| Master Artist
Luo Pengpeng, a renowned seal cutting artist in China, holds an exhibition in the Royal College of Art in London, from April 14 to 22, expanding the influence of the art worldwide.
Making her first seal at the age of 7, Luo is one of the few outstanding female seal cutting artists in China. Luo's carving career began when she was chosen to become a seal cutter for Rong Bao Zhai, a prestigious traditional art gallery with a history of 300 years, in 1980.
In the past 32 years, Luo has created more than 10,000 seal cutting works, most of which have been exhibited in various seal cutting exhibitions in China and other countries. Her seals feature a combination of traditional style and contemporary living.
Besides artistic creations, Luo has devoted the majority of her time and energy to teaching and promoting the seal cutting art. In 2006, she founded the Academy of Seal Cutting Art of China, the first high-level seal cutting art research institute in China. In 2007, the academy enrolled its first student as a seal cutting major for a master's degree, also the first postgraduate studying the art form in China. Luo also gives lectures on seal cutting in universities and on TV, and has published several books on the art.
Bo Xilai, former Party chief of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, has been suspended from membership of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the CPC Central Committee, the CPC Central Committee said in a statement on April 10.
Bo is suspected of being involved in serious discipline violations, according to the statement.
The statement said that the suspension is in line with the CPC Constitution and the rules on investigation of CPC discipline and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC will file the case for investigation,
Xinhua News Agency said in a separate report that Chinese police have set up a team to reinvestigate the death of British citizen Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing on November 15, 2011.
The existing evidence indicates that Heywood died of homicide. Bogu Kailai, Bo's wife, and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, are suspects and have now been transferred to judicial authorities on suspicion of having committed intentional homicide, said Xinhua.
China has pledged to maintain the country's low birth rate so as to limit its population to 1.39 billion by 2015.
"From 2011 to 2015, the country's working-age population will peak, while the aging population will grow at an unprecedented rate. And the urban population will remain greater than that in rural areas," said a guideline on the country's population development in 2011-15.
According to the document, issued on April 10 by the State Council, China's cabinet, the overall population growth rate will be kept below 0.72 percent per annum.
China's long-awaited regulations on school bus safety finally came into force on April 10, including an extensive list of measures aimed at reducing the risk of tragedy.
Local governments above the county level should organize licensed bus companies to provide commuting services to students and supervise their operations, the regulation says, adding that security staff should accompany students in school buses.
Should major school bus accidents occur as a result of government dereliction, responsible officials will be held accountable, the regulation provides.
The regulation also specifies stricter requirements for the technical conditions of school buses, bus drivers' qualifications, the responsibilities of security staff and penalties for those who violate the regulation.
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has issued a judicial interpretation ensuring that homeowners' legitimate rights will be protected in government-led land expropriation and housing demolition practices.
Local courts can reject government housing demolition requests if the compensation for homeowners is deemed unfair, according to the new legal interpretation posted at the SPC website, and effective from April 10.
The rule specifies circumstances under which courts should reject government requests for forced relocation, including where the proposed compensation "violates the principle of fairness" and where land expropriation "obviously lacks factual or legal basis" or has "severely violated the procedures provided by law."
The rule supplements the existing regulation on housing expropriation, which was promulgated by the State Council in January last year and forbids local governments from executing their administrative rights to demolish housing without residents' consent, unless approved by a court.
China has established its first key national lab for fundamental and applied studies of aerospace medicine. The lab is set to provide significant research support for astronauts' health during space missions, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Construction of the lab began in September 2009.
Built in the China Astronaut Center of Beijing Aerospace City, the lab is the country's first facility dedicated to aerospace medical research.
New York University Shanghai (NYU Shanghai), the first university jointly operated by China and the United States, will enroll its first undergraduates in 2013, said the preparatory council of NYU Shanghai on April 5.
The assessment of student applications will be based on both their performance in China's national college entrance examination and an NYU-style student screening process, the council said.
Of the first 300 undergraduates, it is expected that 51 percent will come from the Chinese mainland, and 49 percent will be international students.
NYU Shanghai is an independent entity authorized to grant degrees. NYU and Shanghai-based East China Normal University will operate the institution. Its campus, located in the Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, is under construction.
Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region will offer free surgery for more than 6,000 children with congenital heart diseases this year, according to a medical aid program launched in Lhasa on April 6.
The aid program is aimed at treating patients aged from 0 to 18, said Phubu Drolma, Director of Tibet Regional Health Department, at the program's launching ceremony.
The plateau region, with an average altitude of over 4,000 meters, has a much higher reported incidence of congenital heart disease than other parts of China.
"The incidence rate is 1.11 percent among newborn babies in Tibet, compared with 0.8 percent elsewhere in China," said Phubu Drolma.
With financial and technical assistance from China's interior regions, free heart surgery has cured more than 2,900 Tibetan children of the disease since 2008. Another 6,235 children are still awaiting surgery, he said. | 
