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The government has finally approved the 2010 shanzhai (copycat) Spring Festival Gala Evening, which is considered to be a challenge to the CCTV Gala.

Shi Mengqi, the planner of the evening, received the official license from the Dongcheng Cultural Committee Saturday. “I am challenging CCTV and want to break their monopoly,” Shi said.

Compared to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, none of the staff of the shanzhai event are professionals but people who like music or performing, so they’ve called it “the grassroots’ own evening” and it will also be held on China’s New Year’s eve.

Shi said that the gala evening would last about 210 minutes, including over 30 programs such as dance and acrobatics.

“Over 100 websites will take a live telecast for my gala, and we are negotiating with some TV stations to join in, like Hoya STAR,” he said.

“Copycatting” was replaced by “folk” in the gala’s formal name. The first copycatting gala failed last year due to too many restrictions by the government although it gained a lot of attention.

Spring Festival Evenings, held by CCTV for 25 years since 1983, have become an important part of the festival in China. The 2009 gala attracted over 1 billion people, according to data from the China Television Research Company.

But the gala has been criticized for being rigid and isolating the people in recent years. “Even the laughing and applause have been designed,” said someone who once participated in the CCTV gala.

“My party aims to provide a stage for common people to show grassroots culture,” said Zhuang Yan, the Executive Director of the shanzhai gala.

Macedonia is planning a big night out to celebrate the scrapping of visas for its citizen traveling to the European Union, which officially kicks in at midnight Friday.

Friday night has been declared a “White Night”, which means that all clubs and bars in the capital city of Skopje will stay open until early morning.

One of the pioneers of electronic dance music, British performer Fatboy Slim, will perform at the main square in Skopje to celebrate the long-awaited end to visas.

A state-sponsored lottery was held on Thursday evening to pick 100 lucky Macedonians to travel to the French capital of Paris to mark the occasion.

Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration Vasko Naumovski and Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska will accompany the lucky winners.

The European Union recently decided to lift the visa obligations for the three Balkan states, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.

People from the three nations will be entitled to visa-free travel to 25 members of the 27-nation EU bloc, Britain and Ireland being the two exceptions.

They will also travel freely to Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, which are not part of the European Union but apply the same visa regime.

The visa wall for most of the Balkans was introduced in the early 1990s during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia, of which Macedonia was a part.

The visa lifting is seen as a step towards eventual full membership for these three countries into the EU.

Aria, the flagship casino-hotel of MGM Mirage’s $8.5 billion CityCenter development, is set to open late on Wednesday, adding about 4,000 high-end rooms to the hotel glut on the Las Vegas Strip.

MGM and partner Dubai World are banking that CityCenter — with its clean lines and modern sensibility — will attract visitors willing and able to pay for those state-of-the-art rooms, as well as extras like spa services, meals at celebrity-chef restaurants and shopping sprees at Tiffany and Gucci.

But the glittering complex, designed by “starchitects” like Cesar Pelli and Daniel Libeskind, comes as Las Vegas casino operators have lowered hotel room prices and offered discounted package deals to consumers as they struggle to attract business in a weak economy.

MGM Chief Executive Jim Murren told CNBC on Tuesday that he does not expect problems filling up Aria. “We can make money even at very low hotel rates,” he said.

But the specter of a price war caused by CityCenter’s more than 6,000 new hotel rooms has some Wall Street analysts worried.

“New properties had been viewed as more of an opportunity to expand the customer base of Las Vegas,” said Majestic Research analyst Matt Jacob. “But unfortunately we are still seeing declines in the markets ahead of CityCenter opening.”

Aria has 4,004 hotel rooms, more than 150,000 square feet of casino space and surfaces covered with natural stone, wood and metal. It houses 10 bars and nightclubs, 16 restaurants and a new Cirque du Soleil show, called “Viva Elvis,” featuring interpretations of the King’s life and music — from gospel-tinged numbers to Elvis as a superhero acrobat.

Two “boutique” hotels opened at CityCenter earlier this month: a 47-story Mandarin Oriental and the 1,500-room, non-smoking Vdara. The Crystals mall of shops and restaurants also has been open for a couple of weeks.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Monique Gin, a visitor from San Francisco, said of the multi-angled Crystals. “It’s like walking through a modern art museum.”

Aria and the surrounding complex of high-rise hotels and condominiums — the brainchild of Murren — is quite different than the typical themed Las Vegas of glitz, faux pyramids, volcanoes and gondola rides.

“It’s just not my cup of tea,” Chris Thompson said of the modern design of CityCenter’s shopping area. She and her husband, visiting from Toronto, usually stay at Paris Las Vegas, run by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, but were staying at Wynn Resorts Ltd’s namesake property, because “it was such a good deal you couldn’t afford not to come.”

Pelli, whose firm designed Aria, said the resort’s main strength is that it is not tied down by a theme.

“In the beginning, a theme appears to energize the project, but it is actually a millstone. It limits the things you can do,” he said in an interview.

Some analysts question whether the 67-acre CityCenter’s high rises — covered in glass and studded with sculptures and fountains — will attract enough new visitors to the Strip.

“I think CityCenter is going to be a challenge for MGM and the market,” Majestic Research’s Jacob said. “It could be quite a while before we see those premium (hotel) rates that were a big driver of Las Vegas growth earlier this decade.”

The highly leveraged company teetered near default earlier this year but was able to pull out of a downward spiral by selling assets like Treasure Island in Las Vegas, issuing new debt and securing financing for CityCenter.

Dubai World, an investment company for the Persian Gulf emirate, asked creditors last month for a standstill on $26 billion of debt mainly linked to its two property companies, Nakheel and Limitless World. Fellow emirate Abu Dhabi stepped in on Monday with a $10 billion injection.

But Dubai World’s woes are not expected to affect CityCenter, for which funding is already in the bank, and a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday that the investment company has no plans to sell either its 50 percent stake in CityCenter or its MGM holdings.

William Grounds, president and chief operating officer of Dubai World’s property group, said CityCenter “changes the landscape of Las Vegas” and “is destined to join the pantheon of great urban icons.”

Because the project is a 50-50 joint venture, business siphoned to CityCenter could cannibalize profit at MGM’s nine wholly-owned Las Vegas Strip resorts — such as the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay or MGM Grand.

“The good thing for the stock is that expectations are reasonably low,” Sterne Agee analyst David Bain said of MGM.

MGM shares ended the day unchanged at $10.35 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen about 24 percent this year.

China has attached importance to cultural exchanges with countries in Central Asia. The eagerness on the part of the two sides to explore cultural similarities has been one of the highlights of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s current two-nation Central Asian tour.

“I wish these books could serve as a bridge connecting the two peoples of China and Turkmenistan,” Hu said here Sunday, when donating books to the National Library of Turkmenistan.

The Chinese president, who arrived here Sunday for a two-day working visit, said he wanted to express the Chinese people’s friendly feelings toward the people of Turkmenistan by donating these books, which included the Encyclopedia of China, the Library of Chinese Classics and Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion.

A total of 2,054 books, with subjects ranging from Chinese history, philosophy, literature to Chinese medicine, were carefully chosen to cater to the needs of students of the Chinese language at an international language school in Turkmenistan.

The books will be handed over by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to the National Library.

“I believe these books will help people in Turkmenistan understand China better,” he said.

During his talks with Berdymukhamedov, Hu announced the decision to double the number of annual scholarships offered by the Chinese government to Turkmen students studying in China from the current 45 to 90.

Hu also expressed China’s readiness to provide assistance to Turkmenistan on Chinese language learning.

During his visit to Kazakhstan on Saturday, Hu and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev watched a cultural performance of music and dances staged by students of the Confucius Institute in Kazakhstan’s Eurasia University.

After the performance, Hu and Nazarbayev had chats with the students and teachers of the Confucius Institute.

“Where do the students of the Confucius Institute come from? And what activities have been carried out at the institute?” Hu asked.

Nazarbayev showed great interest in learning the Chinese language, when he asked whether he himself could become a student of the Confucius Institute.

“President Nazarbayev said he is interested in learning Chinese. He set an excellent example for the students who are learning the language,” said a teacher.

China is ready to expand cooperation with Kazakhstan in such areas as science, technology, education, culture, sports and tourism. Hu also announced a decision to increase from 100 to 200 the number of Kazakh students studying in China on Chinese government scholarships every year.

The Chinese naval fleet successfully concluded its four-day goodwill port call and a friendly visit to Peru on Dec. 7 and left Callao Port for Ecuador to continue its South America tour.

The Peruvian navy held a grand seeing-off ceremony for the Chinese navy fleet which is composed of the destroyer “Shijiazhuang” and the support vessel “Hongzehu” at the Callao Port.

The Peruvian commander of surface forces of the army, Commander Edmundo Deville, Chinese Ambassador to Peru Zhao Wuyi, along with embassy staffs and representatives of overseas Chinese in Peru attended the ceremony.

During the visit, Major General Wang Fushan, vice-commander of the North Sea Fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and head of the visiting fleet met with Peruvian President Alan Garcia, who boarded the “Shijiazhuang” destroyer.

Meanwhile, military bands of both sides staged a joint-performance at the port’s square. The Chinese military band also played Chinese music in the China town in Lima.

Additionally, Chinese navy fleet members paid visits to Peruvian surface forces, submarine forces, Navy officer academy and a dockyard, and held a party with local overseas Chinese.

Departing from Qingdao on Oct. 18 for a four-nation tour, the Chinese navy fleet arrived in Peru on Dec. 3 after its visit to Chile. The rest two stops are Ecuador and French Polynesia.

Almost half of the Norwegians feel snubbed by U.S. President Barack Obama, who is on a low-profile trip to their country to collect his Nobel Peace Prize in Norway’s capital, Oslo.

A poll conducted by pollster In Fact showed that 55 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents thought Obama was “impolite” not to attend the award presentation music concert; 44 percent though this no-show at the state banquet was “unacceptable,” and 34 percent thought his staying-away from the traditional Nobel concert was “unacceptable.”

Nearly half of the respondents thought the visiting U.S. president should take questions from the media at a scheduled press conference in Oslo.

The poll results were published in the country’s largest circulation newspaper VG on Wednesday.

Though government advisor Kjell Terje Ringdal said he fully understood Obama’s desire to stay low profile during his two-day visit to Oslo, the Aftenposten newspaper quoted Svein Tore Bergestuen as saying that Obama was a little “arrogant” by deciding not to attend the state banquet to be given by Norwegian King Harald V and Queen Sonja.

The commentator added that the U.S. president should conduct his visit to the Nordic country in a more polite way.

The VG newspaper reported on Wednesday that the number of Norwegians who supported the Nobel committee to award this year’s Peace Prize to Obama has dropped from 42.7 percent in October to 35.9 percent in December.

Siv Jensen, leader of Norway’s largest opposition party, strongly opposed the Nobel committee’s decision and demanded that Thorbjorn Jagland step down as the committee chief.

The youth wing of the Socialist Left and several other political groups have announced plans to hold demonstrations on Thursday to press for an end to the war in Afghanistan, where Obama has just announced a surge of 30,000 additional troops.

The Chinese naval fleet successfully concluded its four-day goodwill port call and a friendly visit to Peru on Dec. 7 and left Callao Port for Ecuador to continue its South America tour.

The Peruvian navy held a grand seeing-off ceremony for the Chinese navy fleet which is composed of the destroyer “Shijiazhuang” and the support vessel “Hongzehu” at the Callao Port.

The Peruvian commander of surface forces of the army, Commander Edmundo Deville, Chinese Ambassador to Peru Zhao Wuyi, along with embassy staffs and representatives of overseas Chinese in Peru attended the ceremony.

During the visit, Major General Wang Fushan, vice-commander of the North Sea Fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and head of the visiting fleet met with Peruvian President Alan Garcia, who boarded the “Shijiazhuang” destroyer.

Meanwhile, military bands of both sides staged a joint-performance at the port’s square. The Chinese military band also played Chinese music in the China town in Lima.

Additionally, Chinese navy fleet members paid visits to Peruvian surface forces, submarine forces, Navy officer academy and a dockyard, and held a party with local overseas Chinese.

Departing from Qingdao on Oct. 18 for a four-nation tour, the Chinese navy fleet arrived in Peru on Dec. 3 after its visit to Chile. The rest two stops are Ecuador and French Polynesia.

In what was regarded the biggest ever crackdown on soccer match-fixing and gambling, Chinese police have detained at least four former club officials.

An unprecedented storm is picking up to cleanse Chinese soccer which has been long ridden with scandals.

“The facts are clear that they manipulated domestic soccer matches through commercial bribery,” the Ministry of Public Security told Xinhua on Wednesday in the capital city of Liaoning Province.

“(They) also placed bets on fixed games through Web sites abroad,” said the Ministry who heads up the investigation believed to start over six months ago.

The first batch of suspects unveiled by the police by far were from clubs, ranging from the top flight Chinese Super League (CSL) to the First Division as well as local soccer association.

The investigation is still going on, police said. But they did not reveal how many people had been questioned in the probe or whether active players or big names were involved.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) expressed its support despite the fact that it was marginalized in the probe.

“If match-fixing and gambling keep rampant like now, Chinese soccer will be dead,” said Chinese soccer chief Nan Yong. “We are ready to pay a huge price for weeding them out once and for all.”

China’s Xinjiang foreign cultural exchange delegation put on a splendid singing and dancing performance at State Theater in downtown Sydney on Friday night, winning applause and the hearts of more than 1,000 local audience.

Sydney was the first stop by the Xinjiang troupe in Australia and they will also travel to Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra for the tour show.

During the show, the Xinjiang Uygur artists performed group and solo folk dances, played solo music instruments and sang traditional and folk songs, and some of them are well known to many audience. The final performance, Uygur group dance “Dolang Masherap”, had a very strong power of influence with its loud and sonorous singing, intrepid, energetic and some wild gestures. This dance has been performed in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

“I was very excited by the excellent traditional folk dance and songs staged by Xinjiang artists which I have never seen before,” said Elizabeth, a middle-aged teacher after the show. Her comment was echoed by her friend Mary who said the wonderful show aroused her interest in Xinjiang and she hoped to travel to the place as a tourist next year.

Talking about the performance, the head of the Xinjiang foreign cultural exchange delegation Naiyimu Yasen said that the purpose of putting on the show was to promote mutual understanding between Chinese and Australian people.

“The cultural exchanging activities will promote understanding and form a bridge of friendship between China and New Zealand and Australia,” he added.

Before arriving in Australia, the Xinjiang singing and dancing troupe had staged four performances in New Zealand.

British singing sensation Susan Boyle’s first album soared to No. 1 on U.S. album charts on Wednesday with sales of 701,000 copies, beating new releases by Adam Lambert and Rihanna and becoming the best-selling debut of 2009.

Boyle, 48, a frumpy Scottish singer who became an international YouTube phenomenon after appearing on TV show “Britain’s Got Talent”, also topped the British album charts earlier this week.

Her “I Dreamed a Dream” release through Sony Music Entertainment, marked the best U.S. opening of a female artist’s debut album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, Billboard.com said.

It was also the fastest selling album in Britain this year and has topped the charts in Australia and Ireland.

Billboard said only one album in SoundScan’s tracking history had seen a bigger opening week than Boyle.

U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg’s album “Doggystyle” sold 803,000 copies in its first week in 1993 — before traditional album sales began tumbling in the face of piracy and a shift to digital sales.

Although Boyle ultimately failed to win “Britain’s Got Talent”, her April audition for the show has been viewed more than 300 million times on the Internet.

In a good week for stars of TV talent shows, “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert’s debut album “For Your Entertainment”, also released through Sony, debuted at No.3 on the Billboard 200 with 198,000 copies sold.

Lambert’s strong showing followed headline news coverage of his raunchy televised live performance at the American Music Awards 10 days ago in which he simulated oral sex with a dancer and kissed a male keyboard player.

R&B singer Rihanna’s “Rated R”, her first studio album since being attacked by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown in February, bowed in at No.4 with 181,000 copies — the best sales week in the 21 year-old singer’s career.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli held onto the No.2 spot for a third week with his “My Christmas” album with 218,000 new copies sold during the week.

Overall U.S. album sales last week totalled 10.73 million units. Year to date album sales stand at $320.2 million (192.4 million pounds) — a 13 percent decrease over the same period in 2008, SoundScan said.