Taipei- Taiwan and China will hold the last round of consultations next week to prepare for launching direct shipping in mid-December, a newspaper said Saturday.

The United Daily News (UDN) said that China's Cross-Strait Shipping Association will send a delegation to Taiwan on December 2 to discuss technicalities of direct shipping with Taiwan's shipping officials.

During the eight-day visit, the delegation will hold talks with its Taiwan counterparts on the details of direct shipping as well as disputes between the two sides.

Abu Dhabi, Nov 29th, 2008 : A pavilion like no other, is how the imaginative and appealing structure for the United Arab Emirates' pavilion was described by HE Saqr Gobash, UAE Minister of Labour and Chairman of the National Media Council (NMC), at the official launch of the country's participation at Expo 2010 - the largest ever World Exposition event, scheduled to open on May 1st 2010 in Shanghai.

China's internet search giant Baidu was recently accused by the state media of allowing unlicensed medical services to buy high search rankings and now Baidu has pledged to overhaul its operations.

The market in the world's largest internet population is dominated by the search engine, with nearly 60% of users; quite ahead of Google, which leads the field internationally.

Hong Kong - Smuggled goods worth nearly 2 million US dollars were seized in a joint operation mounted by police and marine officers in Hong Kong, police said Saturday.

Mobiles phones and computer parts packed in 11 boxes were being loaded from speedboats when police moved in during a surveillance operation in Sai Kung area in the New Territories.

The smugglers abandoned the goods and sped off in the boats. However, one of the boat owners was later arrested.

Senior Inspector Roger Mak said the syndicate was thought to be well-organized and sophisticated.

Beijing  - Chinese real-estate magnate Huang Junqin has followed his younger brother and billionaire businessman Huang Guangyu in being accused of "economic crimes," state media reported Saturday, citing police.

Huang Junqin, founder and chief executive of the Beijing Towercrest Group Ltd, was detained Wednesday, Beijing police said.

His brother - one of the country's wealthiest people as head of Gome Electrical Appliances, China's largest consumer electronics chain - was detained a week earlier for questioning.

The investigations relate to manipulation of share prices last year of a Shanghai pharmaceutical company run by Huang Junqin, the Caijing business magazine quoted unidentified sources as saying.

Beijing  - The family of a Chinese scientist and businessman convicted of spying for Taiwan expressed shock and outrage at his execution and charged the Chinese government with keeping it "in the dark."

Wo Weihan, 60, was executed Friday after being convicted in 2007 following a closed trial in which he had been charged with passing secret Chinese military data to Taiwan.

His daughters, who both are Austrian citizens, said in a statement that they were promised one last meeting with their father Friday but, as they tried to see him, were informed he had been executed.