Hu expresses condolences for Typhoon Morakot victims in Taiwan
The top leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu Jintao yesterday (August 19) expressed his condolences to the Taiwan people after Typhoon Morakot killed 127 people last week. He made the statement when meeting a delegation of ethnic minorities from Taiwan headed by actor-turned-politician, Kao Chin Su-mei. Hu said I quote: ''We share in the pain Taiwan compatriots. We will continue to help them with the rescue and relief efforts as well as support them in the reconstruction.'' Chinese mainland has so far donated about 176 million yuan (US$26 million) and has sent to the island 25 million Yuan's worth of disaster relief equipment.

Hong Kong/Guangdong work closer in 8 fields
The 12th Guangdong/Hong Kong Co-operation Joint Conference took place in Hong Kong yesterday(August 19). The two sides signed eight co-operation agreements after the meeting which involve: co-operation in modern service industries in the Qianhai region, co-operation on Education, implementing the CEPA (Closer Economic partnership agreement) and Guangdong's pilot measures, joint research and development in pharmaceutics (mainly vaccines), environmental co-operation, advancing the Hong-Kong / Shenzhen Western Express Line, and finally advancing the expert group on Hong-Kong & Guangdong Financial co-operation and intellectual property.

GZ Book Exhibition to Commence
The 2009 Guangzhou Book Exhibition commenced at 10 AM today (Aug 20th ) at the Jinhan Exhibition center. Open until next Monday, visitors are able to enter for free and enjoy a 20% discount. If you want to read more books without paying money, you can even bring your books to the fair and exchange them for some new ones. The book exhibition has attracted over 600 domestic and overseas publishers and around 160,000 books are on display.