新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2013/08/22（打印版）

UK comedian Ricky Gervais planning a new film based on ‘The Office’ boss David Brent

After making landfall, forecasters are predicting Trami will continue on a straight path into Jiangxi and Hunan before dying down.

Beijing will be cloudy today, with a high of 29 degree Celsius in the daytime, and it will be clear tonight with a low of 22.

In Shanghai, it will see slight rain today, 33 the high, and it will see slight rain tonight, the low of 28 degrees Celsius.

Lhasa will be cloudy in the daytime the temperature's at 24, and tonight will have showers with a low of 10 degree Celsius.

The Syrian government is denying allegations being made by rebel forces that the Syrian military has deployed chemical weapons in fighting in the suburbs of Damascus.

The Syrian opposition is accusing President Bashar al-Assad's forces of killing nearly 1,200 people in the chemical weapon attacks.

Syrian opposition activists have posted videos online, purporting to show a number of dead people the opposition claims have been killed by "poisonous gases" overnight.

The location of the alleged attack is where heavy fighting has been taking place between rebel forces and the Syrian military.

The Syrian government is denying the allegation, calling the reports a "dirty" media war.

The new reports of chemical weapons use comes as inspectors from the UN tour other sites in Syria where chemical weapons have reportedly been used.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi says the allegation made by the rebels is fabricated to coincide with the UN inspection mission.

"The military operation that is taking place on the ground is a successful one and our forces are making progress on all sides facing the armed groups. What has forced them to fabricate this was their knowing that it is the first day of the mission and this fabrication was prepared in advance."

The alleged incident has prompted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

"The Secretary-General reiterates that any use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances would violate international humanitarian law. And the president of the Security Council has invited council members to informal consultations of the whole at 3pm this afternoon in connection with the Middle East, Syria."

The US, UK and France are calling for an immediate investigation by UN inspectors already on the ground, while Russia is urging an "objective" inquiry, saying it could be a "provocation" of the rebels to discredit Assad.

The US and European Union have been expressing concerns about what might happen to the chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria if the government of Bashar al-Assad does fall.

Washington has also warned the Syrian forces' usage of chemical weapons will be "a red line".

The Syrian government and the rebels have been accusing one-another of being behind a number of chemical weapons attacks.

Alongside with the rebel allegations, the Syrian government is accusing Turkey of supplying sarin gas to rebel forces in their battle for a town in northern Syria.

Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak has been ordered to be released on bail but is still under house arrest.

Egypt's deputy military chief has ordered former President Hosni Mubarak under house arrest.

Earlier, an Egypt court ordered Mubarak's release on bail on his last corruption case.

"This is a disgusting charade by the judiciary, the army, the police in order to reinstate Mubarak and his corrupt regime and to rob the people of their revolution."

"He should have been released a long time ago. God forgive them for what they have done and the judiciary has ordered this so that should be enough. I have complete faith in the Egyptian judiciary."

Mubarak still faces a retrial on charges of involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 unrest which toppled him.

Over the weekend, a court postponed the retrial of the former president over charges of protester death to this Sunday amid ongoing riots after the ouster of his successor Mohamed Morsi.

Meanwhile, the European Union has decided to restrict the weapons export to Egypt after the 28-member bloc's foreign ministers council meeting in Brussels.

Before the meeting, some EU members had requested the bloc to cut off the 5 billion euros financial assistance to Egypt.

But the Council failed to reach an agreement on this issue, worrying it would hurt the fragile economic situation and the people in Egypt.

"We've agreed, as well, to review the issue of our assistance to Egypt with the understanding of assistance to the most vulnerable groups and to civil society must continue. Member states have agreed to suspend export licences to Egypt of any equipment used for internal repression, and to reassess their export licences covered by the EU common position.

EU also called on all Egyptians to refrain from actions that would incite further violence.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh have met with visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin for talks in New Delhi.

The two sides have discussed key bilateral, regional and global issues, including ways to reduce trade deficits and deal with trans-border rivers.

"The bilateral relations between China and India are very important to both sides. China and India are the two biggest developing countries as well as two emerging economies, so strengthening the cooperation between China and India is significant to both sides as well as to Asia and the world."

Liu Zhenmin has also discussed a planned visit to China by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later this year.

The two sides also talked about potential cooperation on a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor.

The US soldier convicted of leaking secret government documents to Wikileaks has been sentenced to 35-years in prison.

25-year-old private first class Bradley Manning was convicted in July of 20 charges made against him including espionage.

WikiLeaks is calling the sentence a "strategic victory", as Manning is eligible for parole in less than a decade.

In a statement read out after the sentencing, Manning said he had acted "out of love for our country".

In 2010, Manning turned over more than 700-thousand classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

Lisa Windsor, a former US military lawyer said what Manning did was "nothing glorified".

"There's nothing glorified in what he did, releasing classified information just wantonly the way he did. That could have had a horrendous adverse effect on national security and could have cost service members' lives, and he really didn't consider that."

Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which carried a potential life in prison without parole.

China's top economic planner says it has no appetite to create any new stimulus packages to shore up the economy.

The National Development and Reform Commission is playing down the idea of new stimulus. It is meant to cool speculation the government was considering sidelining its economic restructuring in the second-half of the year in favor of trying to revitalize growth.

The speculation has been growing, given that earlier this month, the central government reinstated a series of high-speed railway projects in the country's central and western regions.

The Chinese economy has slowed to a 7.5 percent growth in the second quarter, which is the lowest growth rate in over 20 years.

As such, the renewed railway projects, along with a renewed interest in urban construction, have led many to speculate the government is spearheading a new set of projects to boost growth.

However, Fan Jianping, the NDRC's chief economist told foreign jounalists on Wednesday that not even a mini-version of a stimulus package should be expected for the rest of this year.

"The recent installation of key infrastructure projects should not be viewed as anything close to a stimulus. These projects were set as part of the 12th five-year plan and we are just carrying out as to what is already on the blueprint."

Fan says the renewed expansion of railway construction has been timed to follow the dismantlement of the former Railway Ministry, rather than to boost government investment.

He also contends the country's overall economic growth model is entering a new era, where growth within an 7 to 8 percent range will reign for a long time.

"We do not view the current economic slowdown as a crisis. We think the new growth range is decided by China's growth potential and will stay as the status quo of China's economic growth for the coming few years."

Fan also says China's growth potential is not on a decline because of outside factors, such as the financial crisis of 2008.

Instead, he contends the slowdown is the natural result of 3-decades of extremely-fast development.

"The slowdown we saw in the first half of this year has many aspects worth commending. We have seen a much lower risk of inflation, and no risk of deflation. And at the same time, job creation has kept up with the demand. Therefore, we think the economy improved quality-wise."

While admitting those who reaped the rewards from 30-years of rapid development may not like the new approach of managing the economy, Fan Jianping says China's new leadership is prepared to get used to it.

New analysis by the China National Coal Association through the first 7-months of this year is pointing to overcapasity still remaining a serious problem in this country's coal industry.

The CNCA report shows that the country's total coal reserve currently exceeds 200 million tons, the highest amount in the past ten years. The revenue of the coal enterprises has dropped by about 50 percent on average compared to the same period last year. Vice chairman of the association Jiang Zhimin says:

"24 of the 90 large-sized coal enterprises in our survey are operating in a deficit. This accounts for one third of the enterprises in the survey. Plus, all the enterprises in the provinces and municipalities of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Yunnan, Chongqing, Anhui and Jiangxi are experiencing losses."

Meanwhile, high prices and low demand has given overseas coal enterprises a big chunk of the Chinese market. In the first 7 months of 2013, China imported a total of 187 million tons of coal, up 14 percent from the year before. Conversely, exports declined by 22 percent to 4.9 million tons.

In the past 10 years, an overheated market attracted too many investors to the coal industry. Statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission show that from 2000 to 2005, investment in the coal industry only totaled 200 billion yuan, but from 2005 to 2010, the figure soared to more than 1.2 trillion yuan.

To curb excessive investment, the central and local governments have made policies to integrate resources within the coal industry by closing small coal mines and developing middle and large-sized ones. But in Shaanxi Province, one of China's biggest coal output provinces, most enterprises are still operating at a loss.

Han Xiaoping, chief spokesperson of China5e.com, an energy information and consulting service provider, says the harsh market may deteriorate even further in the coming years.

"The integration of resources in many places in China, through closing the small mines and expanding the large ones has created some super-sized coal enterprises, which are luring more investment into the coal industry. This is resulting in overcapacity in the industry."

Once a coal mine is built, it needs to maintain operations at a certain level to ensure its survival. Excessive production may push current overcapacity situation to even more embarrassing levels.

In the first six months, the net profit of the country's large- and medium-sized coal producers declined by more than 43 percent from the same period last year.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal, with official data showing the country's coal production as exceeding 3.6 billion tons in 2012.

The control of the civilian satellite has been given to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

"Shijian-9 has mainly been used to test new space technology and products, including electric propulsion systems. It has improved the reliability and the service life of Chinese aerospace systems."

The satellite was launched in October and performed very well during its almost 10 months of tests in orbit.

The satellite collected color images of the earthquake-affected Minxian County and Zhangxian County in Gansu Province shortly after the July earthquake.

The market fluctuated in response to the minutes of Fed's July meeting , as investors analyzed implications of the minutes from different perspectives.

The personal computer maker met market expectations on earnings but missed analysts' forecasts on revenue for its Q3 shortly after the closing bell.

In Europe, European stocks fell on Wednesday, after a sell-off the previous day, as investors avoided making fresh bets before Federal Reserve minutes.

Minutes of the U.S Federal Reserve's July policy meeting provide no clear timing of stimulus tapering.

The Minutes released on Wednesday show top officials from the Fed remained divided on the timing of scaling back its stimulus program.

A few members emphasized the importance of evaluating additional information on the economy before deciding on any changes to the pace of asset purchases.

At the same time, a few others suggested that it might soon be time to slow somewhat the pace of purchases.

Minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee are usually made available with a three-week lag.

Investors were scrutinizing the minutes of the July meeting as it is widely expected that the Fed would initiate the tapering as early as September.

It's being reported private capital here in China is getting closer to becoming a reality in the banking sector.

A number of media reports are suggesting the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has given preliminary approval to the establishment of 'Sunan Bank'.

Other candidates up for the approvals are Shenyang Ruifeng Bank in Liaoning Province, Xi'an Great Wall Bank in Shaanxi, Guangdong Nanhua Bank and Shenzhen Dongyue Bank.

The Chinese authorities have been slowly working toward the establishment of privately-held banks for the better part of a year.

For more on the issue, we're joined live on the line now by Cao Can, CRI's financial commentator.

1 How do you rate the impact of this breakthrough, particularly as many media reports have coined it in terms of changing the competitive landscape in the banking sector?

2 How do you think the government will lower the bar for market access while also maintaining a vigilant watch on risk control?

3 We see that the reform is at a crucial stage in the financing sector, do you think the 'gradual transition' policies applied to other segments could still work here?

Or maybe we should framework a mechanism with clarification on banking deposits, market access rules and exit rules before opening the sector?

4 So do you think rural banking will be a good linkage for private capital to participate in the banking sector or anything else?

News stats show transactions in China's booming online business-to-consumer, or B2C market reached 157.2 billion yuan in the second quarter this year.

The report by Analysys International says B2C sales bounced from a mild first quarter as promotions by major e-retailers spurred consumption.

Meanwhile, the internet research company is reporting competition in the fresh produce segment of China's B2C market turned fierce in the second quarter.

Analysys says companies with bricks-and-mortar chain stores are more likely to succeed in the segment.

The report estimates B2C sales during the July-September period would grow by 65 percent from the second quarter as retailers continue their aggressive sales push.

The Ministry of Finance will be requiring the fiscal budgets and the so-called 'three public consumptions' be published above county level governments by 2015.

The "three public consumptions" refer to spending on official receptions, vehicles and overseas trips.

Provincial governments will also have to select at least 20-percent of their sub-government budgets to be released to the public this year.

New stats from a local real estate agency are suggesting Chinese buyers are responsible for 27-percent of all newly-built home purchases in central London last year.

The same stats also show that through the first half of this year, home buyers from the mainland have reportedly spent a total of 170 billion British pounds in real estate deals in the UK capital.

"Some buy houses because their children have come to the country to study, some are planning to emigrate to the UK, while some simply purchase property for investment purposes as rents are high and home prices are rising steadily in London."

The analysis is also suggesting Asian buyers, from China in particular, has helped boost the local construction industry in London.

However, at the same time, they say Chinese interest in London's real estate sector has also been pushing up home prices.

New stats show U.S. home re-sales jumped in July to their highest level in over three years.

The data suggests a sharp increase in borrowing costs is having only a limited impact on the housing market's recovery.

The National Association of Realtors in the U.S. is reporting existing home sales jumped 6.5 percent.

Observers say the better-than-expected performance in the housing market could make the Federal Reserve more comfortable with its plans to taper off the current stimulus program.

Since early May, mortgage rates for 30-year loans have risen more than a percentage point.

Last week, the average rate for a 30-year mortgage climbed 12 basis points to 4.68 percent.

Wells Fargo & Co, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, is reportedly set to cut 23-hundred jobs in its home loan business.

Fewer customers are looking for refinancing, interest rates rises are being cited as the reason.

Wells Fargo says the cuts would represent around 3.3 percent of the bank's consumer lending employees.

It's being reported Wells Fargo had over 11,000 mortgage loan officers on its payroll at the end of March.

Mortgage refinancing made up more than 70 percent of U.S. home lending volume in the first half of 2013.

The number has fallen to around 50 percent of lending now and is expected to fall further in coming months.

The Syrian government is denying allegations being made by rebel forces that the Syrian military has deployed chemical weapons in fighting in the suburbs of Damascus.

The Syrian opposition is accusing President Bashar al-Assad's forces of killing nearly 1,200 people in the chemical weapon attacks.

The new reports of chemical weapons use comes as inspectors from the UN tour other sites in Syria where chemical weapons have reportedly been used.

The alleged incident has prompted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak has been ordered to be released on bail but is still under house arrest.

Mubarak still faces a retrial on charges of involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 unrest which toppled him.

Meanwhile, the European Union has decided to restrict the weapons export to Egypt after the 28-member bloc's foreign ministers council meeting in Brussels.

But the EU failed to reach an agreement on whether to cut off the 5 billion euros financial assistance to Egypt.

Chinese government is vowing to continue its support to Zimbabwe ahead of the sworn-in of the re-elected president Robert Mugabe.

Special envoy, minister of civil affairs Li Liguo has told Mugabe that Chinese government will continue to support Zimbabwe's efforts to maintain stability and seek development.

For his part, Mugabe says Zimbabwe will carry on its traditional friendship with China.

China is now Zimbabwe's top foreign investor, with bilateral trade topping 1 billion US dollars.

After making landfall, forecasters are predicting Trami will continue on a straight path into Jiangxi and Hunan before dying down.

Dozens of illegal Chinese workers have been detained in southern Russia's Volgograd.

Police say they don't have legal residency documents and some of them even don't have a passport.

Russian authorities have promised to provide the detained Chinese workers with necessary aid before repatriating them back to China.

Two men have been detained in Beijing for fabricating online rumors and maliciously harming the reputation of others.

Yang Xiuyu, founder of the Erma Company, and employee Qin Zhihui, were allegedly found to have created and spread of online rumors and taken profits from their illegal acts.

China's anti-doping authorities say there has been a significant rise in doping violations in the first half of the year, likely related to the upcoming national games which will be used to appraise the work of local sports authorities.

Police in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, have broken up a criminal network across four provinces responsible for trafficking 10 boys under 12 months old since March last year.

All the babies have been found to live with their adoptive parents except one who is being kept in the city's welfare home.

Legal experts suggest that parents who intentionally sell their children should be deprived of custody rights and those who purchased children should be given stiff penalties.

A former university president has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking 1.13 million yuan ($184,416) in bribes.

Xu took bribes when he was the vice-president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, chairman of four companies run by the university, and president of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

The pilot zone will mainly comprise of professional senior's apartments, communities (Continuing Care Retirement Community) and nursing stations in the neighborhoods.

Construction of the project will start soon in Huacao Town in Hongqiao area and will be ready around 2015.

At the just-concluded Shanghai Book Fair, one of this year's highlights has been the Charlotte's Books Reading Competition, which was set up to try to encourage more children to read.

A Chinese boy reads a paragraph from the well-known short novel The Happy Prince on a center stage in the Children's section of the Shanghai Book Fair. He is very attentive in his reading, and although he loses his footing at the pronunciation of certain words, he does his best to read the story loudly and clearly.

Off the stage, the other young competitors are busy preparing, reading the paragraph again and again. Yu Jiayi is a 7 year ago girl who sounds innocent when reading aloud; she says she likes reading a lot.

The judges of the Charlotte's Books Reading Competition are professional readers. Liang Hui, a host at Radio Shanghai tells the young competitors to use their voices to build the characters in the story. Apparently, the children could not control their voices very well. Huang Ying, a producer at Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio says that as a judge she is looking for potential and hoping to hear the joy of reading from them.

"We are NOT looking for perfect pronunciation and intonation from the children, but for their love of words and sounds. I would be happy if I could see their passion and understanding of the story they read."

Liang Hui, an experienced radio host, says reading aloud is one of the best ways to help children build up their abilities in reading comprehension and self- expression. In the context of competitions, children usually try their best to learn quickly and win.

Wu Hong is Vice Chief Editor of Shanghai Translation Publishing House, and one of the event organizers. He says that the publishing house started the reading competition last year. Having observed the previous young participants, they now organize a range of activities, including this reading competition, in the hope of attracting more interest from children.

More than ten competitors, young and old, that were selected from hundreds have read on the stage. It appears that no one really cares about the result of the competition; everyone is here to enjoy reading and share in the joy of reading aloud.

Let's go first to the Ashes. Australia is in control after day one of the fifth and final test at the Oval.

The tourists finished the day on 307-4, mainly thanks to Shane Watson's first century against England.

Watson was helped along to his ton by the wayward bowling of England debutants Chris Woakes and Simon Kerrigan.

Credit is also due to Steve Smith, who shared a 145-partnership run with Watson, and will resume day two on 66.

England is getting some flak for its inclusion of Kerrigan and Woakes, two untested players who weren't necessary to the lineup.

But with a 4-0 series lead, and the Ashes urn in hand already, others say England can afford to experiment.

The ex-test batsman tested positive for two illegal stimulants, which he traced back to a seemingly innocent dietary supplement he took to lose weight.

" I was devastated. I had no idea what it was. But you know it's a risk to take supplements. You try and find out as much as you can on the ingredients, if they're banned and it came back with nothing so. I thought it would be alright to use."

The 29 year old is a suporter of Drug Free Sport New Zealand, and said he was shocked to fail the drug test in the first place.

However, because the ban was backdated to April, Ryder will not be prevented from participating in the upcoming first-class season, which starts on October 19.

After a three week break, drivers are preparing for this weekend's Belgium Grand Prix.

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was the victor back in 2008, and fifth place finisher last year.

Massa currently sits in seventh in the drivers championship, and is hoping for another successful race in Belgium to better his individual position.

Meanwhile, teammate Fernando Alonso is not looking forward to Belgium's historic Spa Circuit.

"It's more hate than love I think in Spa. Obviously I did well in 2005 and in Formula 3000, but in the rest of the years, it's true that in Spa I've never felt comfortable and I've never had a good result. Sometimes because we've been a little bit unlucky, sometimes some mechanical issues, sometimes driver errors. So hopefully this time we can change that."

The Spaniard is currently in third, 39 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel, and a single point behind second-place Kimi Raikkonen.

Great Britain's James Ward and Elena Baltacha are through to the second round of US Open qualifying.

Ward defeated Frenchman Jonathan Eysseric in two sets. But Baltacha needed three to get past American Melanie Oudin.

Both need just two more victories to secure a place in the main draw of the final Grand Slam of the year.

China's top club, Guangzhou Evergrande, beat Qatar's Lekhwiya 2-0 in the first leg of the Asian Champions League quarterfinals.

Both Evergrande's goals came late in the second half, one from Dario Conca and the other from Brazilian midfielder Elkeson.

Evergrande's World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi had an impressive run in the Chinese Super League this past season, winning 18 of the team's 21 matches.

Khosro Heidari sent the ball spinning from outside the area, taking the goalkeeper by surprise.

And Kashiwa Reysol of Japan were held to a 1-1 draw by Al-Shabab of Saudi Arabia. Al-Shabab hadn't played a competitive match since May, while Japan were on a seven-match winning streak.

UK comedian Ricky Gervais has revealed he is planning a film based on his horrible boss David Brent character from The Office.

Gervais originally starred as Brent in the BBC comedy which ran for two seasons plus a Christmas episode and inspired the hit US show of the same name starring comedian Steve Carell.

Since the show's cancellation in 2003 Gervais has continued to appear as Brent most notably in a youtube channel entitled Learn Guitar with David Brent.

Now the actor has revealed his web presence is the first step in producing a full length feature film about the character.

He has also teased his web show will be for the basis of the movie as Brent tries to make it into the music industry.

Gervais also plans to record an album as his alter-ego and donate the proceeds to charity.

He will also sing a duet with Kermit the Frog in the next muppets movie Muppets Most Wanted.

French actress Marion Cotillard has replaced US actress Natalie Portman in the upcoming film adaptation of Macbeth.

Award winning Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel known for his work on 2011's Snowtown will direct the pair.

Kurzel recently praised Cotillard as being one of the bravest and most compelling actors he has seen in years.

The new film will retain the original setting of Shakespeare's text, in war-torn 11th-century Scotland and keep the original language.

Cotillard joins the ranks of other notable actresses who have taken on Lady Macbeth in the past including Francesca Annis, Judi Dench, and Keeley Hawes.

In the mid-1960s ex-Beatle John Lennon gave his housekeeper one of his teeth, an extracted molar, and suggested she give it to her daughter who was a big Beatles fan.

The tooth stayed in the family until 2011 when it was sold at an auction for over 30-thousand US dollars.

Now the new tooth owner, Canadian dentist Michael Zuk, has been using the tooth for a variety of purposes like touring it around the UK to promote the dangers of mouth cancer and giving a fragment to his sister to use in a piece of art.

Zuk now claims his new goal is to extract DNA from the molar in an attempt to clone the deceased musician.

On his website he suggests since science is close to cloning the extinct wooly mammoth he doesn't see a reason why Lennon's DNA wouldn't be able to be sequenced thus bringing the legendary rocker back.

Legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood will likely replace equally famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg as director for the new film American Sniper.

Spielberg reportedly dropped out of the project earlier this month over budget issues and now it looks like Eastwood is in preliminary talks to take the helm.

Hangover actor Bradley Cooper will take the role of Chris Kyle the real life sniper for the US Army who has the most confirmed kills from his time in the armed forces.

The film is based on the book of the same name and will most likely begin shooting early next year.

新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 08:00 2013/08/22（在线收听）