Chinese president extends condolences to Yuan Longping's family

The secretary of the Communist Party of China Hunan Provincial Committee has visited family members of Yuan Longping on behalf of General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Xu Dazhe conveyed President Xi's condolences for Yuan's passing.

The Chinese president hailed Yuan's contributions to food security and asked all party members to learn from his spirit of innovation and dedication.

UN hails Yuan Longping as true food hero

The United Nations has mourned the passing of Yuan Longping whom it hailed as a true food hero. 

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, as well as China's permanent representative Zhang Jun, both expressed their condolences. 

Yuan Longping is renowned for developing the first hybrid rice strain that pulled countless people out of hunger.

He died on Saturday at the age of 91. 

The farewell ceremony for Yuan Longping's body is scheduled to be held on Monday morning.

Investigation team set up to look into Gansu marathon accident

A team has been set up to look into the accident that killed 21 participants during a mountain marathon in Gansu Province. 

Hail, freezing rain and high winds struck runners taking part in the 100-kilometer cross-country race in Baiyin on Saturday. 

All other 151 people have been confirmed safe. Baiyin mayor says authorities will provide medical support to those suffering from minor injuries.

U.S. geologist deems China's Mars expedition as "very very exciting"

An American geological expert is expecting China's Mars expedition to shed light on many fundamental scientific questions. 

Professor Jim Head at Brown University says Tianwen-1 is unique and he expects more detailed information from this probe. 

"It landed in the northern lowlands, which is below what is believed to be an ancient shoreline, so it may be actually on the floor of an ancient billions-of-year-old ocean, and we're very excited about that. We haven't really been in this area before like this, and it's got a lot of promise for fundamental scientific questions like the origin of life, for example."

China's Zhurong rover has started its mission to explore the Martian surface. 

The Mars mission is the first step in China's planetary exploration of the solar system.

Ex-PBOC chief says digital yuan not designed to replace U.S. dollar

A former chief of China's central bank has dismissed claims that China's digital yuan is developed to replace the dominant status of the U.S. dollar. 

Zhou Xiaochuan says that the purpose of the digital currency is to meet the demands in the internet era, especially for retailing payment. 

He also denied that China's central bank wants to replace third-party payment with the digital yuan.

Tests and trials have been made in cities including Suzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. 

A test for cross-border use of the digital yuan was made last month between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

Yang Jiechi to visit three countries

Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi will visit Russia for the 16th round of strategic security consultation between the two countries starting Monday.

He will also pay official visits to Slovenia and Croatia.

Robert Lewandowski top scorer in Bundesliga history

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has become the top goal scorer in Bundesliga history. 

The Polish player left it to the last minute of the last game to take his season's tally to 41, breaking Gerd Mueller's record of 40 goals that he set in the 1971/72 season. 

Lewandowski who is also famous for scoring five goals in under nine minutes in 2015 says he could hardly believe the new feat. 

"I have to say that I never dreamt to break this record. To score more than 40 goals because I thought that it is impossible if you have only 34 games and I played 29 games. I was trying before, three, four, five times to score even one goal but I couldn't. The last situation came and I scored the goal. That is something special, something historical."

Italy's Meneskin wins Eurovision Song Contest

A four-piece band of rockers representing Italy has won the Eurovision Song Contest. 

Maneskin's win was only Italy's third victory in the popular contest and the first since 1990.

Bassist Victoria De Angelis says Bassist Victoria De Angelis says they’re happy to have performed in front of a live audience.

"For us, the audience is the most important thing, of course, because the judges can have their own says but that doesn't represent the taste of the whole population of course. So the fact that so many people voted for us, it's the most meaningful, because that means that those people are coming to our gigs, they are listening to our music and this has much more value than a jury." 

The music festival was cancelled last year because of COVID-19. 

A crowd of 3,500 fans attended this year's event in Rotterdam under strict safety protocols.