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HONG KONG, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury K C Chan will attend the World Capital Markets Symposium, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said in a bulletin.

The symposium, organized by the Securities Commission Malaysia, will be held on Monday, the Information Services Department said.

Chan will meet with Malaysian financial officials and business executives. He will brief them on the development of Islamic finance in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, an international financial center, has been fostering Islamic finance in recent years.

YINCHUAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — A senior Chinese prosecutor has called for improvements to the criminal evidence system to prevent miscarriages of justice.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Zhu Xiaoqing of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate told a seminar in Yinchuan, capital of northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on Wednesday that serious lapses in court cases in recent years had mainly been caused by coercion during interrogation, which was also a result of a weak evidence system.

“Judiciary authorities should consider improving the evidence system to curb coerced confession by torture,” he was quoted by Thursday’s Procuratorial Daily as saying.

Zhu suggested wider use of synchronized audio and video recording during interrogation, especially in serious homicide or criminal cases, such as rapes.

Currently, most Chinese prosecuting authorities use audio and video recording while interrogating suspects on charges of corruption or work-related crimes. The practice started in 2006.

Zhu said authorities should also consider allowing lawyers to watch interrogations with no access to audio, in an effort to supervise prosecutors and prevent torture.

“Evidence is the core of proceedings,” he said.

Casework should be based on fact and law, and facts could only be obtained through evidence.

He said the occurrence of spurious cases came about because of incorrect methods of obtaining and reviewing evidence and judgment.

“It is very important to carry out exhaustive evidence procedure in dealing with serious criminal cases, especially corruption,” he said.

However, Zhu said, it was very hard to obtain evidence in graft cases, as verbal evidence, the major evidence source in such cases, was “unstable and could be controlled”, which caused difficulties in investigation.

He said other countries’ experiences, such as the obtaining of mandatory evidence, and technical or secret criminal investigation methods, which were rights invested in judicial authorities, provided reference points for China to improve its own evidence system.

Judicial authorities should supervise other agencies’ evidence-collecting activities and immediately investigate if they suspected any coerced confession or torture, he said.

Several criminal cases based on coerced evidence have occurred in China in recent years.

The most recent one that made headline in newspapers was a rape-and-murder case in 1996 in which an innocent man, Hugejiletu, was wrongly executed in Hohhot, capital of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Another man who confessed to the murder in 2005 is still in jail awaiting trial, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.

The case of She Xianglin, who was wrongly jailed for 11 years for a murder that never happened, was covered extensively by China’s media.

The former security guard from central China’s Hubei Province was convicted on the basis of his confession of killing his wife, despite the fact that her body was never found.

He said he was deprived of sleep during 10 days of interrogation until he signed documents pleading guilty to murder.

He was finally cleared in 2005 after his “dead” wife reappeared in her hometown. The government awarded She almost 500,000 yuan (61,880 U.S. dollars at that time) in compensation.

In another case, Nie Shubin, a young farmer in North China’s Hebei Province, was executed in 1994 after being convicted of raping and murdering a woman.

However, a rape-and-murder suspect arrested in 2005 confessed he had committed the crime. The real killer was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — A grand photo exhibition entitled “The Exceptional Gala — Beijing 2008 Olympics and Paralympics” was held here on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the Games.

The gallery, which is located in the Olympic Park in Beijing, features more than 800 pictures.

IOC Press Commission chief Kevan Gosper said at the gallery that the Beijing Olympics was the best one in the Olympic history and that these pictures reflected many amazing points and unforgettable moments of the Games.

The exhibition, co-sponsored by the Beijing municipal government, the IOC, the Beijing Olympic organizing committee and Xinhua News Agency, will run till Sept. 17.

URUMQI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Rescuers have recovered three bodies as of 6 p.m. Saturday following a gas blast Thursday in a coal mine in China’s far west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, local authorities said.

Rescuers said there was no survival chance for the other two still missing for more than 50 hours after the blast. They were clearing shafts to recover the further two bodies.

As the underground channels are seriously damaged and contain dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide, rescue efforts have been hindered.

KATHMANDU, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — The sixth China Education Exhibition was held in Nepali capital Kathmandu on Saturday to provide educational information about Chinese universities and colleges.

The exhibition, visited by huge flow of visitors, provided piles of information regarding education in China.

The exhibition, jointly organized by China Scholarship Council, Embassy of The People’s Republic of China in Nepal and Araniko Society, was aimed to inform Nepalese students of higher education in the neighboring country.

“The focus of this exhibition is to inform Nepalese youths that China is one of the best option of higher education which is of international standard,” Dr. Harish Chandra Shah, chairman of the Araniko Society, said to Xinhua on Saturday. He added that students can directly fetch information about top universities and colleges in China.

According to him, more Nepalese students are heading toward China for higher education after receiving detailed information on universities and colleges that offer desired courses of their choice. “Apart from scholarship provided by Education Ministry in nation, the number of students is increasing to rush to China in private level too.”

On the occasion, Nepali Minister for Education Ram Chandra Kushwaha lauded the scholarships provided by Chinese government.

Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador to Nepal Qiu Guohong stressed on the importance given by Chinese government on education sector. According to him, the number of Nepalese students studying in China has reached 2,500 in 2008. A total of 200,000 students were enrolled in Chinese education system in 2007 from all over the world.

Educational exchange is important for bilateral relation and mutual understanding, Qiu added.

Inaugurating the one-day exhibition, Zhang Qixiang, Director of the Beijing Forestry University and the chief to exhibition said that exhibition will help Nepalese students know about the educational system in China.

Altogether, 11 Chinese universities participated in the exhibition including Beijing University Health Science Center, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Jilin University, Tianjin University, Ocean University of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Donghua University and Harbin Engineering University.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — China is still lagging behind national and global breastfeeding targets, health experts say. Approximately only 20 percent of mothers in China breastfeed their infants for at least six months.

Chinese newspaper Health News said Saturday just 45.3 percent of newly borns four months or younger were fully breastfed, while the ratio among infants up to six months was only 21.6 percent.

The findings come from a recent study of urban mothers, who are more likely to cease breastfeeding early than their rural counterparts, said the report.

The rates are far behind World Health Organization targets, which suggest all infants of six months or younger be fully breastfed, said Yin Shi’an, a researcher with the Nutrition and Food Safety Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

August 1-7 observed the 18th World Breastfeeding Week, which focused on the importance of breastfeeding as a life-saving intervention, especially in emergencies.

Yin said scientific research had proved breastfeeding provided the best, most balanced food for newly borns. A study of 2,160 Chinese infants, between 1998 and 2004, showed that breastfeeding could help development of the neural system and dramatically lower the rate of infant eczema.

Despite years of efforts to raise public awareness and to create “baby friendly” hospitals, the average rate of breastfeeding in China remains low, Yin said.

China’s national action plan for children’s development, issued in 2001, proposed a recommended the breastfeeding rate among infants of four months or younger should be 85 percent or higher.

But breastfeeding applied to only 66.4 percent of mothers and babies in cities and 74.6 percent in rural areas in 2002, a national survey on nutrition and health conditions that year ascertained.

In recent years, breastfeeding rates have dropped even further in some areas, largely because of some mothers’ ignorance and aggressive promotion of baby formula products.

Ren Yuwen, a Chinese expert with La Leche League, an international nonprofit organization that promotes breastfeeding, said almost all ads for baby formula products misled young mothers, through exaggerations such as the product making babies “smarter” and “healthier”.

China published a government order in 1995 to restrict the use and promotion of all substitute products for mother’s milk for infants up to six months.

“Unfortunately, businesses have just been ignoring the order and always try to mislead mothers to use baby formulas,” Ren said.

Experts said health education about breastfeeding should be intensified among the public, while workplaces should provide friendly environments for new mothers to breastfeed babies.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — China will continue to strengthen international judicial cooperation with other countries, including the United States, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Justice said.

The unnamed spokesperson made the statement while commenting on the case of two former Bank of China (BOC) managers in southern Guangdong Province, who were convicted in a U.S. court last year of embezzlement and money laundering, the Legal Daily reported Friday.

“China welcomed the verdict by the U.S. court,” which sentenced Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun, two former managers of the BOC Guangdong Kaiping Branch, and their wives, to prison terms of eight to 25 years, the spokesperson said.

Xu Chaofan was sentenced to 25 years in jail and Xu Guojun to 22 years. Their wives were each sentenced to eight years in prison. All four were further sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay 482 million U.S. dollars in restitution.

The four were found guilty of a racketeering conspiracy that began in 1991 and continued until October 2004.

Prosecutors said the defendants laundered stolen money through Hong Kong, Canada and the U.S., including 3 million U.S. dollars deposited at several Las Vegas casinos.

The case was one of the biggest of its kind since the founding of New China in 1949.

It has, however, reinforced the positive development of Sino-U.S. judicial cooperation and provided experience in dealing with organized economic crime.

“Fleeing suspects are doomed to be punished by law,” said the spokesperson.

International judicial cooperation, an effective way of fighting crime, would contribute to the crackdown on trans-national crimes, he said.

Professor Huang Feng of the Beijing Normal University’s Criminal Law Research Institute said Xu’s sentencing in the U.S. provided “an alternative to extradition” as the two countries had not signed an extradition treaty.

Fleeing suspects could still be convicted abroad, though they currently could not be repatriated, Huang said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in May the two guilty couples should be repatriated or extradited to China as soon as possible.

NEW DELHI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — The 13th China-India Boundary Talks were held on Friday and Saturday in the Indian capital.

Chinese Special Representative, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Indian Special Representative, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister M.K. Narayanan exchanged in-depth views about relevant issues in an atmosphere of frankness and friendliness.

The two sides agreed that China and India will push forward the framework talks process in accordance with the Political Guidance and Principles reached by the two countries on solving boundary issue between them, in order to seek a just and fair solution formula acceptable to both sides.

The two sides also agreed that before solving the boundary issue, the two countries should make common efforts to keep peace and calmness in their border areas.

The two sides also exchanged views on developing China-India Strategic Cooperative Partnership and on international and regional issues of common concern.

The two sides agreed that the next round of the China-India Boundary Talks will be held in China.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — On the first anniversary of the 2008 Olympic Games, held in the Chinese capital Beijing, foreign media published a number of editorials and stories that praised the positive changes that were brought about by the Olympics in China.

IMPROVEMENT OF CITYSCAPE

The facilities and buildings that were designed and constructed for the Beijing Olympics have undoubtedly changed the city’s landscape and China’s image in the eyes of foreigners, Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao newspaper said in an article on Friday.

The Bird’s Nest, which served as the main stadium of the Beijing Olympics, and the Water Cube, the National Aquatics Center, represented the enterprising spirit of the Chinese people, said the newspaper.

The energy-saving and environmental concept of the avenues’ design also indicated that China was paying more attention to both the quality and the quantity of its development than ever before on its way to modernization, Lianhe Zaobao observed.

According to the Singaporean newspaper, a total number of 358 green and energy-saving projects were implemented, and nine solar water-heating systems were built for the Beijing Olympics.

The environment-oriented legacy of the Beijing Olympic Games should spread across China, and the enterprising spirit of the Games should be passed on, said the newspaper.

RISING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

Another story published Thursday by The Associated Press (AP) said that China and its people have become more confident due to the success of the Beijing Olympics and China’s rising economy.

“The past 12 months have seen China take a high-profile role in response to the global economic meltdown and dispatch ships to the international anti-piracy fleet off Somalia — the country’s first-ever overseas naval deployment,” the AP story announced.

“The Games have made the Chinese Communist Party leadership and the general public in China feel more confident about China and its future,” AP quoted Steve Tsang, an expert on China at Oxford University, as saying.

Xu Guoqi, author of “Olympic Dreams: China and Sports 1895-2008,” told AP that for many decades, the Chinese have suffered from “an inferiority complex.”

“The success in hosting the Games and winning Olympic gold medals has largely cured this inferiority syndrome and helped them get rid of the label of China as ‘The Sick Man of East Asia,’” Xu said.

Reuters reported that China has decided to make Aug. 8, the anniversary of the Olympic opening, its annual National Fitness Day, in hopes that the Olympics will raise health awareness nationwide.

Secretary General of Tanzania Olympic Committee Fibert Bayi believed the National Fitness Day was the best way to commemorate the Olympics.

According to Bayi, this would help get more Chinese people involved in sport. Thus, the Olympics would never be forgotten.

VALUABLE EXPERIENCE

Chinese Biz News, a Chinese-language newspaper based in Los Angeles, said in a commentary Saturday that the Beijing Olympics were a testimony to scientific development and could significantly contribute to China’s efforts to break the bottleneck in its economic development.

Following the practice of the “People’s Olympics,” a Beijing commitment besides “High-tech Olympics and Green Olympics,” the Chinese government made the people’s well-being a priority amid the global economic downturn, the commentary said.

Despite a sharp decrease in financial revenue, Beijing raised its expenditure on housing, medical care, transportation, social security and education, leading to remarkable development in these sectors and robust consumption growth in the first half of this year, it continued.

The commentary also noted that according to the U.N. Environment Program, Beijing more than fulfilled its promises on environmental protection, including reducing air pollution and improving traffic and the development of renewable energy.

Currently, Beijing enjoys the best air quality since 2000 thanks to its efforts to close down heavily polluted industries, the commentary observed.

A low-carbon economy is a strong driving force behind Beijing’s long-term development, it said, adding that Beijing will set a template for other big and medium-sized Chinese cities seeking sustainable development.

SHANGHAI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — The State Council, or Cabinet, has given approval for a bonded area for Pudong International Airport, a local official said Saturday.

Jiang Liang, governor of the Pudong New Area, told reporters that the tax-free zone covers an area of about 4 square km.

Chen Xuyuan, president of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., said the move will help promote Shanghai to build itself into an international center of shipping.

Pudong now has two harbors, one airport and three bonded areas.

The Pudong International Airport handled 2.63 million tonnes of cargo last year, ranking third in the world.