Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping, has drawn extensive attention from people both at home and abroad for her charisma and grace. Accompanying her husband on his first overseas trip after becoming president, Peng Liyuan exhibited graceful demeanor, a pleasant personality and well-chosen dress, prompting people to coin the term “Liyuan style”.

Peng Liyuan, as one of China's best-known singers, was popular among Chinese people long before her husband became the president. Loved by her fans, she has been in touch with the people for years.

    “Liyuan style” is not only representative of a fashion idol, but also overpass cultural and diplomatic barriers. The beautiful handbags Peng has carried, and the plain but elegant and delicate dresses she has worn have become popular. Her choice of clothing, made-in-China instead of luxurious foreign brands, shows her belief in domestic dress designs.

But “Liyuan style” is not only about clothing and a woman's paraphernalia. It is also about diplomacy and promoting China's soft power. In Moscow, Peng visited a boarding school for orphans and children estranged (疏远) from their parents, encouraging them to strive for a better life, which brought out the maternal side of her character. In Tanzania, she donated sewing machines and school bags to women and children. And as a World Health Organization ambassador in the fight against AIDS, Peng is devoted to many public causes, including those relating to charity and healthcare.

    Some observers have already started saying that Peng's activities have become part of public diplomacy in China.

Also, “Liyuan style” has boosted the confidence of the Chinese people. Modem but not flashy, elegant but not arrogant, Peng has all the virtues of a Chinese woman and carries them to the international stage.

Since the 18th Party Congress and the annual sessions of the NPC and CPPCC, the country's new leadership has vowed to adopt a down-to-earth work style to connect with the people. Peng's plain but elegant style shows that thriftiness and an earthy style need not be drab and boring.

    So it can be said that Peng's first appearance on the international stage has kicked off well.

    The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said on Thursday it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that can float.

An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives — a nation of a number of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean — not suitable for humans to live in by 2100, the UN's climate change experts have warned.

    President Mohamed Nasheed has declared a fight for survival, and last month he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study suggestions for a floating structure that could support a conference centre, homes and an 18-hole golf course.

    The company, Dutch Docklands, is currently building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai. Its website said it undertook projects that make “land from water by providing large-scale floating constructions to create similar conditions as on land”.

    The Maldives began to work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital island of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there in order to ease crowdedness. The city, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a 30-million-dollar sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to fight climate change.

    Nasheed, who held the world's first underwater cabinet (内阁) meeting in October to highlight his people's serious and difficult situation, has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are completely covered.

    He has also promised to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming “carbon neutral (碳中和)” by 2020. His plan involves ending fossil fuel use and powering all vehicles and buildings from “green” sources such as burning coconut husks.

    The haunting paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck, on show in the final leg of a travelling tour that has already attracted thousands of visitors in Hamburg and the Hague, may come as a surprise to many. Few outside the Nordic(北欧的) world would recognize the works of this Finnish artist who died in 1946. More people should. The 120 works have at their core 20 self-portraits, half the number she painted in all. The first, dated 1880, is of a wide-eyed teenager eager to absorb everything. The last is a sighting of the artist's ghost-to-be.

    Prematurely gifted, Schjerfbeck was 11 when she entered the Finnish Art Society's drawing school. “The Wounded Warrior in the Snow”, a history painting, was bought by a private collector and won her a state travel grant when she was 17. Schjerfbeck studied in Paris, went on to Pont-Aven, Brittany, where she painted for a year, then to Tuscany, Cornwall and St Petersburg. During her 1887 visit to St Ives, Cornwall, Schjerfbeck painted “The Convalescent”. A child wrapped in a blanket sits supported up in a large wicker(柳条编制的) chair, toying with a sprig(小枝条). The picture won a bronze medal at the 1889 Paris World Fair and was bought by the Finnish Art Society. To a modern eye it seems almost sentimental(感伤的) and is made up for only by the somewhat astonished, sad expression on the child's face, which may have been inspired by Schjerfbeck's early experiences. At four, she fell down a flight of steps and never fully recovered.

    In 1890, Schjerfbeck settled in Finland. Teaching exhausted her, she did not like the works of other local painters, and she was further isolated when she took on the care of her mother. “If I allow myself the freedom to live an isolated life”, she wrote, “then it is because it has to be that way.” In 1902, Schjerfbeck and her mother settled in the small, industrial town of Hyvinkaa, 50 kilometres north of Helsinki. Isolation had one desired effect for it was there that Schjerfbeck became a modern painter. She produced still lives and landscapes but above all moody yet sharp portraits of her mother, local school girls, women workers in town.

    “I have always searched for the dense depths of the soul, which have not yet been discovered by humans themselves”, she wrote, “where everything is still unconscious -- there one can make the greatest discoveries.” She experimented with different kinds of underpainting, scraped and rubbed, made bright rosy red spots; doing whatever had to be done to capture the subconscious — her own and that of her models. In 1913, Schjerfbeck was rediscovered by an art dealer and journalist, Gosta Stenman. Once again she was a success.

Hair Loss (Alopecia)

    Information about male pattern baldness(秃顶) causes, triggers and treatment in the UK.

    In contrary to popular belief, hair loss­or alopecia­can start at any age. While it is associated with mature males, and statistics show it does mainly affect men above 40, the reality is you can notice symptoms in your 30s, or even 20s and teen years.  The NHS statistics state that 25% of men start losing their hair by the time they reach 30. The most common form of hair loss is male pattern baldness­also known as androgenic alopecia­that affects more than half of men around the world.

    One option many men seek is treatment to avoid further hair loss, especially early on in the process. With treatments, such as Propecia, that specifically target male pattern baldness, it is possible to stop hair loss completely and even encourage fresh new hair growth.

    What is alopecia?

    Alopecia is the medical term for hair loss. Most commonly affecting males, hair loss in men is caused by an increased sensitivity to the male sex hormones (androgens). The type of alopecia you have (as well as hereditary and external factors) can influence levels of hair loss. The most common type of hair loss (alopecia) is male and female pattern baldness. Other types include：

    * Alopecia areata (patches of baldness, usually on the scalp)

    * Scarring alopecia (hair loss directly affecting the hair follicles)

    * Telogen effluvium (hair thinning over a larger area on the top of the head, rather than bald patches)

    * Anagen effluvium(most commonly caused by cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy)

For a number of Indians who for over half a century have replayed a race again and again, Milkha Singh's 400 metres final run at the Rome Olympics should be among the greatest heartbreaks in global sporting history. In fact, they hoped it would throw up a different result.

However, continued praise for the man decades later is due to the effort by India's greatest track athlete on that September day in the Italian capital, though he still missed out on becoming India's first Olympic track medallist.

As he was growing up, he used to run barefoot daily on hot sand to school, which was situated 20 kilometres from his house. He thinks this was good training but knows it is not possible to ask children to do this today. However, he does feel that the early identification of talented athletes is also important for India's athletic teams to shine.

India has in the last few years judged success purely in terms of medals, but looking into the past reveals how a more generous generation saluted Milkha as a pioneer. Milkha is India's finest track athlete of all time. He remains the only Indian male to win an individual Commonwealth Games athletics gold—he won the 400 metres at Cardiff in 1958，the first athlete from independent India to do so.

Since retiring from athletics, the former champion athlete has set up the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust, which helps poorer families survive if an athlete in their family has died. A percentage of the profits from the film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag are going to his trust.

Finally, let's read a quote from Milkha himself: "There is no shortcut to success." A scene in the film shows Milkha Singh running with injured feet—this actually happened. "I haven't found an alternative to hard work. You need to be patient, dedicated and true to yourself and your work."

Any visitor to the Chinese Culture Week being held at the University of Tehran would be amazed by the Chinese tea, food, and various artworks produced through Chinese knotting and {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(tradition) paper cutting — all displayed by Iranian students learning Chinese.

The Chinese Culture Week aims {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(introduce) Chinese culture to more Iranians. Held inside the lobby of the institute, which {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(establish) in 2009, the event displayed a range of artworks that contain different {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(element) of Chinese culture, produced by Iranian professors and students at the university.

"{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(give) China's increasing global influence, as well as its friendly and expanded relations with Iran, learning about the country directly is becoming {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(vital) important," said Hamed Vafaei, the Iranian director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Tehran. He believes that the students who are studying {#blank#}7{#/blank#} Chinese language at the institute will enter different sectors of Iranian society in the near future, helping more people to get to know more about China.

China is the world's second-largest economy, the most populous country, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} a permanent member of the UN Security Council, so learning Chinese has become a necessity as many around the world have realized, he said.

"Each of the students here is a window toward China, {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(help) the Iranian people have a more realistic picture of the country, which will make {#blank#}10{#/blank#} possible to improve bilateral relations in the long run," he added.