England is now in the need of a new captain. That is because Steven Gerrard is hanging up his boots from the national team. The Liverpool midfielder leaves as the third most capped player ever for the Three Lions -- making 114 appearances for his country in a career spanning 14 years.
Gerrard held the armband for England in their disappointing FIFA World Cup campaign in Brazil this summer. With just one point from three group matches, England were eliminated before the round of 16. Gerrard's international career spanned three World Cups. He was chosen to lead the England squad in 2010 and 2014 and he also captained England during the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament.The 34-year-old finishes his time with the national side just one short of David Beckham's 115 caps, a record for an outfield player. Golaie Peter Shilton holds the record with 124.
However, Gerrard has no intention of hanging up his boots completely, and will now focus on his club career with English Premier League side Liverpool, for whom he is also the skipper.
"It was a very difficult decision to make. It's something that I've been contemplating for a long time - not just since the end of the World Cup. It's a decision that I took very serious, and it's been tough, it's swung both ways at times, I've had to take an awful lot of advice from people who are close to me, players who I still play with, ex-players who I played with a long time ago."
"I haven't made my decision on the back of the World Cup, I've made my decision on my age, on my body, on being fair to Liverpool Football Club, being respectful for them, especially with having the Champions League back - that was a huge factor. To ask my body now, the way it is and what it's been through, to play international football and domestic football was too much of an ask," Gerrard said.

A large-scale water transfer project scheduled to be completed by October is set to alleviate some of Beijing*s water shortages.
A large scale water transfer project slated to be completed by October this year is set to alleviate some of Beijing*s water shortages.
From October, Beijing is set to benefit from a larger water supply. The "South-to-North Water Diversion Project", a large scale initiative, will transport more than a billion cubic meters of water via canals to the country’s capital annually.

The canals will run over 1,200 kilometers from the Danjiangkou Reservoir, located on the upstream of a tributary of the Yangtze River to Tuancheng Lake, just outside of the city.

"Tuancheng Lake has a volume of 520,000 cubic meters, water plants in the city will draw the water directly from here after being transported from the project,”sector director of South-North Water Diversion Project Hua Quanli said.

Water delivered from this mega-project will eventually comprise half of the city’s water supply for drinking and industrial purposes.

It will also ease supply constraints from the city’s underground water reserves, the city’s main water source.

"After the water from the South gets to Beijing, we will shut down water plants at three major underground water sources, each of them currently contributes over 300 million cubic meters of water to the capital. This move would stop underground levels of water from lowering and their supply would gradually recover," project director Sun Guosheng said.

With this initiative, each of Beijing’s 21 million residents will have an extra 50 cubic meters of water, or a 50 percent increase from existing supply levels

http://english.cntv.cn/2014/07/23/VIDE1406059439753720.shtml

Family members demand truth behind ferry Sewol sinking
It*s been exactly 100 days since a passenger ferry sank off the southwest coast of South Korea.More than 300 people died, and 10 are still missing. The families of the victims and their supporters marched through the rain on Thursday, demanding parliament to enable a special law that they believe will help get to the bottom of what happened.
One hundred days have passed since the sinking of the Sewol on April 16th that killed more than 300 passengers on board, most of them from the same high school.
I’m standing outside the National Assembly in Seoul, where the families of the victims continue their march for the second day.
"We are marching because we hope something like this will never happen again in South Korea after April 16th," Father of victim Kim Young-Rae said.
They are demanding for a legislation to inquire into what caused the death of more than 300.They say, too little has been done to establish the truth behind why the ferry sank. And no one is taking responsibility. They want to name half of the experts from the independent team to pursue this inquiry.
But here in this national assembly building, the ruling and opposition parties are not able to reach an agreement.
Some of the family members are on a hunger strike for 11 straight days. They use their last strength to shout out, that they will not stop until the special law is enabled.
"I am on a hunger strike for the 11th day. There is no deadline. You keep asking, but we will not stop until a proper special law is enabled, and we find out who is responsible," Father of victim Yoo Kyung-Keun said.
The president’s tears in May’s public speech was not enough. They don’t want any physical or financial compensation. They only want the government to get to the end of this, to find out the truth, and punish those responsible.
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