IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Athletes ready to shine anew in Rio

Chinese Olympians are gearing up for athletic breakthroughs as well as a clean campaign at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics next month. The country announced on July 18 that it will send 416 athletes, including 35 Olympic champions - its largest athletic delegation ever for an overseas Olympics - and it pledged to compete with full efforts against doping. The delegation is made up of 160 men and 256 women. They will compete in 210 events of 26 sports at the Games, which open on Aug 5 in Brazil.

HIV/AIDS patients hit by identity scam

More than 350 HIV/AIDS patients from across China had received scam calls as of July 18, and said their personal information has been leaked, according to BHL China League. The patients come from all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, and they told their stories to BHL China League, an online interactive platform for HIV/AIDS patients based in Beijing. The actual number of patients affected by the privacy leak who are getting scam calls may be much higher than what BHL China League has heard about, according to Bai Hua, chief of the league.

Ministry touts cigarette crackdown

The police have busted counterfeit and smuggled cigarette rackets nationwide worth 766 million yuan ($114.5 million; 103.4 million euros), the Ministry of Public Security announced on July 17. In total, 541 suspects have been detained, 900,000 cartons of fake or smuggled cigarettes seized and 1,078 metric tons of raw materials confiscated, the ministry said.

Sixth Yangtze River bridge opens in Yichang

Zhixi Yangtze River Bridge, stretching across China's longest river, opened for traffic on July 18 in Yichang, Hubei province. The 838-meter suspension bridge is the second of its kind in the world to be made with composite steel and concrete beams without a supporting pier. The 2.8 billion yuan ($418.5 million; 378.1 million euro) project, which has six lanes, is the sixth bridge over the Yangtze in Yichang.

Artificial sun kindles chances of Mars mission

China's space scientists have developed the country's largest sun simulator, which is expected to boost its effort to operate rovers on other planets. With a diameter of 5 meters, the device is capable of providing illumination stronger than natural sunlight and will be used to test the reliability of China's space probes and planetary rovers, according to the instrument's developer, Beijing Institute of Environmental Features. Artificial suns are widely used in tests and measurement of solar batteries, radiation-resistance tests of spacecraft materials and heat balance tests for spaceships, according to the institute.

China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/22/2016 page2)