SYDNEY， June 3 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest light， music and ideas festival， Vivid Sydney， attracted a bumper crowd in its opening weekend.


Close to 300，000 people attended the festival last weekend， the New South Wales (NSW) state government said on Friday.


NSW state tourism minister Stuart Ayres said the festival had already recorded a 7 percent increase on last year's opening weekend attendance.


"Visitors and locals alike embrace Vivid Sydney each year and 2016 is no exception with more than 296，000 people celebrating the festival's shining story of creativity in the first weekend alone，" Ayres said.


"Vivid Sydney is a huge hit with visitors who are sharing their experiences on social media."


He noted that over opening weekend， the Vivid Sydney hashtag had over 18，600 mentions and trended at number one on both Facebook and Twitter.


"With an extra five days to see this year's festival， Vivid Sydney will light up the city through to 18 June and I encourage everyone to come and be inspired by this magnificent celebration of innovation and creativity in Sydney，" Ayres noted.


The festival kicked off on May 27 and runs for 23 nights.


Vivid Sydney attracted 1.7 million people in 2015.

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KABUL， Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants fighting the government to regain power have launched coordinated offensives against two districts in the northern Baghlan and eastern Paktia provinces on Wednesday.


The armed insurgent group in a surprise move attacked Dahna-e-Ghori district in the northern Baghlan province Wednesday morning triggering gun battle， which has been continuing.


""Hundreds of Taliban militants stormed Dahna-e-Ghori district early today and fighting between militants and government forces has been continuing，"" a local official told Xinhua.


According to the official who declined to be named， Taliban militants have overrun four police checkpoints and the attacking insurgents are attempting to capture the district headquarters.


Meanwhile， Baghlan police spokesman Jawed Basharat in talks with reporters confirmed Taliban offensive in Dahna-e-Ghori and said that ""Reinforcement has arrived in Dahna-e-Ghori and the situation is under control"".


On the possible casualties of Taliban and security forces， he said， ""It is too early to collect information"".


However， locals in Dahna-e-Ghori in talks with Xinhua confirmed Taliban attack， saying 20 local police under Nik Mohammad have joined the advancing militants.


The strategically important Dahna-e-Ghori is just 30 minute drive from the provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri 160 km north of national capital Kabul city.


Two Taliban militants have also been killed and few others injured in Dahna-e-Ghori district， locals said.


In a similar move， the Taliban outfit attacked government interests in Jani Khil district of the eastern Paktia province Wednesday morning.


According to Abdul Rahman Solamal， governor of Jani Khil district， more than 600 Taliban insurgents attacked security checkpoints early Wednesday and fighting has been continuing.


Solamal also warned that delay in sending reinforcement would complicate the situation in the besieged district.


Taliban militants who have sped up operations over the past couple of months are yet to make comment on the situation in the said district.


Nevertheless， Mohammad Ayub， deputy chief of Paktia province， in talks with local media claimed that reinforcement has already arrived to Jani Khil district and so far， 12 insurgents have been killed.


Afghan militancy usually gets momentum in spring and summer commonly known as fighting season in

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TIRANA， Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Remittances sent by Albanian immigrants working abroad to their families in Albania amounted to 282 million euros during the first half of the year， marking a decline of 7.2 percent compared to the first six months of 2015， data from Bank of Albania showed Wednesday.


Remittances in the second quarter amounted to 154 million euros， dropping by about 5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year， BoA said.


Banking experts explained that a possible downward trend in remittance growth could be due to the natural and gradual break of the immigrants connections with their families in Albania.


The remittances hit the highest level in 2007 while， following the global crisis in 2008， remittances saw a significant decline.


However， remittances started the upward tendency in the first half of 2015， increasing by 18 percent.


But during the second half of 2015 remittances slowed down mainly due to the economic crisis in Greece as the latter closed banks and risked exiting Eurozone.


For many years， remittances have been one of the driving forces of the Albanian economy.

Former French soccer star Zinedine Zidane (Xinhuanet file photo)

PARIS Cheap Jerseys From China , Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Former French soccer star Zinedine Zidane believes Paris Saint-Germain are a bigger threat than Bayern Munich in the Champions League to Real Madrid.


The legendary midfielder, who's now the head coach of Real Madrid's B team Castilla Cheap Jerseys China , praised Les Parisiens as one of the two favorites to win this season's Champions League, alongside with his former team Real Madrid.


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