Despite her defeat to eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams on July 3, China's big hope for Olympic gold, ace tennis athlete, Zheng Jie, gave her supporters a big surprise at this year's Wimbledon tournament. After beating the 18th seed, Nicole Vaidisova, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 on July 1, she became the first Chinese player to enter the semifinals for ladies' singles of a Grand Slam tournament.

Zheng is also the first female wild-card entrant to reach the semifinals at the All England Tennis Club in southwest London.

On her way to the quarterfinals, the 24-year-old Zheng ran in a string of victories over top seed Ana Ivanovic and Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in the first round, Britain's Elena Baltacha in the second and Hungary's nascent Agnes Szavay in the fourth.

Zheng, a women's doubles world champion, ranked only 133 in singles before the tournament due to a serious ankle surgery last year, which made her miss most of the championships. She had to apply to the Club management committee for a wild card.

Tiger Man Caged

The 54-year-old farmer/hunter, Zhou Zhenglong, who fabricated pictures of a wild south China tiger that he said he had personally photographed, has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, according to sources with the Shaanxi Provincial Government at a press conference on June 29. The photos were published extensively in the media confirming the rediscovery of this supposedly extinct beast.

Zhou, a local farmer in Zhenping County, is accused of forging photos from an old tiger poster, as well as faking a paw print by using a wooden model of tiger paw, found by police, said the authorities after a month-long investigation. Thirteen local officials involved in the picture scandal have also been penalized, and media officials involved in publishing the fake pictures were sacked.

In October 2007, the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau released a bunch of tiger photos, later confirmed fake, as proof that the endangered south China tiger species was not extinct. Zhou, who proclaimed that he had risked his life to get the pictures, was soon made a hero, and received 20,000 yuan ($2,914) as a reward for his discovery.

But the "great" discovery triggered boiling controversies on authenticity of the photos over the Internet. South China tigers have been missing in the wild since the 1980s, and thus were thought to be extinct.

Top Swimmer Gets Life Ban

China's top backstroke swimmer, 25-year-old Ouyang Kunpeng, has been banned for life by the Chinese Swimming Association due to a positive doping test for steroid.

According to a statement released by the Chinese Swimming Association on June 27, Ouyang, along with his coach Feng Shangbao, have both received life bans after he failed a routine random urine test on May 1.

Ouyang was considered a possible medal winner at the Olympics, as he is the reigning 50-meter backstroke Asian-record holder and won three silver medals at the 2006 Asian Games.

The move shows China's determined commitment to cracking down on dope offenders and following through the pledge made to give out automatic lifetime bans, rather than temporary bans for first-time offenders as in other competitions.

"Although there are some changes in visa application procedures, the new policy is not as strict as might be imagined. Those who apply to come to China for justifiable reasons will be given every convenience."

Wei Wei, Director of the Consular Department of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defending recent changes to China's visa policy as being in line with international practice and appropriate to ensure a safe Olympics

"We don't have to wait until everything becomes perfect."

Liu Guijin, China's special envoy on African affairs, stressing that China attaches no political conditions to its development assistance to other developing countries in talks with reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on July 1

"Where there are poverty and sickness including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all."

Former South African President and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, in a speech to crowd at a June 27 gathering in London's Hyde Park in honor of his 90th birthday on July 18

"What I want is for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and punished for what they have done."

Sa'adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a former detainee at Abu Ghraib prison, to Reuters after he joined three other Iraqi men to file lawsuits at U.S. federal courts on June 30 against U.S. military contractors who they said tortured them while they were detained

"Just as thousands were drawn to California and the Klondike in the late 1800s, the green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern-day prospectors in all parts of the globe."

Executive Director Achim Steiner of the UN Environment Program, after his agency published a report on July 1 that outlined a 60-percent hike in investment in renewable energy in 2007