Golden Skater

(CHEN KAI)

Zhou Yang won China's third gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, in the women's 1,500-meter short track speed skating on February 20. Her winning time of 2:16.993 created a new Olympic record.

The 18-year-old first-time Olympian is China's first winter Olympic gold medalist born in the 1990s.

Zhou, 19, is the youngest member of the Chinese women's short track speed skating team. She started skating at the age of eight. At the 2008 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in the Republic of Korea, Zhou won the gold medal in the women's 3,000-meter super final.

For the past two seasons, Zhou has been ranked first in the world in the women's 1,500-meter short track. She also set a world record for the distance of 2:16.729 in Salt Lake City, the United States, in February 2008.

IOC Newcomer

(ZHANG ZHEN)

Former Olympic champion skater Yang Yang has been elected a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She is the fourth IOC member from the Chinese mainland.

Known as "Queen of Short Track," Yang was China's first ever winter Olympic title winner, taking the gold medals in the women's 500-meter and 1,000-meter short track speed skating at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Throughout her skating career, Yang won a total of five Olympic medals, including two silvers and a bronze, as well as 59 world titles. She retired from the sport in August 2006.

Yang has been engaged in international sports organizations since 1999, when she was elected on to the Athletes' Committee of the International Skating Union. In 2003, she became a member of the Athletes Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. In 2006, she joined the IOC Women and Sport Committee.

Nuke Talk Promotion

(LI XIAOGUO)

The Chinese Government has appointed Wu Dawei as Special Representative of the Chinese Government on the Korean Peninsular Affairs to be in charge of the six-party talks and related issues, said a notice posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website.

Wu, 64, was China's vice foreign minister between August 2004 and January 2010, when he also served as chief negotiator in the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

Before he took up the vice ministerial post, Wu was China's ambassador to the Republic of Korea in April 1998-November 2001 and ambassador to Japan in July 2001-August 2004.

The six-party talks started in Beijing in August 2003 with the participation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, China, the United States, Russia and Japan. Wu is the second Chinese chief negotiator, following Wang Yi. He has presided over the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of the talks.

"The deeper the peaceful development across the Straits goes, the more the welfare and interests of Taiwan people will be protected and the stronger their confidence in the future will be."

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, commenting on a U.S. report on the weakness of Taiwan's air force

"Too many have made the mistake of not applying for patents and trademarks in China. Foreign patents and trademarks are not enforceable in China, just as Chinese patents and trademarks are not enforceable in the United States."

Benjamin Bai, a Shanghai-based partner with Jones Day specializing in intellectual property law, in his article "Yes, China Does Protect Intellectual Property" in The Wall Street Journal

"Let us unite and commit ourselves together and at the same time to peace."

Khalil Ibrahim, leader of Darfur's main rebel group Justice and Equality Movement, after he and Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir signed a ceasefire agreement and a framework accord for a final peace deal on February 23

"War is excluded from our horizon."

Victorio Taccetti, Argentina's Deputy Foreign Minister, ruling out military action to reassert its sovereignty claims over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands after a diplomatic row broke out between Argentina and Britain over a British company's oil drilling in the disputed archipelago

"I think we outgrew our engineering resource. And the most important thing is that we lost sight of the customer."

Jim Lentz, Toyota's top-ranking U.S. executive, at a U.S. congressional hearing on the Japanese automaker's recent massive recalls

"Unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the specter of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health."

UN Environment Program, warning in a report entitled "Recycling—From E-Waste to Resources"