A senior Chinese Communist Party official has called for Chinese tourists to behave more politely when travelling abroad.
Wang Yang, one of China's four vice-prime ministers, said the "uncivilised behaviour" of some Chinese tourists was harming the country's image.
Among problems he singled out were talking loudly in public and spitting.
However, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing says some Chinese complain they are treated badly abroad.
Foreign travel is becoming ever more popular among China's increasingly affluent citizens.
Chinese tourists spent $102bn (£67bn) overseas last year, up 40% on the year before, and the UN World Tourism Organisation says China is now the single biggest source of global tourism income.
Mr Wang's words were published on the website of the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's main newspaper.
"Improving the civilised quality of the citizens and building a good image of Chinese tourists are the obligations of governments at all levels and relevant agencies and companies," he said.
Mr Wang advised authorities to "guide tourists to conscientiously abide by public order and social ethics, respect local religious beliefs and customs, mind their speech and behaviour... and protect the environment".
Saturday, May 18, 2013
20130518 BBC_France gay marriage: Hollande signs bill into law
On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition, clearing the way for Francois Hollande to sign the bill.
He said: "I have taken [the decision]; now it is time to respect the law of the Republic."
The first gay wedding could be held 10 days after the bill's signing.
After a tortured debate, the same-sex marriage and adoption bill was adopted by France's Senate and National Assembly last month.
But the Constitutional Council ruled on Friday that same-sex marriage "did not run contrary to any constitutional principles," and that it did not infringe on "basic rights or liberties or national sovereignty".
It said the interest of the child would be paramount in adoption cases, cautioning that legalising same-sex adoption would not automatically mean the "right to a child".
Comedian Frigide Barjot, who has become a leading mouthpiece for the anti-gay marriage movement, denounced the ruling as "a provocation" and called for the campaign to continue.
UMP President Jean-Francois Cope said he regretted the Constitutional Council's decision but would respect it. Another senior UMP figure, Herve Mariton, said the party would come up with alternative proposals in 2017 that were "more respectful of the rights of children".
The anti-gay marriage lobby, backed by the Catholic Church and conservative opposition, argues the bill will undermine an essential building block of society.
Opinion polls have suggested that around 55-60% of French people support gay marriage, but only about 50% approve of gay adoption.
France is now the 14th country to legalise gay marriage after New Zealand last month.
It is also the ninth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage after legalisation in the traditionally liberal Netherlands and Scandinavia, but also in strongly Catholic Portugal and Spain. Legislation is also moving through the UK Parliament.
But the measure has aroused stronger than expected opposition in France - a country where the Catholic Church was thought to have lost much of its influence over the public.
Mr Hollande has been struggling with the lowest popularity ratings of any recent French president, with his promises of economic growth so far failing to bear fruit and unemployment now above 10%.
20130518 BBC_Deep sea 'gold rush' moves closer
The prospect of a deep sea "gold rush" opening a controversial new frontier for mining on the ocean floor has moved a step closer.
The United Nations has published its first plan for managing the extraction of so-called "nodules" - small mineral-rich rocks - from the seabed.
A technical study was carried out by the UN's International Seabed Authority - the body overseeing deep sea mining.
It says companies could apply for licences from as soon as 2016.
The idea of exploiting the gold, copper, manganese, cobalt and other metals of the ocean floor has been considered for decades but only recently became feasible with high commodity prices and new technology.
Conservation experts have long warned that mining the seabed will be highly destructive and could have disastrous long-term consequences for marine life.
The ISA study itself recognizes that mining will cause "inevitable environmental damage".
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the ISA was set up to encourage and manage seabed mining for the wider benefit of humanity - with a share of any profits going to developing countries.
The ISA's legal counsel, Michael Lodge, told the BBC: "We are at the threshold of a new era of deep seabed mining".
The lure is obvious: an assessment of the eastern Pacific - a 5 million sq km area known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone - concluded that more than 27 billion tonnes of nodules could be lying on the sand.
Those rocks would contain a staggering 7 billion tonnes of manganese, 340 million tonnes of nickel, 290 million tonnes of copper and 78 million tonnes of cobalt - although it's not known how much of this is accessible.
The expedition's chief scientist, Dr Jon Copley, a biologist from the University of Southampton, urged caution:
"I don't think we own the deep ocean in the sense that we can do what we like with it," he said. "Instead we share responsibility for its stewardship.
"We don't have a good track record of achieving balance anywhere else - think of the buffalo and the rainforest - so the question is, can we get it right?"
And Professor Paul Tyler, also a biologist, of the National Oceanography Centre, warned that unique species would be at risk.
"If you wipe out that area by mining, those animals have to do one of two things: they disperse and colonise another hydrothermal vent somewhere or they die.
"And what happens when they die is that the vent will become biologically extinct."
"Everything we are surrounded by, the way we live, relies on mineral resources and we don't often ask where they come from.
"We need to ask whether there is sustainable mining on land and whether there is sustainable mining in the seas.
"I actually think it is the same moral questions we ask whether it's from the Andes or down in the Bismarck Sea."
This debate is set to intensify as the reality of the first mining operations comes closer.
The chimneys of hydrothermal vents contain many metals in high abundance
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