Chinese leaders extend Spring Festival greetings

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BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping, on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people Wednesday.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military

 Commission, delivered a speech to a festival reception at the Great Hall of the People in 

Beijing, greeting all Chinese on the mainland, in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and abroad.

The Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, is regarded as the most important traditional

 festival for those of Chinese origin, characterized by family gatherings, feasts and 

performances. It falls on Feb. 16 this year.

The reception was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang. Other senior leaders, including 

Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Zhang Gaoli, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning,

 Zhao Leji and Han Zheng, also greeted the present 2,000 people.

HARD WORK IN NEW ERA

Xi encouraged Chinese people to work hard in the new era, saying happiness can only be 

earned by filling one's life with endeavors.

"There will be difficulties in our endeavor, but battling them will also purify our souls and 

strengthen our faith," said Xi.

Xi stressed that the great endeavor of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese

 characteristics will take generations, even dozens of generations, of hard work.

Those fighting in these efforts will be richest in spirit, and will have the most profound

 understanding of happiness, according to Xi.

Xi called on CPC members to always focus their work on the aspirations of the people to

 live a better life, and to always fight for the people and with the people.

There should be both competition and solidarity in the endeavor, said Xi.

At the 19th CPC National Congress in October, the Party announced that socialism with

 Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era with decades of hard work.

APPRECIATING PROGRESS

Reviewing the achievements made by the Chinese people over the last year, Xi said time

 is the "most objective witness."

Xi praised the achievements in developing the economy, deepening reform, advancing law-

based governance, improving people's lives and fighting poverty, as well as the progress in

 national defense and building the armed forces, diplomacy on all fronts, and full and strict

 governance over the CPC. Xi said this progress has "propelled the vessel of China toward 

new waters."

Xi said these achievements were made by the Chinese people with their own hands and

 generations of continuous hard work and expressed the highest respect to the old

 generations of heroes, model workers, soldiers and comrades who contributed to China's

 national independence, development and prosperity.

Noting that 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, Xi 

said over the last 40 years, China has taken the great leap from "catching up with the times

" to "leading the times."

Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress held last year outlined the direction for developing

 socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and charted the new journey toward

 the goal of building a modern socialist China.

Facing a complicated international environment and the arduous missions of reform,

 development and stability in 2018, Xi called on the whole Party, military and Chinese people

 of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee and work to turn the

 guidelines, strategies and arrangements into reality with concrete and down-to-earth efforts.

FAMILY VALUES

Speaking of traditional family values, Xi said that "during the Spring Festival, when members

 of a family get together, we feel that reunion is happiness and unity is strength."

Family has always been valued by the Chinese people and harmony in a family makes

 everything successful, said Xi.

"We should nurture and practice core socialist values, foster the traditional virtues of the

 Chinese nation, and love both family and the country," he said.

Xi also urged the people to integrate their personal and family dreams with the Chinese

 Dream.

"We should pool the wisdom and strength of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people in more 

than 400 million households to strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese 

characteristics for a new era and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation," he said.

Spring Festival 　 The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees. The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. The Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year. Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened. On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves. After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called "Seeing the New Year in". Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What's more, various decorations, new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing. Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils. Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance. The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall. People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year in. Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think "jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure. Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another." The first five days after the Spring Festival are a good time for relatives, friends, and classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings, gifts and chat leisurely. Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room. The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished. China has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different customs.

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German president slams AfD party for using "strategy of hate

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BERLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday heavily criticized the anti-immigration populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) for controversial comments made by its regional leader in Saxony-Anhalt Andre Poggenburg earlier.

"What I see is that there are politicians who make use of excessive language, ruthlessness and hatred as their own strategy," Steinmeier said during a visit to the town of Halle in Poggenburg's home state on Thursday.

"I can only hope that the citizens do not allow themselves to be fooled by these tactics," the president added. Steinmeier further called on politicians to be "aware of their role model character and behave accordingly".

The German president's criticism was a response to public statements made by Poggenburg on Wednesday during a seasonal carnival event in which he described people of Turkish origin in Germany as a "homeless mob".

"Those camel drivers should go back to where they belong, far, far behind the Bosporus to their mud huts and multiple wives," the AfD politician told an audience of party supporters. The crowd met Poggenburg's racist tirade with cheers.

It was not the first time that Poggenburg drew attention to himself for the use of extreme language. Back in 2017, Poggenburg had provoked widespread outrage by using the Neo-Nazi slogan "Germany for Germans" on an internal AfD chat.

Reacting to yet another angry backlash on Thursday, Poggenburg said that he had only formulated his speech "so trenchantly" because of the informal nature of the seasonal festivity.

The AfD politician argued that he had never intended to "directly insult or degrade other nationalities".

However, even fellow AfD politicians criticized Poggenburg for his choice of words on Thursday.

AfD co-leader Joerg Meuthen said that the comments in question were "far too extreme and should not have been made".

Similarly, AfD regional politician Frank Hansel questioned whether Poggenburg was trying to lower the standing of the party in opinion polls.

"Are our AfD polling figures too high again that we need to purposefully push them down again ourselves?" Hansel asked laconically. "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

Holger Stahlknecht, vice-president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Saxony-Anhalt, warned that individuals like Poggenburg were gradually transforming the AfD into a Neo-Nazi party. "If Poggenburg stays, the AfD is on a journey into a right-wing extremist abyss," Stahlknecht said.

Scientists grow human eggs to full maturity in a lab

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LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Scientists have succeeded for the first time in growing human eggs in a laboratory from the earliest stages in ovarian tissue all the way to full maturity - a scientific step that had previously been taken in mice.

An undated picture shows a magnification of a lab-grown fully matured human egg ready for fertilization. Doctor David Albertini/University of Edinburgh/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

Publishing their result in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction on Friday, scientists from Britain and the United States said it could one day help in developing regenerative medicine therapies and new infertility treatments.

In previous studies, scientists had developed mouse eggs in a laboratory to the stage where they produced live offspring, and had also matured human eggs from a relatively late stage of development.

This latest work, by scientists at two research hospitals in Edinburgh and the Center for Human Reproduction in New York, is the first time human eggs have been developed outside the human body from their earliest stage to full maturity.

“Being able to fully develop human eggs in the lab could widen the scope of available fertility treatments. We are now working on optimising the conditions that support egg development in this way and studying how healthy they are,” said Evelyn Telfer, who co-led the work.

A series of magnified images show human eggs in development stages. Prof. Evelyn Telfer and Dr. Marie McLaughlin/University of Edinburgh/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

Independent experts not directly involved in this work praised it as important, but also cautioned that there is much more to do before lab-grown human eggs could be safely be made ready for fertilisation with sperm.

“This early data suggests this may well be feasible in the future,” said Ali Abbara, a senior clinical lecturer in Endocrinology at Imperial College London.

“(But) the technology remains at an early stage, and much more work is needed to make sure that the technique is safe and optimised before we ascertain whether these eggs remain normal during the process, and can be fertilised to form embryos that could lead to healthy babies.”

Darren Griffin, a genetics professor at Kent University in the UK, said the work was “an impressive technical achievement”.

If success and safety rates were improved, he said, it could in future help cancer patients wishing to preserve their fertility while undergoing chemotherapy treatment, improve fertility treatments, and deepen scientific understanding of the biology of the earliest stages of human life.

Editing by Mark Heinrich

How PNB fell victim to India's biggest bank fraud

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Punjab National Bank, the second-biggest state-run lender, stunned the country's financial sector when it announced this week it had discovered fraudulent transactions worth $1.77 billion at a single branch in Mumbai.

A security guard stands guard inside a Nirav Modi showroom during a raid by Enforcement Directorate, a government agency that fights financial crime, in New Delhi, India, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

The fraud, by far the biggest ever detected by an Indian bank, comes to light at a time when lenders - especially the state-run banks - are hobbled by $147 billion in soured loans on their books, a problem that has choked new lending and hurt the country's economic recovery.

Despite tight fiscal conditions, the government recently extended a $14 billion bailout to ailing state banks as part of a broader $32 billion rescue plan. The sector also faces higher capital requirements by next year to meet new global banking rules known as Basel III.

Following is an explainer on the PNB fraud and its implications for other lenders and India’s banking sector:

WHAT IS THE FRAUD ALLEGATION ABOUT?

On Jan. 29, a PNB official from Mumbai filed a criminal complaint with India’s federal investigative agency against three companies and four people, including billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the managing director of Gitanjali Gems Ltd, saying they had defrauded the bank and caused a loss of 2.8 billion rupees ($43.8 million).

The bank alleged two junior employees at the Mumbai branch had helped the companies and people managing them get “letters of undertaking” (LoUs) from it without having a sanctioned credit limit or maintaining funds “on margin”.

The LoUs were used to obtain short-term credit from overseas branches of other Indian banks, PNB said.

Based on the complaint, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a preliminary case against the companies and the people named on Jan. 31 and PNB said a detailed probe was underway.

On Wednesday, PNB said in a regulatory filing it had discovered fraudulent and unauthorised transactions totalling $1.77 billion at the Mumbai branch. Investigators have said the latest disclosure was related to the earlier case filed.

HOW DID THE FRAUD COME TO LIGHT?

PNB says that on Jan. 16 the accused firms presented a set of import documents to the Mumbai branch and requested buyers’ credit to pay overseas suppliers. Since they had no pre-arranged credit limit, the branch official asked the companies to put down the full amount as collateral so the bank could issue LoUs to authorise the credit.

When the firms argued that they had used such facilities in the past without keeping any money on margin, PNB scanned through records and found no trace of any transactions, according to the bank’s account.

It then found that two junior employees had issued LoUs on the SWIFT interbank messaging system without entering the transactions on the bank’s own system. Such transactions went on for years without detection, PNB said.

Banking sources have said in some banks the SWIFT system, which is used for international transactions, and the core banking system work independently of each other. In PNB’s case, it said the outstanding LoUs were not available on its core banking system run on Infosys’s Finacle software, thus the LoUs issued went undetected.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE AND COMPANIES ACCUSED OF INVOLVEMENT?

PNB has accused three companies - Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R US - it said belong to Nirav Modi, a high-end jeweller who runs his eponymous Nirav Modi stores that spread from New York to Hong Kong. Modi is worth $1.73 billion according to Forbes rankings.

Modi’s companies colluded with the bank staff, PNB said, adding that it suspected some officials at foreign branches of other Indian banks that extended credit were also involved.

It also named Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra - companies promoted by another jeweller, Mehul Choksi, who is Modi’s uncle.

Gitanjali last week denied Choksi had any involvement with the alleged fraud, saying he would take “necessary legal steps” to get his name removed from the CBI case.

Modi has not commented on the case. His flagship Firestar Diamond has said it had no involvement.

PNB said it has begun criminal action against two staff members and suspended some others. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the two staff members.

WHAT ARE THE AUTHORITIES DOING?

Federal investigators swung into action on Thursday, conducting searches at PNB branches and also at Nirav Modi’s home and offices, local media said.

The finance ministry has issued an advisory to all banks to review their large customer exposures, according to media reports. The Enforcement Directorate, which investigates frauds involving foreign exchange transactions, was also conducting a probe, Mint newspaper said.

WHO ASSUMES THE LIABILITY?

PNB has said the transactions are “contingent” in nature, and it will decide on the liability based on the law and the genuineness of underlying transactions.

Banking sources have said several other banks who have extended loans based on the PNB LoUs that were later found to be fraudulent are at risk of losing money.

Some of the banks say PNB is liable to pay since it issued the LoUs, although PNB, in a Feb. 12 “caution notice” addressed to chief executives of 30 banks, including two foreign banks, said the other banks also have a share in the blame as they “overlooked” certain Indian central bank rules.

It also said none of the overseas branches of India-based banks had shared with PNB any documents or information at the time of extending buyers’ credit to the companies.

PNB said Nirav Modi had written to the bank but had yet to offer any formal proposal for a repayment.

($1 = 63.9200 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Alex Richardson

Moderate Nepali communist Oli to 'balance China, India' as new PM

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KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Thursday appointed moderate communist K.P. Sharma Oli, who led an alliance with former Maoist rebels to a sweeping victory in recent elections, as prime minister.

FILE PHOTO: Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, also known as K.P. Oli, observes a minute of silence for earthquake victims during an event organised to mark the 18th National Earthquake Safety Day and the official launch of earthquake reconstruction efforts in Bungamati village, Nepal January 16, 2016. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File photo

A presidential spokesman said Oli, who spent 14 years in jail for opposing the now-abolished monarchy in the 1970s and 1980s, was named prime minister hours after Sher Bahadur Deuba, whose party suffered a landslide defeat in the polls, resigned.

Oli was also prime minister from 2015 to 2016, soon after the nation’s current constitution was formalized.

Oli’s leftwing alliance is considered to be closer to China while outging leader Deuba is widely seen as being closer to India.

The two Asian giants have poured aid and investment to woo Nepal, home to Mount Everest, as a geo-political ally.

“Oli is going to be pragmatic as prime minister to balance India and China,” said Kunda Dixit, editor of the weekly Nepali Times.

Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) party Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, also known as K.P. Oli, (L) shakes hands with the chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, during a news conference in Kathmandu, Nepal December 17, 2017. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/Files

Nepal held parliamentary elections in November and December but the formation of the new government had been delayed because the Election Commission declined to declare the final results until the election of the upper house of parliament, which was held last week.

“He has already received the appointment letter from the president,” Bhandari’s spokesman, Kul Prasad Chudal, told Reuters.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Oli is to take the oath of office later on Thursday, Chudal said.Nepal has been embroiled in political instability since a decade-long Maoist conflict ended in 2006 and the monarchy was abolished two years later. Oli is the 26th prime minister since protests led to the establishment of a parliamentary democracy in 1990.

Oli has said he will promote peace, stability and development in one of the world’s poorest countries where revolving-door coalitions have sapped business confidence, curbed growth, spurred corruption and slowed reconstruction after a 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people.

The new government will be faced with an economy plagued by dwindling exports, manufacturing and remittances.

Party officials said Maoist chief Prachanda will take over from Oli as prime minister before his five year term expired under a power sharing deal.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma. Editing by Tom Lasseter and Nick Macfie