The richest man in China, Kofi Annan, and French aerobatics

The front page of The Beijing News, has an image of a beaming Kofi Annan alongside former Chinese vice premier Li Lanqing. Yesterday afternoon at the Beijing office of the UN, Annan presented awards to six Chinese people including Li for their contributions to the UN and China.

Annan also delivered a speech at Tsinghua University. During quesiton time after the speech, he said that he wanted to go back to Africa to be a farmer after he resigns. A female students from Tsinghua praised Annan as being very manly.

Another man in news is Huang Guangyu (35) who made his fortune selling electronic appliances, and heads this year's list of 100 richest Chinese compiled by Euromoney China. Huang founded GoMe Appliances (guomei dianqi), China's largest electronics retailer. With a fortune of USD1.3 billion, he ousted last year's number one, Ding Lei of NetEase.com, who slipped to the 7th position.

Second on the list is the 31-year-old Chen Tianqiao, with a fortune of US$1.05 billion. Third on the list is Rong Zhijian (62) with a fortune of US$1 billion.

French stuff is still hot: after the disappearance of Beijing's heavy smog, "Patrouille de France" presented an aerobatics show over the Great Wall at Jinshanling and Nanyuan Airport. The photos of their performance were on almost every front page today.

Other hot news:

- 143 hospitals in Beijing added to the list of appointed medical safety organizations.

- The abductors of two Chinese engineers have called for the release of militant accomplices being held by the Pakistani government.

- Civet cats are confirmed as the main carriers and one of the major animal hosts of the corona virus which causes SARS.