CGTN

Chinese geo-spatial information expert Li Deren and physicist of condensed matter physics Xue Qikun were awarded the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, China’s top science honor, on Monday.

They received the prize for their outstanding contributions to scientific and technological innovation during the National Science and Technology Award Conference in Beijing.

Chinese scientists Li Deren (L) and Xue Qikun (R). /CMG

Li Deren, born in December 1939, is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences (IEAS) as well as a corresponding academician at the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and honorary member of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).

Xue Qikun, born in 1962, is a renowned Chinese physicist who received the Buckley Prize for his groundbreaking research on topological insulators and the quantum anomalous Hall effect.

He and his team were the first to experimentally observe the quantum anomalous Hall effect in 2012, and they published their findings in the journal Science in 2013. The journal’s reviewer described the findings as “a landmark work in condensed matter physics.” Yang Zhenning, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, called it “the first physics paper of Nobel Prize level published by a Chinese lab.”

Russia: Priest, police killed in Dagestan ‘terror’ attacks

DW

Assailants targeted Orthodox churches and a synagogue in the Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan, in southern Russia, killing at least 15 policemen and an Orthodox priest.

A counter-terrorism operation is currently underway in the search for assailantsImage: Russian security services on Sunday said at least five militants were killed in a counter-terrorism operation in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.

Security forces were responding to  attacks on a synagogue and an Orthodox church in Derbent, as well as a church and a police station in the state capital of Makhachkala, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.

Russian investigators said several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, and 15 police officers were killed in the “terrorist attacks.” A Russian National Guard spokesperson said one of its officers had been killed in coastal Derbent and 12 more wounded.

Intense fighting in Rafah near end, says Netanyahu

BBC

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the “intense phase” of fighting in Rafah in southern Gaza is nearly over, but that this does not mean that the war is coming to an end.

Many Palestinians have escaped fighting in Rafah by fleeing to nearby Khan Younis

He said the war would continue until Hamas was completely driven from power. He added that the Israeli military would soon be able to redeploy troops to the border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire with Hezbollah have been escalating.

Mr Netanyahu also again rejected the idea that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority should run Gaza in place of Hamas.

India prepares to mitigate heavy floods following heat waves

Khaleejtimes

A study last year by global environmental groups concluded that 15 million people are at risk from glacial lake outburst floods in Asia.

India is taking steps to mitigate floods that will follow the onset of the monsoon after the intense heat waves this summer caused loss of lives. A high-level meeting on Sunday to review the preparedness for flood management has ordered the immediate construction of 50 mammoth ponds in India’s Northeast to divert and store flood water from the ocean-size Brahmaputra River, which spans the region. This river is prone to cause floods when unexpectedly heavy rainfall occurs.