新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 20:00 2015/01/30（打印版）

Welcome to the Beijing Hour; we are coming to you live from the Chinese capital.

At least 20 people are dead following a bombing at a Shia mosque in southern Pakistan

Over two-dozen people are dead in a series of attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

In business.... new reports are suggesting embattled Chinese developer Kaisa may have a buyer.

In sports... Zheng Jie and her partner from Taiwan come up just short in the women's doubles final in Australia.

In entertainment.... tragedy strikes on the set of a new film being directed by Martin Scorcese.

Beijing will be clear tonight, with a low of minus 8. It will be sunny tomorrow, with a high of 4 degrees.

Chongqing will be rainy tonight, 5 degrees the lowest. The wet spell continues with slight rains tomorrow, with high of 7.

At least 20 people are dead following a bombing at a Shia mosque in southern Pakistan.

At least 50 others have been wounded in the attack, which took place following Friday morning prayers in the province of Sindh.

The death toll is expected to rise, as many of the wounded are in a critical condition.

But Sunni militant groups have targeted the Shia minority in Pakistan in the past.

At least 26 people, mostly soldiers, have been killed in a series of attacks by Islamist militants in the north of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

A car bomb and rockets hit a military base and a military hotel in the city of El-Arish.

Other attacks have also taken place in the town of Sheik Zuwayid and in Rafah, which is situated along Egypt's border with Gaza.

Thursday's attacks represent some of the worst anti-government violence in Egypt in months.

The attacks come at the same time Egyptians took to the streets to mark the 4-year anniversary of Hosni Mubarak being unseated as President.

For more on the violence in Egypt, CRI's Poornima Weerasekara spoke to Ben Liang, a freelance Journalist and an expert on Egyptian affairs.

The fates of the Japanese journalist and Jordanian military pilot being held by the Islamic State remain unknown, a day after the latest deadline for a possible prisoner swap came and went.

There has been no further communication from the Islamic State after the latest video released on Tuesday.

The Jordanian government says it will only release an al-Qaida prisoner from death row if it is given proof the Jordanian airman is alive.

The Islamic State has already assassinated the other Japanese hostage after the Japanese government refused to give in to a 200 million US dollar ransom demand.

The Chadian army says it's been able to drive Boko Haram militants out of a town in northeast Nigeria.

The capture of the town, which lies close to the borders of Chad and Niger, comes after two days of heavy fighting.

This comes a week after Nigeria allowed Chadian troops to engage Boko Haram militants in its territory.

The Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has begun spilling over into villages and military bases in neighboring Cameroon.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has made the fight against Boko Haram one of his key campaign pledges in the lead-up to the presidential elections, which are set to take place on February 14th.

"Before this time about five local governments where under the control of Boko Haram in this state. So many people lost their lives not to talk about properties. As we are talking today Michika local government was recaptured by our gallant forces today. We will soon recover all our territories. All of us here feel burdened. I feel so burdened about the excesses of Boko Haram."

It's estimated over a million people have been displaced in the 6-year insurgency.

Boko Haram, which literally translates to Western Education Is Banned, is fighting to establish Sharia law in northern Nigeria.

The latest round of Russian-backed Syrian peace talks have ended without any major breakthroughs.

Vitaly Naumkin, who heads the Moscow-based Institute for Eastern Studies, moderated the discussions.

"All the participants in the talks have reached an understanding and consensus about this document. Both sides have agreed to build a national platform for political consultations so that all Syrians can work together, in inclusive dialogues with no strings attached, to tackle the outstanding problems and contradictions as they aim for the resolution of Syria's crisis."

The four-day session has seen group representing the official Syrian opposition and representatives of the government meet in Moscow.

Syria political opposition groups backed by the United States and its allies were not part of the process.

That faction isn't willing to sit down with the Bashar al-Assad government unless commitments are made for him to step down.

More than 200-thousand people have been killed in the civil war, which began in 2011.

Around 30 different music companies and platforms in China have launched an Online Music Copyright Association in an attempt to battle piracy.

Over 10 well-known record companies in China and abroad have joined the copyright network, including Sony, Warner and Decca records.

Several online music platforms, including QQ, KuGoo and Koowo are also part of the Association.

"The self-discipline convention regulates us, the web-managers, on our own. If we find any unauthorized online music or music without proper copyright, we have to take it down. At the same time, members of the copyright association can notify us about any pirated music in our system. This way, we can clear it off our lists after we verify it's not copyrighted."

One is called the "Anti-Piracy Declaration" while the other is the "Self-discipline Convention".

Piracy and free downloads remain rampant in the online music industry in China, despite attempts to crack down on copyright infringement.

Chinese composer Li Haiying is one of those battling for more to be done to protect copyrights.

"I have been involved in two lawsuits with big music companies. But I was reluctant to get involved. I don't think any musicians or artists want to become embroiled in lawsuits, because we don't want to be involved in legal battles all the time. "

Meanwhile, Xie Guomin, CEO of the China Music Corporation, says pirated music has negative consequences for the entire music industry.

"The piracy issue has destroyed the whole system of online music, regardless of the music quality, its market or administration. As such, companies cannot earn much, and listeners are getting watered-down products. Another reason is that we do not have well-defined rules to protect the whole industry."

A recent report conducted by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry suggests China's online music market ranks 21rd in the world, with its online music consumers reaching over 400-thousand people.

A new survey is suggesting that two-in-every-five people in China plan to spend their week-long Spring Festival holiday overseas thanks to looser visa policies.

The number of bookings by outbound Chinese tourists has almost doubled this year from the same period last year.

Chinese travel portal ly.com is suggesting Chinese outbound tourists are more willing to travel to neighboring places in Asia than anywhere else.

South Korea tops the destination list, followed by Hong Kong and Macao, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Maldives and Singapore.

"Spring Festival tours to Japan and South Korea are extremely popular. So judging from the applications we've got now, tour groups from 16th to 22nd February are fully packed."

Dai Bin with the China Tourism Academy says many countries including the United States, Japan, certain European countries and Australia, have launched easier visa services for Chinese nationals, or have waived their visa requirements all-together.

"Apart from the extended period of validity, visa facilitation also makes it easier and less costly for tourists to obtain visas, including visa on arrival, visa-free and group visa. The eased visa policies have made it more convenient for Chinese people to travel overseas."

The falling exchange rate of several currencies including the U.S. dollar, Australian dollar, Euro and Japanese yen is also proving to be an incentive for many people to travel abroad.

The Lunar New Year is China's most important family holiday, with hundreds of millions of people returning to their hometown to meet with families and old friends.

But spending the holiday traveling abroad is also quickly becoming a notable alternative.

It's believed between the first and third day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the prices for tour packages are likely to be pushed up by around 25-percent due to the increased demand.

A new survey is suggesting most people who use Wechat aren't happy with the new ads that have been added to the Moments function.

Recent online voting conducted by China Central Television shows more than 80 percent of Wechat users consider the ads to be commercial harassment.

"I am disgusted with it. Wechat Moments is a platform that should help me learn what's going on with my friends and let my friends know what I am doing now. Ads among my friends' feeds is an annoyance."

The popular messaging app, owned by Tencent, began testing sponsored ads last week.

Zhang Jun, spokesman for Tencent, says the company attaches great importance to the user experience.

"An ad will appear in a place no higher than the fifth post on the page. A user will receive only one ad within a certain period of time while it will disappear automatically if left unnoticed for hours."

Brands invited to take part in the test include BMW, Coca-Cola, and Cadillac.

Users receive different ads depending on their past behavior, and are invited to "like" and post comments.

Many wechat users have mocked it, some with self-deprecating humor, noting that they've been identified as being able to afford only a bottle of coke, while others receive ads for automobiles.

Experts suggest that besides ad content and the way it circulates, marketers should also pay attention to how users "like" an ad recommended by friends.

But despite a drastic increase in user population, it has struggled to monetize that user base.

First, let's have a look at the numbers across the Asian markets this Friday evening.

Both bourses have been negatively impacted after another round of inspections into margin trading.

13 accounts on the Shenzhen bourses have been found to have been manipulated by a certain brokerage firm.

At close, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell over one and a half percent.

Insurance firms and brokerages again led the losses, both dumping over 3 percent.

Japan's Nikkei ended nearly half a percent higher on strong corporate earnings.

Alibaba Faces Possible Class Lawsuit in the States over Fake Goods White Paper

Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba have gone through a second-straight day of selloffs on the Nasdaq following the release of the company's fourth quarter revenues.

However, the 4.2 billion dollars in revenue still missed market expectations of 4.4 billion.

At the close on Thursday, Alibaba's shares declined nearly 9 percent, carving 22 billion dollars off the company's estimated market value.

This comes as the company faces a potential class action lawsuit from a group of its investors in the coming days.

A group of Alibaba investors has hired US law firm Pomerantz to investigate whether Alibaba is liable to its shareholders in its dispute with the Chinese government connected to an analysis of fake goods being sold on Alibaba's main e-commerce platform, Taobao.

The White Paper on shoddy goods sold on Chinese e-commerce sites became public earlier this week, which has suggested Taobao is the worst among all the e-commerce companies reviewed, with just over one-third of its products meeting quality standards.

However, there are allegations the analysis, which was completed last year, should have been available in July, which is at least 2-months before Alibaba went public with its 20-billion dollar IPO.

Frustrated investors want lawyers to investigate whether it was China's business regulators, or the company itself, which withheld the analysis.

Taobao has publically refuted the results of the analysis, suggesting the inspector in-charge didn't do enough screening of the products themselves.

A merger of China's top two nuclear power companies has been approved by the cabinet.

The State Council has given the green-light to the integration of China Power Investment and the State Nuclear Power Technology.

They're coming together to create a new conglomerate which focuses on overseas contracts.

A cabinet meeting earlier this week has earmarked high-speed trains and nuclear energy as two key engines for Chinese export.

News of the merger has sent the shares of both companies up over 4-percent this Friday.

State Nuclear Power Technology is among the three state-owned nuclear giants.

The state-run giant is the company trying to create so-called 3rd generation nuclear power technology.

China Power Investment has a license to export technology to overseas markets.

Fiscal revenue growth in China dropped to a 23-year low this past year, posting an increase of 8.6-percent.

Slower growth in industrial profits is being pointed to as the main reason for the slowdown.

The Ministry of Finance also contends its changes to the tax structure have contributed to the decline in revenues.

It appears embattled Chinese property firm Kaisa is going to be "pulled from the fire."

Caixin Media is reporting Sunac China has agreed to buy a 49.3-percent stake in the troubled land developer.

Sunac is going to purchase its nearly 50-percent stake from the Kwok brothers, who still technically control the developer.

One of the brothers has fled China after the company's assets were frozen last year.

Kaisa had been approached by China Vanke's Shanghai branch about a possible deal.

But that partnership fell through after Kaisa's attempt to sell-off properties in the cities of Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Shanghai were blocked by regulators.

North American production firm Lions Gate Entertainment has announced plans for a 1.5-billion US dollar film project with Hunan TV, China's second largest broadcaster.

As part of the deal, Lions Gate will distribute Chinese films produced by Hunan TV in overseas markets.

At the same time, Hunan TV will enjoy exclusive rights to distribute four Lions Gate movies in China per year.

For more on the new deal, the Beijing Hour's Shane Bigham spoke earlier with Doug Young, associate professor at Fudan University and former China company news chief at Reuters.

Gold has posted its biggest single-day drop in over a year, dipping 2.4-percent overnight.

Gold is now trading at 12-hundred-55-dollars-90-cents US, down 31-dollars-30-cents through Thursday's trading.

The downturn comes after the US Federal Reserve re-affirmed it is still on track to raise interest rates later this year.

Chinese internet giant Tencent has secured the exclusive live-streaming rights for NBA games.

The company is paying 100-million US dollars to become the only network in China to legally screen every game of all 30 teams.

Tencent is also paying for the ability to allow other network platforms to broadcast the games as part of its licensing agreement.

At least 26 people are dead and 58 others wounded in a series of attacks by militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt's state Television is reporting a car bomb and mortars hit military targets in El-Arish, killing a number of soldiers.

Other attacks have also taken place in the nearby town of Sheik Zuwayid and at the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

Tensions have been running high across Egypt this week amid protests marking the 4th anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.

Despite opposition from the new Greek government, The EU has decided to extend its sanctions against Moscow for its failure to help end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

These are the same people and groups which were originally hit with sanctions after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March.

In extending the sanctions, the European Union has decided not to expand them.

The US Senate Banking Committee has voted to advance a new bipartisan sanctions bill on Iran for a full-floor vote.

The bill would provide tougher sanctions if Iran fails to sign up to a new nuclear deal by the end of June.

US President Barack Obama has been advising Congress not to put the bill forward, suggesting it could upset the balance of negotiations.

Diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, have been meeting with their Iranian counterparts to try to pave the way for a final deal by June 30th.

Eight others managed to survive after a car collided with a minibus on the Yuwan Highway this Friday morning.

The accident comes amid the start of the annual traffic rush ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, which is just 3-weeks away.

A man in Heilongjiang has been executed for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old.

The couple lured the teenager to their home in the city of Jiamusi, then attempted to drug and rape her.

During her testimony, the wife revealed she had cheated on her husband numerous times, and when he found out, she lured the girl to their home in an attempt to please him.

The Spring Festival, China's Lunar New Year, is expected to see another peak in job hopping as workers receive their year-end bonuses, according to the Beijing Morning Post.

Other opportunities after the Lunar New Year may also be an important motivation for departing employees.

The Beijing Second Intermediate Court says about nine percent of the labor dispute cases it handles are related to issues of unpaid year-end bonuses and employment changes after China's most important festival.

It also says that more than 70 percent of job-hoppers are under 35 years old and work in labor-intensive industries, such as construction, logistics, sales, catering, and the production and processing sectors.

Experts suggest that in order to prevent labor disputes, employees should inform employers 30 days in advance and finish all necessary handovers before terminating their labor contracts.

Pregnant villagers in east China have been alleged to be illegally determining the sex of their unborn children.

Lian Fang, a political advisor in Shandong Province, said doctors in Shandong's rural areas have been surreptitiously purchasing B ultrasound machines and hiding them in villagers' back rooms.

Once the equipment is used to ascertain fetal gender, unborn boys are usually kept while unborn girls are typically aborted, Lian said at Shandong's "two sessions".

Preference for boys is not uncommon in China, particularly in the countryside, where thousands of years of feudal values are still casting a shadow over people's attitudes.

A local official said the male to female proportion had exceeded 120 to 100 in some parts of Shandong.

Statistics show that, as of the end of last year, the Chinese mainland held nearly 34 million more males than females.

A surgical robot fitted with multiple arms has carried out its debut operation in England, in a technology breakthrough that will make new treatments possible for the first time.

The Da Vinci XI, which is hand-operated by surgeons, has the ability to make tiny and precise incisions, replacing some traditional operations that require cutting patients open and months of recovery, with far less invasive keyhole surgery.

Surgeons at London's Royal Marsden Hospital hailed the technology as pushing the boundaries in surgery, particularly in cancer care, as they completed the first operation on a patient with a tumor on Thursday.

During the operation, four arms of the robot were used simultaneously to make separate microscopic incisions on the 58-year-old woman, while two surgeons controlled them.

The Royal Marsden Hospital said the robot is the latest model to arrive in England from the US.

A new study suggests that the rise in childhood obesity, which has left one in three UK children overweight, may be beginning to level off in the under-10s.

There was a steady rise in the proportion of overweight children between 1994 and 2003, but in the past decade it has remained at about 30%.

The King's College London researchers add obesity rates among 11- to 15-year-olds are still rising, however.

Experts believe that being significantly overweight is responsible for a wide range of health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and infertility.

The number of obese people in the UK has more than trebled in the past 25 years.

Obesity levels among children have also been rising. One in three children in the UK is now overweight, while one in five is obese.

Beijing-based Today Art Museum, China's first private museum, is putting on a water-ink art show in Italy.

The Venice Biennial is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years, usually in odd years, in Venice, Italy.

Ever since its foundation in 1895, it has been developed into one of the most prestigious cultural gala in the world, promoting new artistic trends and organizing international events themed on contemporary arts.

Yang Jie, an experienced curator, values this platform and also plans an exhibition that revolves around the development and future of China's water-ink.

"We install a total of seven libraries from time to time in history at the venue. Chinese traditional classic pieces by painters dating back to different historic era will be on display and they will be interpreted via modern approaches. This way the exhibition is expected to provoke deep thinking on what are the core values of modern as well as traditional water and ink works of art."

Integrating calligraphy, poetry and painting, the Chinese tradition of "ink art" stretches far beyond works in ink, to embrace a set of aesthetic principles centered on renewal and reinterpretation of the past.

Despite the large wave of enthusiastics collecting valuable Chinese water-ink works, Yang Jie thinks not all collectors are able to well interpret meaning behind those artworks.

"In recent years, China's water-ink works have evoked fanatic enthusiasm worldwide. There's lack of correct understandings about the core values of this unique expression of Chinese art, The Venice Biennale, a renowned world leading-edge platform of art, offers us a chance for an in-depth consultation on the Chinese water and ink works."

This Chinese orientated water-ink exhibition will be held in Venice, Italy in May.

American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic won the Australian Open women's doubles title in their first tournament as a combination.

They beat the cross-strait pairing of Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei, and the mainland's Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-6 in today's final.

It marked the first time a new pairing has won a Grand Slam title since Nathalie Dechy of France and Russia's Dinara Safina took the 2007 U.S. Open title.

Zheng said that a lack on confidence on her part may have contributed to the loss:

"I think the first two serves went well, but I was not confident enough to break my opponent's serves. Both sets were pretty close, so if I could have broken her serve and took more winners, the match would have turned out differently."

"We are upset about losing the game of course, but our opponents really did a good job, we congratulate them sincerely. I still have a long way to go I know, but luckily, I am still young and have a lot of fire in me."

Chan and Zheng twice served for the second set. Mattek-Sands clinched the match with a backhand to the open court in the tiebreaker.

Mattek-Sands, who received treatment on her right hamstring several times during the match, won the 2012 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Horia Tecau of Romania.

Earlier in the mixed doubles semi-final, Leander Paes' incredible behind-the-back volley leveled the opening set for him and his partner Martina Hingis.

The pair went on to beat Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the final.

Guangdong Southern is first in the league with 33 wins, followed closely by Liaoning who have 30.

Qingdao and the Beijing Ducks are tied with 26 wins a piece, followed by Jilin, Shanxi and Guangsha, all with 25 wins this season.

Zach Randolph had 15 points and 17 rebounds as the Memphis Grizzlies built an early lead and never look back to a 99-69 win over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

Courtney Lee, Nick Calathes and Beno Udrih scored 11 apiece for the Memphis, who won its fifth straight. Marc Gasol had 10 points and Jeff Green added 13 points.

Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried each scored 10 points for Denver, which lost for the eighth time in the last nine. Ty Lawson contributed nine points and six assists.

Austria's Bernd Wiesberger continued his excellent recent form to take the first round lead at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Wiesberger, who was sixth in Abu Dhabi and third in Qatar after being pipped by playing partner Branden Grace in the final round, carded eight birdies in a flawless round of 64.

That was enough to top a star-studded leaderboard, with former World Number One Lee Westwood, South Africa Open winner Andy Sullivan, American Peter Uihlein and big-hitting Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts a shot further back.

World number one Rory McIlroy also made an excellent start as he attempted to turn his recent good form into victory at Emirates Golf Club, but a wayward drive led to a bogey at the ninth - his last - and left him two adrift of Wiesberger.

The Seattle Seahawks will defend their Super Bowl title on Sunday against the New England Patriots, who are aiming for their fourth Super Bowl victory.

The game pits one of the league's best offenses, directed by quarterback Tom Brady, against the vaunted Seattle defense.

In the regular season, the Patriots were 11th in yards per game with 1,073, while the Seahawks led the NFL in total defense, allowing only 267.1 yards per game.

If New England wins, Brady would tie Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl rings with four apiece, cementing his status as one of the best ever to play the position.

If Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll leads his team to consecutive Super Bowl titles, he can become just the seventh to do so, joining the ranks of Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson, Mike Shanahan and Bill Belichick.

A team of South Korean sports officials has met to discuss preparations around an upcoming doping hearing for Park Tae-hwan.

Representatives from the Korean Olympic Committee, the Korea Swimming Federation and from Park's camp met behind closed doors on Friday in Seoul.

One person has died and two were injured on the set of Martin Scorsese's new film 'Silence' in Taiwan.

The three were working as contractors to reinforce a building on the Central Motion Picture corporations Studios lot. The lot had been deemed unsafe for production when the accident happened.

"So the manager of the construction department hired three workers to work inside the building and five from outside to reinforce the structure. But at 10:05 a.m. (0205 GMT) today, the whole ceiling just collapsed all of sudden."

Silence, which is still in pre-production, is the Oscar-winning director's first theatrical film since The Wolf of Wall Street.

Adapted from Japanese author Shusaku Endo's novel of the same name, Silence tells the story of 17th century Portuguese Jesuit missionaries who face violence and persecution in Japan.

Katy Perry says her Super Bowl halftime performance will make you Roar with animals.

"I think what I bring is just some light-heartedness. I will tell you that I think I'm probably the only person in Super Bowl halftime history that will ever bring both a lion and sharks to the show."

Lenny Kravitz will join the pop star at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. Perry said her performance will also include an "old school" female singer who she declined to identify but said would be instantly familiar from the get-go.

Perry, 30, said she feels blessed to perform on the Super Bowl stage "at such a young age." She said she enjoyed past Super Bowl performances from Beyoncé and Madonna, and what she adds "is some lightheartedness."

A record setting 111.5 million viewers watched the halftime spectacle in the US last year and many millions more tuned into the international broadcast.

Justin Bieber has come clean about the bad behavior that's marred his recent career in a video posted on his Facebook page.

The star had just finished taping the Ellen show earlier in the day, his first public appearance in quite some time. Bieber explained in his video that he felt nervous about how he would be perceived.

"I was afraid of what people were thinking about me right now. I didn't want to come off as arrogant and conceited basically how I've been acting in the past year, year and a half. I'm not who I was pretending to be. I'm a person who genuinely cares. "

During his appearance on the Ellen show, he surprised her with birthday gifts including flowers and a pack of Calvin Klein underwear.

The past few years have been especially rocky for the pop star who has been caught doing pretty much everything, from underage drinking to egging his neighbour's house and abandoning a monkey in Germany.

A Star Wars toy that cost ?1.50 when it came out 35 years ago has sold at auction for ?18,000, or around 27,000 U.S dollars.

The figure of bounty hunter Boba Fett was put up for auction by Craig Stevens from the UK. He is a former chairman of the UK Star Wars Fan Club.

The Boba Fett figure is thought to be one of only four or five to exist in such a pristine condition.

Craig Stevens described it as a wrench to sell but said he wanted to raise cash to buy a new house for him and his wife.

新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 20:00 2015/01/30（在线收听）