Day: September 10, 2024

Dalian: Following is the starting list of Saudi Arabia against China in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier here on Tuesday:

Goalkeeper: 21-Mohammed Al Owais

Defenders: 4-Ali Lajami, 12-Saud Abdulhamid, 14-Hassan Kadish, 17-Hassan Al Tambakti

Midfielders: 8-Abdulelah Al Malki, 13-Nasser Al Dawsari, 23-Mohammed Kanno

Forwards: 9-Feras Albrikan, 10-Salem Al Dawsari(C), 20-Abdullah Al Hamddan

Source: The Namibia News Agency

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged efforts to make solid progress toward the strategic goal of building China into a leading country in education.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a national meeting on education held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday.

Tuesday marks the 40th Teachers’ Day in China. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Xi sent greetings to teachers and others working in the education sector across the country.

Xi said it was decided to speed up the drive to modernize education after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 and a goal has been set to build China into a leading country in education by 2035.

This goal will bolster China’s efforts to build a great country and advance national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization, he added.

Xi called building a leading country in education as a complex and systematic endeavor, which requires fo
cusing on education’s fundamental task of fostering virtue.

Source: The Namibia News Agency

Brussels: A Belgian historian has hailed Beijing’s old city as an architectural masterpiece, emphasizing how its layout showcases centuries of urban evolution, with a central axis that stands unparalleled in its design.

The recent recognition of Beijing Central Axis as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage site underscores its immense significance in the fields of archaeology, architecture, and culture, Thomas Coomans, an architectural historian, archaeologist and heritage conservationist, said in an interview with Xinhua.

Coomans, a professor in the department of architecture of KU Leuven University, has been collaborating with Chinese scholars since 2011. In 2014, he and Xu Yitao from the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University established a research cooperation framework in building archaeology. Coomans also served as a visiting professor at Peking University from 2016 to 2017.

Building archaeology combines archaeological methods with
historical research, Coomans explained. “We look at buildings with the eyes of an archaeologist, not an architect. We try to understand from the materials how the building was, its history and how people built them.”

Through his frequent academic exchanges with Chinese colleagues, Coomans has visited Beijing numerous times. During one of these visits, he lived in a hutong lane near Nanluoguxiang, a popular tourist destination in the heart of the city, immersing himself in local life to gain a deeper understanding of the area’s culture and history.

Nanluoguxiang, an 800-meter-long historic alley, is renowned for its traditional hutong architecture and lively cultural atmosphere. Reflecting on his time there, Coomans said, “When you live in a hutong, you are no longer a tourist. You become part of the Chinese community. You smile to people, interact with them, and you really understand these places with a very long history. That’s really the heart of Beijing.”

Coomans expressed a particular fascination with
Beijing’s ancient structures that blend European styles with Chinese craftsmanship, uniquely merging Western architectural concepts with Chinese techniques and artistic ideas. This fusion, he noted, creates a remarkable and unprecedented architectural synergy.

The 589-hectare area of the Beijing Central Axis connects structures that reflect centuries of cultural exchange between China and the West, including St. Michael’s Church and St. Joseph’s Church. Beyond the Central Axis, landmarks like Xiyanglou, or “Western Mansions” — influenced by early 18th century Italian painter and missionary Giuseppe Castiglione — and the former embassy district of Dongjiaominxiang, further illustrate the architectural diversity shaped by these exchanges across Eurasia.

The Beijing Central Axis spans 7.8 kilometers, making it the world’s longest urban axis. Initiated in the 13th century, it reached its current form by the 16th century. Coomans said its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July serves as proof of
its outstanding value.

As Coomans sees it, Beijing is a truly unique capital, with a structure incomparable to that of any other capital in the world. “The city’s layout is the result of evolution of earlier capitals in China, but Beijing is truly the masterpiece.”

Coomans has been invited to the 2024 Beijing Culture Forum, scheduled for Sept. 19-21. He expressed his excitement about the event, looking forward to learning and meeting new friends. During the forum, scholars from various countries will share their perspectives and insights on Beijing. This year’s theme is “Enhance Cultural Exchanges for Common Progress.”

Source: The Namibia News Agency

Beijing: Chinese lawmakers are considering a draft revision to the Law on National Defense Education.

The draft has been submitted to an ongoing session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee for a second reading.

The draft improves provisions regarding students’ military training and adds provisions stating that national defense education on campus should be aimed at raising awareness among students of their legal obligation to perform military service.

Submitted to an April 2024 session for its first reading, the draft aims to build a national defense education system that connects various levels and types of schools, and improves the goals, content and methods of national defense education in primary schools, middle schools and universities.

The Law on National Defense Education was passed in 2001 and amended in 2018.

Source: The Namibia News Agency

Sanaa: The Houthi group on Tuesday claimed that they had shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone in northern Yemen, while the U.S. military said it had destroyed two Houthi missile systems.

“We shot down an American MQ-9 drone while it was carrying out hostile, espionage and combat operations in the airspace of the province of Saada,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV.

“This is the second U.S. drone we downed in less than 72 hours,” he said. The Houthis shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone on Saturday over the central province of Marib, the group announced in an earlier statement.

“This is the ninth drone of the same type we have shot down since October last year,” he said, vowing that his group would continue to launch more attacks against what he said “Israeli-linked” ships.

So far, there has been no comment from the U.S. military on the Houthi claim.

Meanwhile, in a post earlier Tuesday on social media platform X, the U.S. military said it had destroyed two Houthi
missile systems in northern Yemen.

“In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command forces successfully destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi missile systems and one support vehicle in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” it said, adding it also successfully destroyed a Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle over the Red Sea.

The Houthis and the U.S. military have been attacking each other since November last year, when the Houthis began launching anti-ship missiles and drone attacks on what they said were “Israeli-linked” cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to show solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since January, the U.S.-British naval coalition stationed in the region has conducted regular air raids and missile strikes against Houthi targets to deter the group.

Source: The Namibia News Agency

Beijing: China’s auto sales grew 3 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2024, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed Tuesday.

Total sales came in at about 18.77 million units for the January-August period, the data showed.

During the period, the production of China’s automakers reached 18.67 million vehicles, up 2.5 percent year on year.

In August alone, auto sales shrank 5 percent from a year ago to approximately 2.45 million units, while the output declined 3.2 percent to 2.49 million units.

The auto market was about to usher in its peak sales season, said Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the association, referring to the months of September and October.

Highlighting the effects of trade-in programs, Chen said these policy measures will help boost the auto market for the rest of this year and further unleash the consumption vitality of the market.

China’s auto exports expanded 25.4 percent year on year to 511,000 units last month, the data showed.

Sou
rce: The Namibia News Agency