New Youth League Chief

Lu Hao has been reelected as first secretary of the Secretariat of the

Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) at the recently concluded First Session of the 16th CYLC Central Committee.

Lu, former Beijing vice mayor, was appointed to head the CYLC in late April, replacing predecessor Hu Chunhua, now acting Governor of north China's Hebei Province.

The 41-year-old Lu holds a Master's degree in economics from prestigious Peking University. He was successfully elected the youngest ever vice mayor of Beijing at the age of 35.

The CYLC, created in May 1922, has a membership of 72 million. Its constitution states that the CYLC is the assistant and reserve force of the ruling Communist Party of China. Many senior Chinese leaders have worked in the CYLC, including President Hu Jintao, who served as first secretary of the Secretariat of the CYLC Central Committee in 1984-85.

Young Heroine

Wang Bin, an 8-year-old pupil who lost her right arm in China's worst earthquake in more than five decades, gave an emotional boost to the

 entire nation when her bravery was heavily covered by media organizations on June 9.

Wang is a second-grader in Liangping County, Chongqing Municipality, which neighbors Sichuan Province where the quake struck on May 12. When the temblor jolted Liangping, Wang, who was in class, ran out onto the field safely. However, when she returned in an attempt to rescue students trapped in the collapsing school building, she was seriously injured. Unfortunately, doctors had to amputate her right arm as a result.

Despite the great pain, Wang began to learn writing and drawing pictures with her left hand after initial recovery from the amputation. She also joined psychiatrists and volunteers in her hospital to comfort other children injured in the quake.

Wang was released from hospital on June 9.

Women's Soccer Savior

Though the Chinese side lost the final of the AFC Women's Asian Cup soccer tournament on June 8, head coach Shang Ruihua and his players have won more acclaim than ever before due to their better than expected performance. In the semi-finals on June 5, China beat Japan 3-1 to end a two-year losing streak of three games.

The media and fans spoke highly of Shang's successful efforts to revitalize the Chinese team in only two months and, more importantly, rebuild players' confidence to win.

"We are heading in the right direction although we still have some work to do before we are ready for the Olympics," Shang said before the Asian Cup final.

Shang, 63, took charge of the Chinese team, one of the country's Olympic medal hopefuls, in April, after former head coach, Frenchwoman Elisabeth Loisel, was sacked due to successive defeats. With 35 years of coaching experience, Shang inspired China to finish the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup soccer tournament in 1991 in fifth place, and led China's U19 team to clinch the runners-up spot at the FIFA Women's World Youth Championship 2006.

"The effectiveness of the response was especially commendable considering the number of people affected and the extent of the damage."

Hans Troedsson, World Health Organization's Representative in China, after visiting and inspecting health measures in areas severely hit in the earthquake in Sichuan on May 12

"Food security comes first in China, more important than fuel."

Song Yanqin, a co-drafter of China's national energy strategies, saying that China has no plan to sacrifice food for fuel amid the controversy over biofuel, at the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2008, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank in Manila on June 5

"What politics cannot solve, you can be sure sportsmen cannot solve."

Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace, stressing that the Beijing Olympic Games should not be disturbed by political issues at a press conference in Geneva on June 10

"Failure by the biggest financial firms in the world to adequately take risk into account, coupled with the aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world, have led not only to corporate losses. Most people on the planet have become poorer."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, blaming "aggressive" U.S. policies for the global financial crisis at Russia's main annual event for international investors in St. Petersburg on June 7

"The West is uncertain whether this huge nation will be good or bad for the world. This tension will only be resolved when both sides approximate each other's worldviews and accept that they will never have identical cultural values."

Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor of Singapore, in his article entitled "Two Images of China" that was published in Forbes magazine on June 16