New Guangzhou Mayor

(CFP)

Wan Qingliang was elected mayor of Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, on April 16. He replaced Zhang Guangning who was named Party chief of Guangzhou earlier this month.

Wan, 46, had been a vice governor of Guangdong since January 2008, with foreign trade and economic cooperation as his area of responsibility. He is credited with leading the local export-oriented manufacturing sector to weather the global downturn during the recent crisis.

Previous to his promotion to the provincial post, Wan served as mayor of Jieyang in east Guangdong between 2003 and 2004.

Guangzhou, which will host the 16th Asian Games in November, is one of China's five officially designated "key" cities, along with Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. It is also the first provincial capital with an annual gross domestic product topping 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion).

Returned Banker

(PANG XINGLEI)

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), the country's largest lender by assets, nominated Zhang Hongli (Lee Zhang), a former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, as its vice president.

If the appointment is approved by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, Zhang will be the first high-ranking manager to be recruited by a Chinese state-owned commercial bank from a foreign counterpart.

The bank said its board believes Zhang "is experienced in international financial markets and the circumstances of the country and is experienced in the management of international banks."

Zhang, 45, joined Deutsche Bank in 2001. He had served as a member of the Global Banking Management Committee and Asia-Pacific head of Deutsche Bank Global Banking and chairman of Deutsche Bank (China) since October 2004. He had also been Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s chief representative in Beijing and worked at British asset management firm Schroders PLC and personal computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co.

Banned Sprinter

(LIU DAWEI)

Female sprinter Wang Jing, who failed doping tests at last year's National Games, has been banned for four years between October 25, 2009, and October 24, 2013, from competition and for a lifetime from the national squad, the Chinese Athletics Association said.

Wang tested positive for the performance-enhancing steroid epitestosterone and epitestosterone metabolites after she won the 100-meter title at the National Games in October 2009 with a time of 11.50 seconds. She has been stripped of her gold medal.

Though Wang denied knowingly taking any banned substances, she did not demand a Sample B test.

Wang's coach, Chen Hua, also received a lifetime ban.

Wang, 22, was the only Chinese sprinter to compete in the women's 100-meter event at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 but was eliminated in the first round heat with 11.87 seconds.

"It is not possible and of no need to cover up the death toll."

Guo Weimin, Director of the Press Bureau of the State Council Information Office, defending the accuracy of the published death toll from the earthquake in Qinghai Province at a press conference on April 20

"The index futures arrive in line with market desire and expectation."

Tu Guangshao, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, after China launched stock index futures on April 15 after a decade-long preparation to push forward capital market reform

"There's no household name going to fall by the wayside but some of these smaller airlines who've been living on tight budgets could struggle to survive."

Steve Bond, an airline operations expert at City University London, on the impact of the recent volcano ash cloud-caused airspace shutdown in Europe to the world's civil aviation industry

"With recent improvements in the economic outlook, the need for such extraordinary policy is now passing, and it is appropriate to begin to lessen the degree of monetary stimulus."

The Bank of Canada, signaled in an April 20 statement it may raise interest rates as soon as June. The plan makes it the first G7 central bank willing to end emergency-level lending rates introduced during the crisis as the economy roars back after the recession

"I am shocked at this moral bankruptcy. This is probably one of the worst cases that we have seen."

Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, on the allegation that Goldman Sachs defrauded investors during the subprime housing crisis

"The overall  essage, for the first time in a generation, is one of persistent and welcome progress."

Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, on a report that the worldwide number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth dropped to 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980

"Nigeria's international image will be highly dented as a country without the political will to cooperate in the global war on terror."

Goodluck Jonathan, acting Nigerian President, urging lawmakers to pass swiftly anti-money laundering and antiterrorism financing laws to stop the country from being blacklisted globally