At least eight tourists from Hong Kong were confirmed dead and another two seriously injured in a bus hijack in Manila Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Monday night.

“The Chinese government expresses its grave condolence to the victims and its deep sympathy to the families of those Hong Kong compatriots,” Ma said in a statement and they condemn the violence of the hijacker, and will send a working team to the Philippines to deal with the aftermath, he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also held a phone conversation with Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang over the tragedy. They agreed that the working teams sent by the Foreign Ministry and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will cooperate in dealing with the aftermath. Tsang also appreciated the central government’s efforts.

A bus carrying 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos was hijacked in the Philippine capital Monday morning by a former Police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza.

Mendoza, who is demanding the authorities to be reinstated to the service, released some hostages but kept 15 Chinese nationals in the coach until he was found dead after local police assaulted the bus Monday night.

The Chinese government, which attached great importance to the case, has urged the Philippine side to spare no efforts in rescuing the hostages on precondition that their safety is ensured, Ma said.

The related Chinese departments will keep close contact with the Philippine side and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to make all-out efforts to rescue the wounded and to properly deal with the aftermath, he said.

“China has requested the Philippine side to take pragmatic measures to ensure life and property safety of Chinese nationals in the country,” Ma said.

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Only 60,000 group tourists are expected today and tomorrow, and the weather is ideal, the Organizer said. 

Huge attendance is expected at the World Expo from mid September to the end of October, according to the experiences of previous World Expos. 

As of yesterday, more than 18 million tickets had yet to be used, said the ticketing center of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. 

Visitor number topped 47 million at 9:30am today.

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As a blessing of Gansu......

People crowded the Gansu Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo to pay their respects to the victims of the August 8 mudslide in the province. At 10am, people in the pavilion, wearing small plastic white flowers, observed three minutes of silence. They then removed the flowers and put them on a glass table under a map of Gansu, on which Zhouqu, where the disaster struck, was highlighted.
Du Jingli, 50, from Gansu, placed her flower on the table and gazed at the map. “I don’t know what to say, I just feel sad,” she said. Du had planned to visit the China Pavilion first, but changed her mind when she learned about the tribute.
The pavilion was dark as most of its lights were turned off. Only a few were used to illuminate a banner saying “Deep Condolences to People Killed in the Zhouqu Mudslide.” It was written in large black Chinese characters and hung in the pavilion’s main exhibition room.”Let’s remember the lost lives, put aside the pain and join hands in rebuilding Zhouqu,” Li Shumin, deputy head of the pavilion, said after the ceremony.
Mourning events were also held outside the Gansu Pavilion. In the Pavilion of Public Participation, people gathered to fold paper cranes, a traditional symbol of good wishes, to pay tribute to the lives lost in the disaster.  hope that the victims can rest in peace and the survivors can be stronger,” said visitor Zhao Xing.
The 2010 Shanghai Expo Bureau halted all entertainment activities on the grounds yesterday.The Gansu Pavilion will not hold any entertainment activities until September, spokesman Wang Shigang said. The pavilions for Italy, United Kingdom, France, Romania and Croatia, among others, lowered flags to commemorate the victims. Workers at the Pavilion of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies gave visitors red bracelets.
Visitors could also write messages for people in Zhouqu in a book near a donation box. Both their words and donations would be sent to the Red Cross Society of Shanghai, Wang said.
“Although my family is not in Zhouqu, I’m still worried about them,” said a visitor surnamed Wang, a native of Gansu who works in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. A student volunteer at the China Pavilion, Yang Yaoci, 20, lost seven relatives back in his hometown in Zhouqu County. An ethnic Tibetan and a junior student, Yang started working at the Expo with 1,160 other volunteers from the Shanghai Institute of Electric Power on August 9.

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“We chose to visit Expo today for three reasons: it’s Expo’s 100th day, it’s the two-year anniversary of the Beijing Olympic Games, plus it’s the eighth day of the eighth month,” Ni said. Eight is considered by many Chinese an auspicious number that brings fortune.

Just graduated from a high school in east China’s Jiangsu Province, Ni and his friends will have to separate to study in colleges in different parts of China and some will even go abroad. “We want to mark our friendship with this special day,” one of Ni’s friends said.

Ni and his friends planned to stay in the park for 12 hours after they get in. “We may get tired. But it will be worth it.”

The moon was still on the sky when more people were joining the long lines of thousands of people each, five hours before the gate would open.

Sitting on the ground or on 10-yuan (about 1.5 U.S. dollars) plastic foldable stools newly purchased from vendors, people chatted, played cards or meditated to reserve energy for a very long day of waiting, walking, viewing and waiting again.

“It would be a magnificent sight when the gate opens. Just imagine tens of thousands of people all wanting to get in at the same time,” said He Wenping, 46, from central China’s Hubei Province. On Saturday, she and her daughter came to the gate at 5 a.m. and managed to visit six pavilions. “We plan to finish all of them in three days.”

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South Afica Pavilion

South Africa celebrates its National Pavilion Day today with an evening gala dedicated to South African women and their contributions to freedom.The pavilion adopts a simple design to create a peaceful and quiet atmosphere. The arched door looks like a huge canopy, while the interior is decorated with textures in various colors. It signifies the diversity of South African culture and the nation’s confidence in building a better life for its people.
Inside the pavilion is an open area with round pads made of ostrich leather. Around the area are timbers representing traditional villages and fences, with humanity at its center. The pavilion theme is “Rise of a Modern Economy – Ke Nako!”

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Rainfall reached 204 mm over the previous 24 hours as of 8 am Thursday in central Jilin, the provincial meteorological station said.

Rainstorms began to pour in Gongzhuling city and Lishu county at 2 pm Thursday, with the highest rainfall reaching 121 mm in Lishu, according to the station.

Constant rains had forced seven of the 25 medium and large reservoirs in Jilin city, including Fengman, Baishan and Xingxingshao, to discharge water, and their levels were falling, according to Jilin municipal government.

At Fengman Reservoir, the largest reservoir on the Songhua River, the speed of the discharge had reached 4,500 cubic meters per second, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Thousands of people had been deployed to watch embankments and dams, and a 24-hour monitoring system had been set up to ensure the safety of reservoirs, said Wang Rulin, governor of Jilin province.

In Liuhe county, Tonghua city, 15,702 residents had been evacuated to 10 safe locations as the county braced for the second wave of floods, according to the county’s flood control headquarters.

In Linjiang city which borders the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea along the Yalu River, three townships had been cut off by rain-triggered floods and mudflows, and 38,000 residents were relocated from other parts of the city as more torrential rains were forecast for the next two days, said Yin Xiangmei, deputy mayor of the city.

Floods on Saturday cut the drinking water supply to more than 68,000 city residents for more than 120 hours.

Although tap water supplies resumed at 5 pm Wednesday, it would take at least three days for the water to clear so it was potable, said Zou Jichun, manager of the tap water company.

Many water meters needed to be replaced as they were broken or blocked by the mud and sand in the water, Zou said.

The city’s fire trucks had been mobilized to provide drinking water to the public, and two mountain springs in the suburbs were serving as backup water sources.

The Jilin provincial government had allocated 270 million yuan ($39.87 million) for flood control, disaster relief and reconstruction as of Wednesday, said Jilin Assistant Governor Wang Huawen Thursday.

Heavy rains had also hit nearby Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and Shandong, with Liaoning, Shandong and Hebei issuing torrential rain alerts.

In Xingcheng, Huludao city, of Liaoning, 10 workers doing dredging work in a river were stranded on an island before they were rescued.

National Road 102 from Beijing to Shuangcheng city, Heilongjiang province, was disrupted at the section in Xingcheng, and workers were rushing to repair it, according to Huludao City Government.

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Among yesterday’s visitors, 107,417 came in tour groups and 30,051 were local residents who used complimentary tickets offered by the Shanghai government.

A total 54,861 tickets were sold at the gates, 22,742 of them for evening visit.

Statistics obtained at 6pm yesterday showed that 62,000 visitors had passed through Houtan entrance, compared with 49,000 at Shangnan Road entrance, 54,000 at Changqing Road entrance and 41,000 at Gaoke Road W. entrance.

As many as 75 shows were performed at Expo venues from morning to 5pm yesterday, attracting 49,200 spectators. Some 6,009 volunteers worked on the site.

Five health clinics on the site had treated 517 visitors by 4pm. Forty-nine of them suffered minor injuries while 85 suffered heat strokes.

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Among yesterday’s visitors, 127,600 were group tourists and 102,800 were visitors using free tickets the Shanghai government distributed to local residents. A total of 76,924 tickets were sold on site, including 34,643 night admissions, a new night admission record. As of 6pm, the gate at Houtan had received 95,000 visitors, compared to 79,000 at Shangnan Road, 77,000 via Changqing Road and 59,000 going through the gate of Gaoke Road W. A total of 80 shows were staged within the site by 5pm, attracting 62,000 spectators.  

The transportation system in site carried 781,100 visitors. By 4pm, five medical stations in the site had received 472 visitors, 44 of whom had external injuries. More than 100,000 group visitors are expected to tour the World Expo site.

Shanghai World Expo organizers have supplied more heat relief products such as essential balm, mosquito-repellent perfume and refresh oil as well as foldable umbrellas, disposable raincoats, towels and fans to convenient stores that are located in different places such as those near some of the World Expo Site gates, along Shanghai Expo Boulevard or in the World Expo Park and the Expo Houtan Park.

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The pavilion calls for more understanding and attention for disadvantaged people through various exhibitions to ensure they have a better life in the future. Its themes are the elimination of discrimination, the alleviation of poverty, a passion for life and a fair society and a better urban life for disadvantaged people.

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