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China to open cultural center in Senegal

According to a memorandum of understanding signed between China and Senegal, a China Cultural Center will be set up in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal.

According to Xia Huang, Chinese ambassador to Senegal, the establishment of the center seeks to "maintain cultural diversity." He said the center will be a good place for dialogues between different cultures.

Senegal Foreign Minister Mankeur Ndiaye believes the China Cultural Center will help the people of Senegal to know more about China and will also promote the development of local culture.

China has established five cultural centers in Africa, in Mauritius, Benin, Tanzania, Nigeria and Egypt.

Athletes focus on worldcompetition in China

Three months before the world meets in Guiyang, Guizhou province, China, for the athletics World Cross Country Championships, Kenyan athletes are taking nothing for chance as they prepare for competition.

Faith Chepng'etich, the Commonwealth Games 1,500 meter champion, is taking the fight to her rivals' doorsteps as she continues to dominate the Kenyan cross country circuit.

"It's important to test my body and fitness against different opponents," Chepng'etich says. "I believe making the Kenyan team is more difficult than competing against the Ethiopians and Ugandans at the world championships.

"I have to be at my best form when we head to Guiyang on March 28."

Many top athletes in Kenya will have just had a Christmas and new year's break, but they "will be different opponents when we meet at the national trials next month", Chepng'etich says.

"It is there that I want to win and make the Kenya team."

Doctors in Ebola fightto be honored

Ten doctors from China who have offered medical aid to Ebola-stricken Africans will receive awards for their efforts, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the National Health and Family Planning Commission says.

The top 10 aid doctors will be chosen in mid-February from candidates nominated by the commission and the People's Liberation Army general logistics department, both responsible for dispatching medical aid teams.

Candidates' work achievements, professional ethics and team spirit will all be taken into account. The title winners will be awarded 50,000 yuan ($8,000).

Since the outbreak of the deadly virus last February, China has delivered four rounds of humanitarian aid with a combined value of more than 750 million yuan ($120 million) to Ebola-stricken countries and sent hundreds of medical workers to the African front line.

China has been providing medical aid to Africa since 1963.

Trade deficit widensas imports increase

The deficit in Kenya's balance of trade has widened considerably as imports accelerate to $1.8 billion a month, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says.

Exports have shrunk to $450 million as outflows from tea, coffee and horticulture stagnate.

Figures for the period ending September reflect the fact that the country is importing more machinery and industrial supplies.

"Industrial supplies (non-food) was the main import category with a share of 24.03 percent, while the values of fuel and lubricants, machinery and other capital equipment and transport equipment were 21.37, 22.57 and 18.35 percent respectively," the bureau said in the monthly Leading Economic Indicators report.

Chinese courts reverse verdicts in 12 cases

Chinese courts corrected the highest number of wrongful charges and verdicts last year.

Verdicts were reversed in 12 cases in which victims and their relatives had fought for years to overturn initial rulings with repeated appeals. Of these cases, nine were retried, while prosecutors withdrew charges for the remaining three.

For each of the 12 cases, it took an average of nearly a decade to receive final judicial rulings.

In the case of Hugjiltu, a resident from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, who was wrongly charged with rape and murder and sentenced to death in 1996, it took 18 years for a court to declare him innocent and for his parents to receive state compensation. Another suspect in the case is now on trial.

In 2013, the country awarded 87.35 million yuan (roughly $14.1 million; 11.84 million euros) in compensation for 2,045 cases, according to recent data. In 2012, state compensation of about 50 million yuan was paid in 2,035 cases.

Bowhead whales may hold clue to longer life

To learn the secret of aging gracefully, you may want to check out the bowhead whale, a denizen of Arctic waters that can live for more than 200 years.

On Jan 5, scientists unveiled the genetic blueprint for the bowhead, a genome full of clues behind the creature's exceptional longevity and remarkable resistance to disease.

Comparing it with other mammals, the scientists discovered differences in the whale's genes related to DNA repair, cell cycle, cancer and the aging process that may help explain its life span and vitality.

"This is the biggest animal whose genome has been sequenced so far and the first big whale to be sequenced," said University of Liverpool geneticist Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, who led the study published in the scientific journal Cell Reports.

"By identifying novel maintenance and repair mechanisms, we hope to learn the secret for living longer, healthier lives and may be able to apply this knowledge to improve human health and preserve human life," Magalhaes added.

Bowhead whales, which live longer than any other mammal, are among Earth's largest creatures.

Multinationals hunting for legal services

Demand from multinational companies for legal services on managing compliance risks in China will continue to rise in coming years, according to legal industry sources.

They said such services will be needed amid intensified government efforts to combat graft and monopolies.

"An increasing number of multinational companies in China have stepped up their internal compliance efforts and are looking for more related legal services from outside law firms," said Leon Liu, a partner at MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.

The company is among the first group of law firms in the country to engage in the compliance sector. Legal services on compliance are designed to help companies ensure that their operations conform to laws and regulations.

In 2013, British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline was embroiled in a bribery scandal. Last year, US semiconductor company Qualcomm was slapped with an antimonopoly investigation by Chinese authorities.

Asthma cases in China rise over past decade

Asthma cases have risen dramatically in China over the past decade in line with the increasingly harmful air pollution, according to leading respiratory specialists.

Nationwide, the prevalence of asthma stands at 1 to 2 percent, while in some cities it can reach more than 10 percent, a leading pulmonary physician said.

Lin Jiangtao, director of the China Asthma Alliance and a physician at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, was citing results from the first nationwide epidemiology survey on asthma, which he led.

The potentially fatal disease has risen quickly across the nation, with Shanghai recording the fastest increase in prevalence of 190 percent over the past decade.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/09/2015 page2)