Energy industry expo opens

The Fourth China (Taiyuan) International Energy Industry Expo kicked off on Sunday in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.

Some 30,000 people, including representatives from 137 companies from 18 countries and regions, attended the expo.

The three-day event will allow Shanxi to showcase its latest developments in diversifying its resource-based industry structure.

Beijing

Stores want lower bank card fees

The China Chain Store and Franchise Association urged the government on Sunday to pass plans to cut bank card fees charged merchants in order to shore up consumption.

Secretary-General of the CCFA Pei Liang said that a proposal for cutting card charges issued by authorities is currently seeking opinion from commercial banks.

"Retail sales growth has slowed from a year earlier, so the government should quicken the implementation of the plan to promote consumption," Pei said.

Taiwan

Amphetamine arrests made

Taiwan police announced on Saturday that information provided by mainland police led to the arrest of two suspects and the seizure of 117 grams of amphetamine in a cross-Straits drug smuggling case.

According to authorities, the suspects concealed small amounts of the drug in iPhone cases. They then mailed the iPhone cases in one or two packages at a time from the mainland to Taiwan to avoid suspicion.

Each package reportedly contained roughly 50 grams of amphetamine worth about NT$65,000 ($2,206) each. Two suspects, aged 28 and 32, were arrested on Friday.

Yunnan

Date set to rebuild toppled homes

All houses that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck Yunnan province on Sept 7 will be rebuilt by next June, rescue authorities said on Saturday.

The residents' homes will be the first to be rebuilt, followed by cultural, education and health infrastructure, and then government buildings, the rescue headquarters said in a statement.

While stepping up the emergency rescue efforts and secondary disaster precautions, the quake relief should also shift its focus more to temporary settlement and reconstruction, it said.

Ningxia

11 dead after bus falls into ravine

Eleven people have been confirmed dead after a bus drove through a road barrier and fell into a ravine in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region on Saturday.

Officials said two survivors died in a hospital, and six others were still being treated for injuries.

The accident occurred at about 8 pm on a State-level road in Longde county, Guyuan, when the bus carrying 17 people overturned and fell into a ravine.

Guangxi

6 burned by sulfuric acid spill

Six people, including a 1-year-old boy, were burned in a sulfuric acid spill in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Friday, local police said on Saturday.

The sulfuric acid was being unloaded from a truck at a plant in Xingning district of Nanning around 10 am Friday when the spill occurred, local traffic police said.

More than two tons of sulfuric acid gushed through the gate of the plant onto a busy road outside, toppling several motorcycles and injuring at least six people.

Guangdong

Fair aims to boost domestic sales

The China Processing Trade Products Fair, formerly called the Guangdong Foreign-Invested Enterprises Commodities Fair, held annually since 2009, opened in Dongguan, Guangdong province on Sunday.

A total of 1,325 processing enterprises from across the country and more than 5,000 procuring firms are participating in the 4-day event.

The fair is intended to serve as a platform for the exhibition and trading for the domestic sales of the processing industry to facilitate the industry's transformation.

Xinhua-China Daily