, Canada.
Giant slab of Antarctic ice falls into sea
Satellite images show a large hunk of Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent.
Scientists say this last “ice buttress” could fall apart and about half the total ice shelf area could be lost in the next few years.
4th China International Press Photo Contest
In Shanghai, top news photographers works were under displayed at the 4th China International Press Photo Contest.
Pictures from top news events of the year as well as features were honored in categories such as War & Disaster, General News, Sports and Arts & Culture.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producing current affairs shows and documentaries.
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
