Ruling on Li Tianyi appeal to be announced A Beijing court is today scheduled to announce a ruling in connection with an appeal by Li Guanfeng, the 17-year-old son of two prominent military singers. The teenager, also known as Li Tianyi, was sentenced to 10 years in September for being the leader in a gang rape of an 18-year-old woman on February 17. During the appeal hearing, Li overturned his previous testimony and claimed that he was on the phone with his mother when the rape took place and he did not know about it. Misty the dinosaur goes under the hammer The 17-metre-long skeleton of a dinosaur discovered in the United States four years ago is up for auction in Britain today. The sellers of the bones of the six-metre tall female Diplodocus longus - nicknamed Misty - are hoping they will fetch about US$650,000. The remains of the ancient herbivore, whose skeleton is one of six similar ones located in museums worldwide, were found mostly intact near a quarry in Wyoming. They were later treated at a laboratory in Holland before being put back together again for display in Britain. Bidding is taking place at an auction house in West Sussex, England. Museum commemorates Bruce Lee birthday The 73rd birthday of Bruce Lee today is being commemorated by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum with the production of a special publication on the martial arts legend. The catalogue, available at the museum's bookshop from early December, reviews the exhibition; Bruce Lee: Kung Fu, Art, Life which ran earlier this year, and focuses on Lee's public image, movies, martial arts skills and rise as a cultural phenomenon. Bangladeshi activist receives peace prize The founder of the Development Organisation of the Rural Poor, A. H. M. Nouman, will become the first Bangladeshi to be presented with the Gusi Peace Prize International for his humanitarian work at a ceremony in Manila. Nouman is one of 17 recipients of the award this year. He began his relief, rehabilitation and human rights work after Bangladesh's worst-ever cyclone in 1970. Italian senate to vote on Berlusconi expulsion Italian senators vote today on whether to permanently expel disgraced leader Silvio Berlusconi from politics. The former prime minister was sentenced last year to four years in jail with a five-year ban on holding public office after being convicted for complicity in tax fraud at his Mediaset television empire. He has fought the charges, but Democratic leader Guglielmo Epifani declared it is within senators' rights to take action. Chinese ceramics expected to fetch HK$13m Chinese ceramics and works of art from the Ming and Qing dynasties estimated to be worth in excess of HK$13 million are to be auctioned at Christie's in Hong Kong today. The collection was assembled over 30 years by the late US businessman Raymond Riesco.
