White House official quits for presidential planes flyover in New York

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Director of the White House Military Office Louis Caldera resigned on Friday for a controversial presidential plane flyover in New York City, the White House said.

OnApril27,Calderaarrangedaflyoverphoto-opof
aplanefromthepresidentialfleetovertheStatue
ofLibertyandotherpartsoflowerManhattanofNew
YorkCity,sparkingfearsamongresidentsaboutanother
possible9/11styleterrorattack.

A statement from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said U.S. President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation, which will be effective as of May 22.

It also said the president has asked his Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to jointly review the organizational structure of the White House Military Office, "to make recommendations to him to ensure that such an incident never occurs again."

In his resignation letter released by the White House, Caldera said the aftermath of the incident made it impossible for him to stay in office.

He also apologized for distracting Obama's work by arousing the controversy.

On April 27, Caldera arranged a flyover photo-op of a plane from the presidential fleet over the Statue of Liberty and other parts of lower Manhattan of New York City, sparking fears among residents about another possible 9/11 style terror attack.

The image of a low-flying plane accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet sent some New Yorkers into the streets and into a panic -- reminding them of the tragic 9/11 attacks on the city.

Sichuan residents move to new homes

Special Report:One Year after 5.12 Quake

The largest relocation and residential migration is taking place in China's quake hit Sichuan Province.

With reconstruction work smoothly entering its final phase, many new projects are being launched to further improve the living conditions in the quake zone.

Withreconstructionworksmoothlyenteringitsfinal
phase,manynewprojectsarebeinglaunchedtofurther
improvethelivingconditionsinthequakezone.
(CCTV.com)

Friday was a big day for 145 households from Longxi Township of Wenchuan County - the quake's epicenter.

They lost their fields and homes in the disaster and now they are beginning their journey to a new home,in Qionglai City.

Although they became emotional at leaving their hometown, most of them are looking forward to a brand new life.

Overseas residents prop up realty

Overseas residents in Beijing are once again showing keen interest in home buys, industry experts said.

Foreignvisitorslookataminiaturerealty
projectatarealestatetradefairinSuzhou,
Jiangsuprovince.[ZhuZihan]

Hu Hanxiang, manager, Star River, a high-end residential project in Chaoyang District, told China Daily that they have just sold an apartment valued at around 10 million yuan to a Taiwan resident.

"The enquiries for new homes from foreigners has increased along with the rebound in the property market," said Hu.

Hu Yuzhou, manager, Yuanyang Lavie, a project in Beijing's central villa district, said property sales to Hong Kong and Taiwan residents have gone up recently.

Isler, an Italian working with a joint-venture company, is one of the foreigners keen on buying a new residence this year.

Facebook to adopt new terms of service

Special Report:Tech Max

BEIJING, April 27 (Xin***) -- Facebook, one of the world's most popular social-networking sites, is all set to go ahead with new terms of service after the company's week-long vote following a row with users earlier this year.

MarkZuckerberg,founderofFacebook,suedtogetamagazine
toremoveunflatteringdocumentsabouthimfromitsWebsite.
(File photo)

The new documents "Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" specify that users own their information, not Facebook.

Earlier this year, Facebook was marred in controversy after The Consumerist , a consumer advocacy site, noticed that a change in its terms of use gave the company control over data that users had deleted.

Shortly after people vociferously complained, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reverted to the old terms of use while the company initiated a campaign to let users contribute and review changes.

Facebook had set a minimum threshold of a 30 percent voter turnout for the vote to be binding. That would have been about 60 million people, or about 100 times the actual turnout.

"However, the turnout was "a small number" compared with the site's user base," Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, wrote on the site's blog.

"We'd hoped to have a bigger turnout for this inaugural vote, but it is important to keep in mind that this vote was a first for users just like it was a first for Facebook. We are hoping there will be greater participation in future votes," Ullyot said.

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Chinese scientists say new discovery may yield clue to cure human infertility

Special Report:Tech Max

SHANGHAI, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists said Wednesday that further research is needed in a bid to find a cure for human infertility, despite their claims on Sunday of successfully *** infertile female mice pregnant.

Chinesescientistssaynewdiscoverymay
yieldcluetocurehumaninfertility(File
photo)

"We need to confirm whether the same stem-cell transplant technology can be applied on other mammals, including humans," said Professor Wu Ji with the College of Life Science and Biotechnology of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Her article on the discovery of germline stem cells found in mice ovaries was published in the latest issue of "Nature Cell Biology" on Sunday. The article explained her theory of using the cells to make infertile mice produce healthy offspring.

The discovery, however, refuted current scientific theories, saying that there is no germline stem cell in ovaries.

"The research on using the cells to produce eggs to cure mice infertility opened new ground in biotechnology. We need more scientific evidence to support my theory," Professor Wu told Xinhua on Wednesday.

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Delegates attend BFA New Fortune Cup Golf Invitational 2009

DelegatesattendtheBoaoForumforAsia"NewFortuneCup"Golf
Invitational2009inBoao,ascenictowninsouthChina'sHainan
Province,April17,2009.TheBFA"NewFortuneCup"Golf
Invitational2009washeldhereduringthe3-dayBFAAnuual
Conference2009duetobeheldfromApril17to19.
(Xinhua/ZhaoYingquan)