BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — China will develop rare-earth-based new materials during the 2011-2015 period, in an effort to boost manufacturing capacity, according to a five-year plan for the new materials industry released on Wednesday.

The government will “make full use of its rare earth resources to expand the industrial scale of new materials made with rare earth,” said the publication by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The government will focus on developing rare …

BEIJING, (Xinhua) — The ChiNext Index, tracking China’s Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, opened at 726.88 points on Monday, up 9.08 points from the previous close.

The index, together with the Shenzhen Component Index and the Shenzhen SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) Board Index, makes up the three core indices reflecting the performance of China’s stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The ChiNext Board, which started trading on Oct. 30, 2009, mainly lists hi-tech companies and those with high growth potential.

BEIJING,  (Xinhua) — Following are the central parity rates of the Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) against nine major currencies announced on Monday by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System:

Currency           Unit          Middle Price (in RMB yuan)

   U.S. Dollar        100                629.38
   Euro               100                832.10
   Japanese Yen       100                7.9053
   Hong Kong Dollar   100                81.172
   British Pound      100                999.20
   Australian Dollar  100                679.38
   Canadian Dollar    100                634.68
   Malaysian Ringgit  47.958             100
   Ruble              475.21             100

The central parity of RMB …

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) — California wants to strengthen ties with China on economic and other fronts, as better China-U.S. relations promote mutual understanding, the U.S. state’s governor said Wednesday.
In a telephone interview with Xinhua, Governor Edmund Gerald (Jerry) Brown said his state had seen a strong relationship with China in recent years and he hoped to further expand the ties.
“My goal is to build the relationship between California and China to encourage …

TIANJIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) — The food safety watchdog in the northern municipality of Tianjin has vowed a thorough probe into its local seafood market, after online reports that the city’s shrimp were injected with gelatin-like chemicals to increase weight.
Though the exact identity of the chemicals has yet to be confirmed, officials from the city’s Food Safety Committee admitted that some frozen shrimp in Tianjin had been adulterated with an artificial substance.
“Such shrimp have …

BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) — The National Meteorological Center (NMC) said Monday that a cold front will reduce temperatures in central and eastern China over the next three days, with temps expected to drop by as much as 8 degrees Celsius.
Northeast China, as well as some southern regions, will also see temperature readings drop by up to 10 degrees, the center said.
The NMC said the cold spell is expected to last through the week….

SHANGHAI, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese fans were shocked and saddened by the sudden death of the Pop queen Whitney Houston as grieve pouring over the Internet.
“The world lost one singer who sang from her soul,” said the radio host of the China National Radio while playing Whitney Houston’s hit song “I will always love you” Sunday night.
“Her song ‘When you believe’ gave me …

CHANGSHA, CHINA- China Global Media, Inc. (OTCBB: CGLO)’s affiliated operating company Changsha North Latitude 30 Cultural Communications Co., Ltd. (“North Latitude”) has entered a one-year advertisement agreement with FAW-Volkswagen Sales Company Ltd (“FAW-VW”) to place advertisements for FAW-VW on Golden Eagle 955 Radio Station and Hunan Radio Television Station Satellite Channel. The total advertisement fee that Company expects to receive in fiscal year 2012 under this agreement is approximately US $2.6 Million.

In the start of Year 2012, North Latitude …

BEIJING, – Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. (“Qihoo 360″ or the “Company,” NYSE: QIHU), a leading Internet company in China as measured by active user base, today announced that all of its mobile applications for iOS were back on Apple’s iTunes App Store as of 11:00am, February 8, 2012, Beijing Time (10:00pm, February 7, 2012, EST).

These applications were taken offline by Apple from its iTunes App Store on February 4, 2012 due to unusual user rating activities by unknown sources …

HOHHOT, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — A month-long cold front has persisted in north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region and caused havoc for more than 40,000 people, said local authorities Tuesday.

Over 1,600 heads of livestock were killed and cracks appeared on walls in over 8,000 homes due to the freezing weather in the city of Hulunbuir, located in the region’s northeast, according to a spokesman with the regional civil affairs department.

The …