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Hello, I'm Laila Ahmadi from China, student at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Zanjan University.
 The Corona virus or COVD-19 will reach any country sooner or later, and there is no doubt that many countries do not have any sophisticated diagnostic kits or equipment.
 Please use as much * natural vitamin C as possible * to strengthen your immune system.  Currently, the virus does not contain a vaccine or specific treatment Unfortunately, due to the genetic mutation that made it very dangerous.  This disease appears to be caused by the fusion of the gene between a snake and a bat, and has acquired the ability to infect mammals, including humans.
 It is important to have greater knowledge of the disease: Professor Chen Horin, CEO of Beijing Military Hospital, said: "Sliced ​​lemon in a glass of warm water can save your life".
 So whatever you are doing, take a look at this message and pass it on to other people!
 Hot lemon can kill cancer cells!  Cut the lemon into three parts and put it in a glass, then pour hot water and transform it into (alkaline water), drink it every day, it will definitely benefit everyone.  Treatment with this extract destroys only malignant cells and does not affect healthy cells.
 Second, the carboxylic acid in lemon juice can regulate high blood pressure, protect narrow arteries, regulate blood circulation and reduce blood clotting.
 .
 After reading the message, transfer it to the person you love and take care of your personal health.
 Advice: Professor Chen Horin notes that whoever receives this message is at least guaranteed to save someone's life ... I did my job and I hope you can help me develop it too.
 God bless us.🙏🙇😿
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Beijing will extend its winter heating season by a week until March 22 as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic, an official from the municipal government said on Tuesday.
The extension of the period when centralized systems provide heat to homes will help people keep warm as they stay indoors, and limit the numbers catching colds and going to hospital where they risk infection, the official said.
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2-3 minutes
Students at an elementary school in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung have found their own unique way to fight the coronavirus and stay ahead of the curve in epidemic prevention - an automated disinfectant dispenser built from Lego.
Children ranging from six to 12 years old use every school break and any chance they can get to line up to use their self-built alcohol disinfectant robot that some of their peers have assembled under the guidance of their robotics coach.
“Washing hands is super,” shouts a recorded voice after the dispenser senses a pair of hands in front of its ultrasonic sensor and dispenses alcohol disinfectant from a spray bottle by pulling back its handle with a motor and gearwheel mechanism.
Next to the robot, there are scenes crafted by the younger students showing various situations that require the washing of hands: an operating table in a hospital, a toilet and a flower garden.
One year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, teachers at the Linyuan Elementary School decided the students should learn about the basic principals of robotics.
The school is situated in an industrial area, dominated by the petrochemical sector.
Teachers wanted to teach the children to be able to solve problems in their hometown in the future - such as fire, air pollution and gas explosions.
Since then, the school has represented Taiwan in many international competitions abroad and won several prizes with its robotics club.
While Taiwan has only recorded 45 cases of the coronavirus, compared with more than 80,000 on the other side of the Taiwan Strait in China, the island is on high alert to prevent further infections.
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3-4 minutes
Hundreds of black-clad Hong Kong protesters, holding candles, returned on Sunday to the parking lot where a student fell to his death in November, vowing to continue their fight for greater democracy in the Chinese-ruled city.
The death of Chow Tsz-lok, 22, who fell from the third to the second floor in a parking lot in the eastern Tseung Kwan O district as police cleared crowds in the area, was the catalyst for some of the most intense clashes since the protests escalated in June last year.
Fears over the coronavirus have reduced the scale and frequency of protests this year, but there have been violent demonstrations on some weekends in a sign the pro-democracy movement remains active.
On Sunday evening, protesters, mostly in trademark black clothing and surgical masks, laid down white flowers, origami cranes and messages on colored post-it notes at a makeshift altar where placards read “Keep the heat; Fight until the end”.
One protester was waving a “Liberate Hong Kong” black flag, while a banner that read “murderer” was hung up.
There was a heavy riot police presence nearby and at least one arrest was made.
“It’s very touching. When I came here half an hour ago I almost cried, because I didn’t expect so many people would come today,” said 22-year-old computer programer Sean Chow, who is not related to the student who died.
“(His death) means something that is unresolved and something that needs to be fully investigated and I believe all the people here want an answer. It’s an absolute tragedy.”
Earlier on Sunday, Hong Kong police said they arrested 17 people, aged between 21 and 53, during an overnight raid of 22 flats in relation to a series of bomb plots between late January and early February.
Items including three homemade bombs, three electronic circuits and 2,600 kilograms of chemicals were found.
“In recent months Hong Kong has been faced with an ongoing ... violent campaign designed to intimidate, in order to try to achieve political aims,” Alick McWhirter, senior bomb disposal officer of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau told reporters.
“It seems a potential tragedy has been averted.”
Police said the bombs were intended to be used in public events and aimed at police officers.
Protesters are angry about what they see as creeping Chinese interference in Hong Kong, which returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula intended to guarantee freedoms that are not enjoyed on the mainland.
China says it is committed to the arrangement and denies meddling. It has accused foreign governments including the United States and Britain of inciting the unrest.
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4-5 minutes
Two weeks after the United States named five China-controlled news organizations as foreign missions, the Trump administration on Monday announced new restrictions on the number of Chinese nationals who those companies may employ.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the measure in a statement, clarifying it is not based on any content they produce but with the goal of creating reciprocity as China has for years "imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment and intimidation against American and other foreign journalists operating in China."
"As we have done in other areas of the U.S.-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field," he said. "It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to U.S. and other foreign press in China."
On Feb. 18, the State Department designated Xinhua News Agency, the China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily and the People's Daily as foreign missions, meaning they operate under as an arm of the People's Republic of China. With the designation, they are required to inform the Office of Foreign Missions within the State Department who they employ, where they live and seek approval to buy or least real estate.
The organizations currently employ a collective 160 Chinese nationals but the personnel cap will force them to cull that workforce down to 100 by March 16 but they must inform the Trump administration of who will be cut by Friday, State Department officials told reporters in Washington under rules of anonymity.
"We note that even after this cap is implemented, these five PRC state media groups, which are explicit propaganda organs of the Chinese Communist Party, these five alone will continue to employ more Chinese personnel here in the U.S. than there are foreign reporters at all U.S. media outlets in China, a senior state department officials said. "And, of course, unlike U.S.-based media organizations, these PRC state entities are not, in fact, independent news organizations. As I said, they are explicit propaganda organs of the Chinese Communist Party."
The official said that the United States issued 425 media visas to Chinese nationals last year compared to roughly 100 foreign journalists working in the Asian nation.
By company, China Radio International will be allowed two employees, China Daily nine, China Global 30 and Xinhua 59, the officials said, adding no restrictions would be placed at this time on Hai Tian, which distributes the People's Daily.
The officials said what happens to the visas of those who are trimmed will be handled on an individual basis and it is up to the companies to decide who they will continue to employ.
"The caps aren't placed on individuals -- They're only on the entities," a second State Department official said. "So, it will be up to Xinuha to determine who they want to work or not. And, in terms of how long they'll be there, that will be up to them. Their status in the country isn't determined by the Department of State."
The restrictions do not, however, limit the number of American citizens they may hire, the official said.
A day after the State Department designated the five media organizations as foreign missions, China expelled three American journalists, stating it was in retaliation to a piece their organization had written.
The first State Department official said if China chooses to retaliate against this move, "all options would be on the table."
"I can't tell you what in particular we would do, but we would sit down, review the circumstances and then consider all our options," the official said.
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David Stanway
Mainland China reported 573 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Feb. 29, up from 427 the previous day and the highest daily increase in a week, the country’s health authority said on Sunday.
The new cases were concentrated in Wuhan, the city where the virus is believed to have originated. Wuhan identified 565 new infections on Saturday, amounting to nearly 99% of the total.
The number of mainland China deaths stood at 35, down from 47 on the previous day and the second lowest daily total in February. The total death toll in mainland China now stands at 2,870, the National Health Commission said.
Of the deaths, 34 were in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located and the epicenter of the outbreak, with the other in neighboring Henan. Hubei accounted for 570 of the new cases.
The three new cases outside Hubei are the lowest since the National Health Commission began compiling daily numbers on Jan. 20.
The commission also said a total of 41,625 patients had already been discharged, amounting to 52% of the total number of confirmed cases on the mainland, though officials have warned of the risks that some could again develop symptoms.
In order to minimize the economic impact of the coronavirus, China has ordered all its regions to classify their districts into “high-risk”, “medium-risk” and “low-risk”, with the latter expected to end all traffic restrictions and allow everyone to return to work.
Hubei said on Saturday that 11 of its 103 counties had reported no new cases for at least 14 days, meeting the “low-risk” criteria. However, as many as 58 counties in the province are still deemed “high-risk”.
Ying Yong, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party in Hubei, said on Saturday that there had been “some positive changes” but the situation was still at a critical stage, and the province could not yet ease restrictions on outbound travel.
In speeches published on Sunday in Qiushi (Seeking Truth), the Communist Party’s theoretical journal, President Xi Jinping said China needed to take a “long-term view” of the outbreak and plug “loopholes” in its laws and emergency response mechanisms.
He said China must establish an emergency reserve and supply system for vital materials in order to ensure they can be deployed at critical moments.
The World Health Organization said in its Saturday bulletin that there were 6,009 cases outside China, up 1,318 compared to the previous day. A total of 53 countries have now reported cases, it said, with Mexico and San Marino the latest additions to the list.
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Tokyo and Beijing are leaning towards delaying Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan, originally planned for early April, as the neighbors battle a coronavirus outbreak, the Sankei newspaper said on Sunday. Citing diplomatic sources in both countries, the paper said the visit was likely to be postponed until autumn or later.
On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference that preparations for Xi’s visit were going ahead.
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Jessie Pang
Hong Kong police fired tear gas on Saturday to disperse hundreds of black-clad protesters, some armed with petrol bombs, during a rally to mark six months since the authorities stormed a subway station and arrested demonstrators.
One officer drew his gun but did not fire as protesters hurled plastic water bottles and umbrellas at him.
The clashes are among the most violent in the Chinese-ruled city after a period of relative calm following intense anti-government protests that escalated in June last year, with fears over the coronavirus keeping many residents indoors.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in and around Mong Kok district and the Prince Edward subway station, where some of the fiercest violence erupted on Aug. 31, when police fired tear gas at pro-democracy protesters throwing petrol bombs.
Some chanted “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our time,” while others called for the police force to be disbanded, echoing slogans from previous demonstrations.
As the number of protesters increased, some set fires on Nathan Road in Kowloon district, sending plumes of thick, black smoke billowing into the air of the shopping hub, where police responded with pepper spray and tear gas.
One demonstrator hurled a petrol bomb at a police vehicle but missed. Others set up road blocks. Mong Kok subway station was closed.
The police said in a statement they had used “minimum necessary force” for dispersal and arrest operations and urged members of the public to leave the area immediately.

PUBLISHING TYCOON’S ARREST

The scenes brought back images of the clashes that plunged the former British colony into turmoil last year and posed the gravest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The arrest this week of publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, on charges of illegal assembly thrust the protest movement back into the spotlight and drew condemnation from Washington and international rights groups.
Lai has made financial contributions to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators.
While there have been sporadic protests this year, they have been largely peaceful and a return to violent clashes will pose a significant challenge to embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam as she grapples to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The outbreak has piled pressure on Lam, in particular over her refusal to seal the border with mainland China, which has infuriated many residents who see it as a move to appease Beijing.
The protesters are angry about what they see as creeping Chinese interference in Hong Kong, which returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula intended to guarantee freedoms that are not enjoyed on the mainland.
China says it is committed to the arrangement and denies meddling. It has accused foreign governments including the United States and Britain of inciting the unrest.
Protesters have called for an independent inquiry into the police force - one of five demands made on the Hong Kong government - amid allegations of excessive force.
Police say they have been restrained in the face of escalating violence.
The government announced in its budget this week that funding for the police force will reach HK$25.8 billion ($3.31 billion), up 25 percent from the previous year, drawing widespread criticism from democracy activists.
More than 7,000 people have been arrested in the anti-government protests, many on charges of illegal assembly or rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
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Kane Wu
The U.S. State Department has expressed concern after Chinese-ruled Hong Kong arrested publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, and two pro-democracy activists.
The arrests come after a period of relative calm following months of anti-government protests over perceptions that China is tightening its grip on the city, though Beijing denies meddling and blames the West for fomenting unrest.
Lai and veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were arrested on Friday in the Asian financial hub on charges of illegal assembly, drawing condemnation from international rights groups, media said.
“We are concerned by the arrest of prominent Hong Kong businessman and publisher Jimmy Lai and two other longtime advocates for civil liberties and democracy,” Morgan Ortagus, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said on Friday.
“We expect Hong Kong authorities not to use law enforcement selectively for political purposes, and to handle cases fairly and transparently,” she added in a statement.
The spokeswoman also called for the rule of law and Hong Kong people’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression to be preserved.
The police said three local men, aged 63 to 72, were arrested for suspected participation in a non-approved gathering but did not confirm their names.
Authorities in the former British colony have arrested more than 7,000 people for involvement in Hong Kong’s protests, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years. It is unclear how many are still in custody.
The arrest of the three men was outrageous, said Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, adding that there was no doubt its government was acting at Beijing’s instructions.
“This decision will send yet another signal to the world that the Chinese Communist Party is intent on throttling decency and freedom in Hong Kong,” Patten said.
Lai, a self-made millionaire who has made financial contributions to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and been a target of criticism by mainland Chinese media, was arrested in 2014 for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site.
After the arrest he resigned as editor in chief of Apple Daily. He has also come under scrutiny from Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency, which raided his home in 2014.
In an editorial on Friday, China’s state-owned Global Times tabloid called Lai “a force of evil”, rather than the “hero” of democracy painted by the West.
“..he is a traitor, a criminal and a force of evil who has sowed violence and chaos in arguably one of the freest and most prosperous cities in the world,” it added.
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Mainland China had 327 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Thursday, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday, down from 433 cases a day earlier. That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 78,824.
The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,788 as of the end of Thursday, up by 44 from the previous day.
The central province of Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, reported 41 new deaths, while in the provincial capital of Wuhan, 28 people died.
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David Stanway The number of new coronavirus infections inside China - the source of the outbreak - was for the first time overtaken by fresh cases elsewhere on Wednesday, with Italy and Iran emerging as epicenters of the rapidly spreading illness.
Asia reported hundreds of new cases, Brazil confirmed Latin America’s first infection and the new disease - COVID-19 - was also detected for the first time in Pakistan, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Romania and Algeria.
U.S. health authorities, managing 59 cases so far - mostly Americans repatriated from a cruise ship in Japan - have said a global pandemic is likely.
U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to calm markets and an increasingly worried public, said in a live broadcast that the United States was “very very ready” to face the virus threat and that Vice President Mike Pence would be in charge of the national response. It was one of just a handful of times that the president has appeared in the White House briefing room.
Stock markets across the world have lost $3.3 trillion of value in four days of trading, as measured by the MSCI all-country index .MIWD00000PUS. [MKTS/GLOB]
Wall Street reversed earlier gains on Wednesday afternoon and oil prices dropped to their lowest level in over a year, spooked in part by health officials saying dozens of people who had been in China were being monitored in suburbs of populous New York city - although no confirmed cases have been found.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the federal government to tighten testing for visitors from a range of countries where the virus has been spreading, adding that its eventual detection in the city was “100% certain.”
The virus that can lead to pneumonia is believed to have originated in a market selling wildlife in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has infected about 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, the vast majority in China.
While radical quarantining measures have helped slow the rate of transmission in China, it is accelerating elsewhere.
Germany, which has around 20 cases, said it was already impossible to trace all chains of infection, and Health Minister Jens Spahn urged regional authorities, hospitals and employers to review their pandemic planning.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said China had reported 412 new cases on Tuesday, while there were 459 in 37 other countries.
However, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advised diplomats in Geneva on Wednesday against speaking of a pandemic - which the WHO defines as the worldwide spread of a new disease.
“Using the word pandemic carelessly has no tangible benefit, but it does have significant risk in terms of amplifying unnecessary and unjustified fear and stigma, and paralyzing systems,” he said. “It may also signal that we can no longer contain the virus, which is not true.”
As panic increased, Mexican authorities barred a cruise ship from docking at one of its ports over what the ship’s company said was a single case of common seasonal flu.
The WHO says the outbreak in China peaked around Feb. 2, after measures that included isolating its epicenter Hubei province. It said only 10 new cases were reported in China on Tuesday outside Hubei.
There is no known vaccine for the virus. U.S. pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) said on Wednesday it had started two late-stage studies to test its experimental antiviral drug remdesivir in humans.

FIRST LATIN AMERICAN CASE

As the cases have rippled outwards, the effects on large gatherings have increased. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as concern mounted for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while sources told Reuters the International Monetary Fund was considering whether to make its April meeting in Washington virtual.
Latin America’s first case was confirmed in a 61-year-old man in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who had recently visited Italy, a new front line in the global outbreak.
The diagnosis coincided with the carnival holiday, a peak time for domestic travel. Brazil’s stock index fell over 7%.
In addition to Brazil, Italians or people who recently visited Italy have tested positive in Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Italy itself has reported more than 400 cases, centered on the industrial heartlands of Lombardy and Veneto.
A hotel in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands was locked down over cases linked to Italy.
“It’s very scary because everyone is out, in the pool, spreading the virus,” said 45-year-old hotel guest Lara Pennington.
In France, a second person died - a teacher who had not visited any country with a known outbreak.
There have been nearly 50 deaths outside China, including 12 in Italy and 19 in Iran, according to a Reuters tally.
While Iran has reported only 139 cases, epidemiologists say the death rate of around 2% seen elsewhere suggest that the true number of cases must be many times higher.
Cases linked to Iran have been reported across the Middle East. Iraq imposed travel bans to affected countries and barred public gatherings.
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus here)
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3 minutes
China’s top legislature said it will immediately ban the trade and consumption of wild animals, in a fast-track decision it says will allow the country to win the battle against the coronavirus outbreak.
The announcement, made late on Monday according to the official Xinhua News Agency, comes after an initial suspension of the trade and consumption of wildlife in January.
Scientists suspect, but have not proven, that the new coronavirus passed to humans from animals. The disease has now killed almost 2,700 people in China and spread to countries around the globe.
Some of the earliest infections were found in people who had exposure to a wildlife market in Hubei’s provincial capital Wuhan, where bats, snakes, civets and other animals were sold.
“There has been a growing concern among people over the consumption of wild animals and the hidden dangers it brings to public health security since the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak,” said Zhang Tiewei, a spokesman for the top legislature’s Legislative Affairs Commission.
Zhang said it was both urgent and necessary for the decision to be made at the “critical moment for the epidemic prevention and control”.
The decision, made by the National People’s Congress, stipulates the illegal consumption and trade of wildlife will be “severely punished” as will be hunting, trading or transporting wild animals for the purpose of consumption.
The use of wild animals for non-edible purposes, including scientific research, medical use and display, will be subject to strict examination, approval and quarantine inspection.
Prior to the announcement, traders legally selling donkey, dog, deer, crocodile and other meat told Reuters they planned to get back to business as soon as the markets reopen.
Many academics, environmentalists and residents in China have joined international conservation groups in calling for a permanent ban. Online debate within China has also heavily favored a permanent ban.
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Beijing on Monday warned its citizens against traveling to the United States, saying that Chinese tourists have been treated unfairly in the country due to excessive prevention measures over the coronavirus outbreak. The statement from China’s tourism ministry also cited the U.S. “security situation” in its warning.
China has repeatedly blamed the United States for what it considers to be an excessive reaction to the outbreak, including early curbs on visitors from China.

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She's unlikely to feature on many lists of the all-time top British cultural icons.

But Peppa Pig - the UK-made children's cartoon character - is right up there with the best of them, at least in China.

With the series racking up 18 billion online views since its launch here seven years ago, the story of Peppa and her unfeasibly English middle class family is, arguably, doing more for Brand Britain than the Beatles, Manchester United and any of the culinary delights - for which the UK is rightly so renowned - put together.

Pork scratching anyone?

It is then no surprise that, when a Peppa-shaped opportunity came knocking, the British powers that be seized the moment.

After watching an episode in which the precocious piglet and her friends visit the Queen in Buckingham Palace - and encourage her to join them jumping in muddy puddles - two Chinese twins posted a video message online, addressed to none other than Her Royal Majesty.

They too, like Peppa, wanted to visit her in her palace, they said.

And it worked.

Well, sort of.

The British ambassador to China, Dame Barbara Woodward, posted her own video message in reply.

"Hello Mi Ni and Mi Ai," she said. "I'm the British ambassador, so I'm the Queen's representative in China.

"I'd like you to come and visit me in my house in Beijing," she went on, "and we can perhaps have tea and scones in a British style."

The post has been viewed more than nine million times in China - a multiple of 10 times more views than anything else Dame Barbara has posted in her entire four years as ambassador.

And so it was that two slightly bewildered five-year-olds found their way to her residence and munched on scones and chocolate cake, and sat colouring in pictures of Peppa Pig, in front of the assembled media.

"Do you think that the Queen really has muddy puddles in her garden?" I asked them.

They nodded. It is a big garden after all.

The whole experience may not have been quite the same as the real deal, but they have also been promised a trip to the UK where they will, at least, get to see Buckingham Palace.

And the British embassy has launched a competition along with Youku - the online channel with the Chinese rights to Peppa Pig - the young winners of which will also join the twins for the trip.

The whole Peppa phenomenon, it must be said, has a bit of a dark side in China.

A couple of years ago, pictures began to appear online of people sporting Peppa Pig tattoos.

She appeared to have become the chosen symbol for a counter-culture known as "shehuiren" - literally "society people".

Early last year, one popular Chinese streaming site, Douyin, began removing Peppa videos en masse.

The nationalist, Communist Party-controlled tabloid Global Times described Shehuiren as people who are "poorly educated with no stable job" and "unruly slackers roaming around and the antithesis of the young generation the party tries to cultivate".
Soft power

But Peppa has survived this brush with subversion.

A new Peppa Pig movie - made especially for the Chinese market - is due to be launched this coming Chinese New Year.

It is a collaboration between China's Alibaba Pictures and Canada's Entertainment One; although still made in the UK, Peppa Pig is now owned by the Canadian company.

The viral trailer for the film - which artfully grafts the story of Peppa onto seasonal themes of Chinese family and belonging - has received more than 300 million hits to date.
Skip Youtube post by Alibaba Group

With the need for stronger ties with major economies in a post-Brexit world, I asked the UK ambassador whether she thought that a certain pink pig was proving rather more adept at it than British politicians.

"I wouldn't put it quite as zero sum as that, to be honest," Dame Barbara laughs in reply.

There are three components to good UK-China ties, she tells me - a strong government-to-government relationship, a strong business-to-business relationship and a strong people-to-people relationship.

"Peppa Pig is as much a part of the latter as the Royal Family, Wimbledon, the Premier League and all the other things we think of when we think of soft power."

With cute twins, a great British-made product, and massive Chinese media exposure, she must be wishing all UK-China diplomacy could end so happily.

And pigs, as they say, might fly.
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Healing could take days instead of weeks
By Cohen Coberly,

If you've ever nicked yourself with a kitchen knife while cutting up meat or vegetables, you probably already know that even minor wounds can take a pretty long time to heal fully; weeks, in some cases.

That's a problem -- albeit a minor one -- that US and Chinese researchers based in the University of Wisconsin have been tirelessly working to solve lately.

According to a University news post, the researchers in question have developed an entirely new type of bandage that could "dramatically speed up healing." Apparently, the bandage uses energy generated from a patient's body motions to apple "gentle electrical pulses" to an injury.

During rodent tests, researchers discovered that healing times could be reduced down to as few as three days, which is significantly shorter than the "normal healing process" that lasts around two weeks.

The low-power pulses emitted by this new bandage tech could boost "viability" for skin cells known as fibroblasts, encouraging them to band together and form new tissue.

Better yet, so far, there don't appear to be any adverse side effects - quite the opposite. The low-power pulses emitted by this new bandage tech could boost "viability" for skin cells known as fibroblasts, encouraging them to band together and form new tissue.

The development of these sorts of wound dressings will likely not be expensive, either. "I don’t think the cost will be much more than a regular bandage," said University of Wisconsin professor Xudong Wang. "The device in itself is very simple and convenient to fabricate."

Only time will tell whether or not Wang's prediction holds true, but for now, this tech is looking pretty good. However, it will need to be tested on a much greater scale before it could ever hit the market.
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Hong Kong TVB actress Niki Chow is single no more.

In an Instagram post on Dec 17, the 39-year-old announced her marriage to award-winning Chinese actor Fu Yiming, 45. But the wedding is believed to have taken place around end-November.

Fu and Chow co-starred in the 2014 Mainland drama, Undercover, where they played husband and wife.

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JEDDAH: China’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia has praised the cultural role the Kingdom plays globally, as he toured the King Abdel Aziz Public Library.
Ambassador Li Huaxin expressed his happiness for visiting the library, which he said has worked in cooperation with the Chinese side, through one of its famed universities; the University of Beijing.
Li stressed the importance of “the excellent relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the People’s Republic of China and that they constitute excellent relations, pointing out that “the presence of a branch of the King Abdulaziz Public Library at Beijing University is significant and adds a new dimension to the joint cultural work.”
He also said that the project of establishing an Arab-Chinese knowledge portal is a remarkable development that will reflect the depth of the Arab-Chinese relations. He expressed hope that the project will realize the aspirations of both countries for further cooperation and interaction between the two cultures.
During his visit, the Chinese Ambassador toured the King Abdul Aziz Public Library and was briefed on the library’s different cultural perspectives and its comprehensive knowledge strategy. He also listened to a presentation by the Deputy General Supervisor of the Library, Dr. Abdul Karim Bin Abdulrahman Al-Zaid.
The Chinese ambassador’s visit to the library comes within the framework of strengthening cultural relations between Saudi Arabia and China, particularly since the King Abdulaziz Public Library is preparing for the second meeting of the Board of Directors of its branch in China this weekend.
During the meeting, the board is expected to address the completion of its strategic plans and organizational arrangements to achieve the desired objectives of launching this cultural edifice in Asia, which will be chaired by the library’s general supervisor, Faisal Muammar.
The library’s branch was opened in March 2017, during a visit by the library’s deputy director-general, Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Zaid, to serve as a cultural center to promote the exchange of knowledge and culture between China and the Arab world, and to support the teaching of Arabic language in Chinese universities and provide electronic books and sources of information in Arabic , thus contributing to opening the horizons of scientific cooperation and knowledge.
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