Briefly

UNITED STATES

Scaled-back CES gadget show returns

Thousands of people have gathered in Las Vegas for a tech conference that has been scaled back because of COVID-19 pandemic precautions. The floors of the Consumer Electronics Show opened on Wednesday with conference attendees required to wear masks and show proof of vaccination. The trade group has not disclosed attendance numbers, but said it expects tens of thousands of people for the multiday event, though not nearly as many as the 170,000 people that showed up for the last physical CES two years ago. This year's expo features 2,300 exhibitors, including 800 startups, from 19 countries. Digital health is expected to be a hot topic at this year's show as COVID-19 still poses a severe threat to the world.

ITALY

Sculpture loan plan a nudge to Britain

An Italian museum is lending a fragment of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, in what both sides hope will become a permanent return that might encourage others－the British Museum in particular－to send their own pieces of the works back, too. Sicily's regional archaeological museum said on Wednesday that it had signed an agreement with the Acropolis Museum in Athens for a once-renewable, four-year loan of the small white marble piece it has in exchange for a loan of a statue and vase. But the ultimate aim, Sicily's A. Salinas Archaeological Museum said in a statement, is the "indefinite return" of the fragment to Athens. About half of the surviving 5th century BC sculptures that decorated the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis are in the British Museum in London, which has long resisted Greek appeals for their return.

Xinhua - Agencies