Winner of worldwide best job announced

A bungee-jumping, ostrich-riding British charity worker was named the winner of what's been dubbed the "Best Job in the World", a six-month contract to serve as caretaker of a tropical island in Australia.

Thirty-four-year-old Ben Southall, of Petersfield, beat out nearly 35-thousand applicants from around the world for the dream assignment. His job: to swim, explore, and relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, while writing a blog to promote the area.

Abungee-jumping,ostrich-ridingBritishcharityworkerwasnamedthe
winnerofwhat'sbeendubbedthe"BestJobintheWorld".

He was selected for the 111-thousand US dollar gig by officials from the tourism department of Queensland state.

Southall and 15 other finalists spent the past four days on the island for an extended interview process, which required applicants to snorkel through

crystalline waters, gorge themselves at a beachside barbecue and relax at a spa.

The finalists also had to demonstrate their blogging abilities, take swimming tests, and participate in live interviews.

The job is part of a 1.2 million US dollar tourism campaign to publicize the charms of northeastern Queensland. Officials say it has already generated more than 110-million Australian dollars, or over 81-million US dollars worth of publicity.

Southall once worked as a tour guide in Africa, but most recently as a charity fundraiser.

He will live for free in an airy, three-bedroom oceanfront villa with a private pool and sweeping views of the surrounding islands.

The happy winner starts "work" on July the 1st.

Click for more news in Culture Express

Yuan sets at 6.8232 against USD

China's central bank set the mid point of the yuan's exchange rate against the US dollar at 6.8232 on Wednesday. That's a rise from the rate of 6.8201 a day earlier.

It has appreciated 18.86 percent since it stopped its peg with the US dollar in July 2005.

Click for more news in Biz China

Diving queen Guo Jingjing to spring into action

BEIJING, May 6 -- China's diving queen Guo Jingjing will return to the pool next week for the fifth stop of the 2009 Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, the US.

China'sGuoJingjing(top)andWuMinxia
diveduringthewomen'sthree-metre
synchronisedspringboardfinalatthe
GoodLuckBeijingFINADivingWorldCup
beingheldattheNationalAquaticsCentre
inBeijingFebruary24,2008.
(Xinhua/ReutersPhoto)

After the Beijing Olympic Games last August, when Guo claimed her third and fourth Olympic gold medals, the diving super star enjoyed six months off, shooting advertisements and attending various social activities.

She only returned to training with the national team after the Spring Festival in February.

The US Grand Prix, from May 7-10, will be her first competition and only competition before the National Games qualifications from May 16-22.

The Chinese Swimming Administrative Center considered withdrawing from the US event, because of concerns over the spread of H1N1 flu, but allowed the team to leave Beijing for the US last Sunday.

Guo's teammates include her synchro partner Wu Minxia, Olympic women's 10m platform gold medalists Chen Ruolin and Olympic men's 10m platform silver medalist Zhou Luxin.

Click for more news in Sports Scene

GM to cut 21, 000 US factory jobs

General Motors could soon be majority owned by the US federal government under a massive restructuring arrangement.

The plan laid out on Monday would cut 21 thousand US factory jobs by next year and phase out the famous Pontiac brand.

GeneralMotorsPresidentandCEOFritzHendersonaddresses
thecompaniesviabilityplaninDetroit,MondayApril27,
2009.(APPhoto/PaulSancya)

Once the world's largest automakers, General Motors, is currently living on 15.4 billion US dollars in government loans.

It also faces a June 1st deadline to restructure and get more government money.

If the restructuring doesn't satisfy the government, the struggling company could go into bankruptcy protection.

US firms upbeat about China

US companies in China remain committed to, and highly optimistic about, the long-term prospects of the domestic economy, the 2009 White Paper on the state of American business in China, released yesterday by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), showed.

The country was still a top investment priority for American businesses, the *** said. According to a survey carried out by AmCham, 22 percent of its members said China was their No 1 global investment destination. Between 75 and 78 percent have ranked the country as a top-three investment destination every year since 2004.

Although the outlook for 2009 was considerably less optimistic than responses in recent years, US firms consistently reported being profitable in China. For 2008, 74 percent of members reported being "profitable" or "very profitable", according to the White Paper.

The survey also found that US firms were still confident about their long-term growth prospects in China. Although nearly half of the companies said they were pessimistic about this year's outlook, 63 percent were optimistic about their two-year outlook and over 80 percent were upbeat about five-year prospects.

These trends indicated that the vast majority of US firms here were focused on market opportunities within the country, the *** said.

Almost two-thirds of members indicated they were in China to produce or source goods and services for the Chinese market, rather than for exports. "This number represents a significant increase from 51 percent in 2008, and that shows that most American businesses are for here the Chinese market," said John D Watkins Jr, AmCham-China Chairman.

In addition, two-thirds of US companies in China expected to directly or indirectly benefit from the country's 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package, according to Watkins.