Xinjiang Party Chief Changed

Zhang Chunxian has been appointed as Party chief of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee announced. Wang Lequan, former Secretary of the CPC Xinjiang regional committee, has been appointed deputy secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee.

Before the move, Zhang, 57, had been secretary of the CPC Hunan provincial committee since December 2005. He had also served as minister of communications between 2002 and 2005. Zhang is known for his open-mindedness and eagerness to communicate with people via the Internet.

Wang, 65, had assumed several leading posts in Xinjiang since 1991. He was named Xinjiang's Party chief in December 1995.

Generous Philanthropist

Yu Pang-lin, an 88-year-old Hong Kong hotelier, became the first Chinese to donate more than $1 billion for public welfare after he announced to have donated his remaining fortune worth $470 million to a foundation bearing his name on April 22.

With Yu's latest donation, the worth of the Hong Kong-registered foundation has hit $1.2 billion.

Yu's foundation, which has a mandate to make donations to health, education and disaster relief, has funded more than 150,000 cataract removal operations across China since 2003 and established a number of schools in poverty-stricken areas in west China.

Yu, who moved from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong in 1958, made his fortune from scratch. His huge philanthropic donations over the past two decades have earned him the title of "China's Andrew Carnegie."

In 2009 alone, Yu donated $910 million to charity, said the latest Hurun Philanthropy List released by Shanghai-based Hurun Report Inc. The generosity put Yu on the top list for the fifth consecutive year since 2006.

Tycoon in Court

Huang Guangyu, once the richest people on the Chinese mainland, appeared in court on April 22 on charges of illegal business dealings, insider trading and bribery.

In an open trial at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, Huang, former chairman of Hong Kong-listed electronics retailer giant Gome, was charged with illegally trading HK$822 million ($106) from September to November 2007.

Prosecutors also accused Huang of insider trading of stocks of a Shenzhen-listed company, worth more than 1.415 billion yuan ($207 million), from April to September 2007 and bribing five government officials with 4.56 million yuan ($667,643) in cash and properties from 2006 to 2008 in exchange for illegal benefits for two of his companies.

Huang, 41, founded Gome in Beijing in 1986. He topped the Hurun China Rich List in 2004, 2005 and 2008.

"We're trying our best to avoid saying 'I don't know' to visitors."

Xia Kejia, Director of the World Expo site volunteer department

"Taking the theme 'Better City, Better Life,' you have chosen to make the 2010 Shanghai Expo an event resolutely focused toward the future."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on April 27

"Today, there are few traces of the war in Okinawa. But U.S. bases still remain in front of us. This is so unfair."

Hirokazu Nakaima, Governor of Okinawa, speaking at a rally on April 25 to demonstrate against U.S. military presence on the Japanese island

"A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis."

U.S. President Barack Obama, calling for new rules governing the financial industry before a legislation to rein in Wall Street was blocked in Senate on April 26

"We inherited a ship that was ready to sink."

George Papandreou, Greek Prime Minister, blaming the previous administration for the country's economic crisis. Greece has asked for the activation of a joint EU-IMF bailout

"We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

Stephen Hawking, British astrophysicist, claiming in an upcoming series for the Discovery Channel that aliens probably exist and that humans should avoid making contact with them

"I've done enough science fiction to know that our Earth will survive through various nightmare scenarios. But that's entertainment. This is real and as citizens we have to act now."

U.S. actress Sigourney Weaver, at a Senate hearing on ocean acidification on Earth Day on April 22