China's soccer team may compete with South American teams, professor weighs in on reform, and college men test their business savvy with feminine hygiene products.

Chinese soccer's American stint

China's national soccer team will accept an invitation to play at Copa America, a continental event usually reserved for South American teams, for a possible showdown with such soccer heavyweights as Argentina and Brazil. The tournament format requires 12 competing teams. The South American confederation has only 10 members, so national teams from other FIFA confederations are invited to fill the spots. Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States have been regulars since being invited for the first time in 1993. (SINA Sports)

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Men selling feminine hygiene products

College entrepreneurs are usually hailed for their courage and business acumen, but the same glory didn't come to Wu Fengming. Wu, a senior majoring in engineering, and his two partners were mocked for their startup selling sanitary pads, typical female products. The three launched an online store on Saturday and already had 100 orders. Recalling how they built their business, they said there was no shortage of red-faced moments when they tried to learn about feminine products. They are studying at Central South University, in Hunan province, Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported.

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Thoughts on gaokao reform

Ge Jianxiong, a professor at Fudan University and member of CPPCC, expressed dissatisfaction with the reform plan for college entrance exams, in an interview with Beijing Times.

Reforms must be based on research and not on complaints, Ge said.

Ge also said reducing the weight of the English exam may bring disadvantage to those who are good at the language, and giving the test more than once cannot eliminate complaints from students.

The real concern for reform should be knowing how many college students that the country can accommodate and providing a solution for the rest, those who cannot go to college. By improving the social benefits and status of common workers, people who don't go to college can still enjoy a bright future, Ge said.

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Officers receive training in reducing stress

Dozens of urban patrol officers, or chengguan, in Beijing's Tongzhou district were given a training course by a psychologist on reducing pressure from the job on Wednesday, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Sunday.

The officers were taught to relieve stress by singing, listening to music and playing sports. A series of incidents nationwide involving chengguan beating innocent people had tarnished their image.

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Yu'E Bao dips below 6%

The seven-day annual return rate of Tianhong Fund, partner of online giant Alibaba, which launched the personal finance product Yu'E Bao, declined to 5.97 percent on Sunday, dipping below 6 percent for the first time since Dec 26.

According to insiders, the high yield of online finance products cannot be maintained in the first half of the year, since banks are no longer in financial strain and new policies may be launched to supervise the products.

Some analysts think that Sunday's yield may not be the bottom of Yu'E Bao's declining trend.

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Picasso's engravings exhibited for first time

One hundred Picasso engravings are being exhibited in the nation for the first time as Pablo Ruiz Picasso's Suite Vollard exhibition was launched on Friday at the National Museum. Suite Vollard was produced between September 1930 and March 1937 and is named after Ambroise Vollard, an art dealer and friend of Picasso. It is considered by experts to be the most important collection of 20th-century engravings.

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Wild panda wanders into village

A wild panda from a nature reserve caused a stir when it wandered into a nearby village and was surrounded by hundreds of residents on Saturday, Lanzhou Morning Post reported. A villager who tried to stop the panda from leaving the village was bitten on the foot and was taken to a hospital. Local patrol officers helped return the panda to the reserve.

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Too close for comfort

Sunday was Feb 2 on the Chinese lunar calendar, when a traditional Chinese festival called Long Tai Tou (dragon's head raising) is held to mark the start of spring and farming. During the day, people eat noodles, shave their hair and pray for good luck.

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