China's overseas ambassadors have sent their best wishes to their motherland and its people for the lunar new year, the year of the tiger, which falls on Sunday.

OVERSEAS CHINESE IN MOTHERLAND'S HEART

For Zheng Qingdian, ambassador to the violence-ridden Afghanistan, always being thought about by the motherland means happiness, strength and courage to face up to difficulties.

The Chinese New Year festivities started in Sydney on Friday. Sydney has lined up a series of events for three weeks, including dragon boat races at Darling Harbor and the Twilight Parade. Performers from the central Chinese city of Chongqing are showing off their local culture.

Nicola Rutzou, Sydney resident, said, "Chinese people have lived in Australia for as long as my ancestors have, so it's really important to acknowledge the role they play in our society and it's good to see their culture on display."

Source: CCTV

Overseas Chinese in Spain donated goods and money with a total value of 200,000 euros (272,000 U.S. dollars) to quake-torn Haiti in a disaster relief benefit evening held on Sunday to mark China's luna new year.

The evening, featuring China's traditional Lion Dance and drum performance, was held at the Madrid Town Hall and attracted some 400 guests including the Haitian ambassador.

Local officials thanked Chinese residents for initiating the event to raise fund and show support for quake victims in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Lovers, airport, goodbye kiss. Together these words did not make up a romantic story, but created an astonishing incident.

On January 3, at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Jiang Haisong, a 28-year-old Chinese overseas PhD student, trespassed into a restricted area in order to kiss his girlfriend goodbye.

This led to a six-hour closure of the airport and the delay of 100 flights and thousands of passengers' trips.

The magnitude-7.3 earthquake, the worst and strongest ever recorded in the Caribbean nation of Haiti in 200 years, collapsed a hospital in a hillside district of Port-au-Prince, and the presidential palace, the mansions of the finance and public works ministries, and the parliament building and a cathedral in Port-au-Prince were also damaged.

Electric power supplies, transportation, communications and other facilities paralyzed on the whole, so people of the outside world could hardly get to know the post-quake damages and casualties in the country.

For decades the Big Three have cast a large shadow over the Michigan economic landscape, but with the automotive industry in turmoil, a new breed of startups is emerging from the darkness.

Ironically, some of the best talent appears to be coming out of the auto industry, where job losses have propelled Michigan to the highest level of unemployment in the U.S., tracking at 14.7 percent in November, well above the national average of 10 percent. There is likely a correlation between the high rates of joblessness and a push into entrepreneurial ventures.

BEIJING — Liu Xiaobo, the Beijing writer who was given an 11-year prison sentence on subversion charges on Dec. 25 after urging Chinese leaders to embrace democratic reforms, appealed his conviction to the Beijing Supreme People’s Court on Monday, according to one of his lawyers.

The lawyer, Shang Baojun, told The Associated Press that Mr. Liu told him during a meeting that he had filed the appeal. “We are making an effort to defend his innocence, but we have no idea whether it will be successful,” Mr. Shang said.

Reporting from London - China's execution of British citizen Akmal Shaikh on drug dealing charges early Tuesday has provoked an outcry of revulsion in Britain.

Chinese Ambassador Fu Ying was summoned to the British Foreign Office for a terse 45-minute meeting with Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis. A statement said the ambassador was called "to hear of the government's regret that Akmal Shaikh's mental health had been ignored by the Chinese judiciary despite repeated interventions by those with an interest in his case."

Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based dance and music company, performed its second of seven shows at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 27.

Ms. Chan, a realtor, watched the show with her sister, Ms. Lo. They are originally from Hong Kong.

Ms. Chan described the show as "wonderful! There was a lot of artistic [talent] in it—very enjoyable."

She particularly enjoyed the dance Fairies of the Clouds, which portrays celestial fairies soaring gently through the heavens. She added, "The costumes are beautiful, and the backdrop designs [are] so colorful."

Beijing is getting into the Christmas spirit. Restaurants, malls, and upscale residences are decked with boughs of paper holly. Window panes all around are scribbled over with frosty, misspelled cheer ("Merry Chrismas!"). Hotels lend their lobbies to adorable choir children and their adoring parents for holiday carols. And eager boyfriends in the city are busily making Christmas Eve plans. At least they should be.

Last week, a reader posted this dicey query on my blog: