HONG KONG, June 30 (Xinhua) — Arrangements will be made on July 1 to facilitate local farms sending chickens to the wholesale market, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said here on Monday.

    Supply of live chickens in retail outlets will resume on July 2. Following the thorough cleaning in the wholesale market, local farmers will be allowed to send their chickens to the wholesale market on July 1 night.

    ”AFCD staff have been collecting samples and conducting tests for the chickens in local farms to make sure that those sent to the wholesale markets are free from H5 avian influenza infection,” he said.

    The wholesale market has already been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Trading at the wholesale market will resume early Wednesday morning.

    The AFCD will continue to inspect local chicken farms to ensure that all the required bio-security measures are in place. The department will also tightly monitor precautionary measures at the wholesale market against avian influenza, including cleaning and disinfection.

    ”We will remain vigilant in our surveillance of avian influenza in the local chicken farms,” the spokesman said.

    MACAO, June 30 (Xinhua) — Macao’s trade deficit for the first five months of this year amounted to 10.74 billion patacas (1.34 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released Monday by the SAR’s (Special Administrative Region) Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

    The figures showed that total export of goods fell by 8.6 percent year-on-year to 7.02 billion patacas (878 million dollars)in the period, while total import of goods grew by 7.9 percent to 17.76 billion patacas (2.2 billion dollars), bringing about a 7.2-percentage-point decrease in the exports/imports ratio over the same period of last year.

    Textile and garment remained the major items of local exports, accounting for 59.1 percent of the total between January and May this year, but its exports declined by 13.2 percent year-on-year in the period.

    Meanwhile, the value of non-textile exports fell slightly by one percent in the period, of which exports of machines and apparatus, and footwear dropped by 48.4 percent and 51 percent respectively, while exports of image and sound appliances rose by 70.9 percent, according to the figures.

    As for export markets, the SAR’s value of exports to the United States, the Chinese mainland and the European Union decreased by four percent, 39.9 percent and 37.8 percent respectively year-on-year for the period, while that to Hong Kong rose by 26.1 percent, according to the DSEC.

    In addition, DSEC figures also indicated that the main suppliers of imported goods to Macao were mainly in the Asian region, as the value of imports from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, comprising 51.3 percent of the total imports in the period, rose by 3.4 percent and 14.7 percent respectively year-on-year.

    WENGAN, Guizhou, June 30 (Xinhua) — Violence that an official said could have involved up to 30,000 people in southwest China has quieted down since Sunday, after crowds angered over a girl’s death torched government buildings.

    The incident began when about 300 people, including some who were dissatisfied with a police report on the death of a 17-year-old girl, started to gather about 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at the county government and public security bureau in Weng’an County of Guizhou Province, local government and police sources said. The chaos was quieted Sunday morning.

    On Monday morning, order has restored to the county, in central Guizhou. Restaurants and roadside vendors opened business early as usual to offer breakfast such as rice noodles. Downtown shops which were closed on Sunday were also reopened.

    But traces of the violence were hardly unnoticeable in the county government buildings.

    A total of 20 burned vehicles were scattered in the yard of the Weng’an county government compound. Sections of the building of the county Communist Party committee had been burned down, and a burned staircase was still smoldering. Dozens of government employees were cleaning papers and other debris in the offices, doorways and on the stairs. About 100 armed policemen were patrolling the area.

    ”Although the incident has died down, I don’t feel absolute safety now,” said Lu Xiaoli, a woman who owns a massage parlor near the public security bureau. “I was shocked by what happened. I hope the government can investigate, quell our doubts and return safety to us,” she added.

    The deceased girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng’an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.

    A police report said she drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Vice county head Xiao Song said a preliminary investigation found no connections between children of local officials and the girl’s death, as some people had suspected.

    Witnesses told Xinhua the crowd included people carrying banners that read “Return justice to the people.”

    On Saturday, the crowd swelled, eventually charging into the police bureau building, witnesses said. Several vehicles and offices were torched. Local county officials said the government staff and police tried to persuade the crowd to leave and showed great restraint.

    Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Local residents interviewed by Xinhua reporters said they didn’t see or hear the police fire gunshots at the crowd.

    Xiao said the crowd reached as many as 30,000 people at one point. Police sources said people who had no knowledge about the details of the girl’s death were incited to mob the buildings.

    The provincial government has set up a work team involving 10 criminal investigators and forensic experts to reinvestigate the death. The girl’s hometown was in a rural township and she lived in a rented apartment in the county.

    ”She was a quiet and nice child. She seldom hung out or played around. I don’t think she killed herself,” said her landlord, Liu Jinxue, who helped pull her body from the river.

    Provincial public security chief Cui Yadong, who is also a member of the standing committee of the provincial Communist Party committee, said 14 lawbreakers were detained on Saturday night.

    No current information was available on the number of people in police custody. Sources said some detainees were released after brief inquiries.

Hua Jianmin (R), vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, meets with Sachin Pilot, a member of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) of the Indian National Congress, in Beijing, capital of China, June 30, 2008. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

    BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — Hua Jianmin, a senior Chinese legislator, said on Monday that China and India, two largest developing nations, share broad common interests.

    Hua, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said in a meeting with Sachin Pilot, a member of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) of the Indian National Congress, “The friendship between China and India is beneficial to both countries and Asia and the world at large.”

    Hua appreciated India’s stance of adhering to the one China policy.

    Pilot said India was ready to work with China to take advantage of parliamentary, political party and non-government exchanges to expand and promote the cooperation in such fields as energy, poverty alleviation, agriculture and infrastructure construction.

    He said he believed the Beijing Olympic Games would be a great success.

    Pilot is heading a delegation of young Indian members of parliament at the invitation of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

    HONG KONG, June 30 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong government spending in the first two months of the financial year amounted to 38.7 billion HK dollars (4.97 billion U.S. dollars) with revenue of 33 billion HK dollars (4.24 billion U.S. dollars), resulting in a 5.7 billion HK dollars (731.57 million U.S. dollars) deficit, Hong Kong Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said on Monday.

    The bureau said a deficit in the initial months of a financial year is common as some major revenue items like salaries and profits taxes are mostly received towards the end of a fiscal year.

    Hong Kong saw 18.3 billion HK dollars (2.35 billion U.S. dollars) in spending and 10.8 billion HK dollars (1.39 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue in May, resulting in a deficit of 7.5 billion HK dollars (962.59 million U.S. dollars).

    The fiscal reserves stood at 487.2 billion HK dollars (62.53 billion U.S. dollars) on May 31, the bureau said.

    HONG KONG, June 30 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong Exchange Fund’s total assets fell to 1.448 trillion HK dollars(185.84 billion U.S. dollars) in May, down 19.1 billion HK dollars(2.45 billion U.S. dollars) from April, Hong Kong Monetary Authority said here Monday.

    Foreign-currency and Hong Kong dollar assets fell 5.8 billion HK dollars(744.40 million U.S. dollars) and 13.3 billion HK dollars(1.71 billion U.S. dollars), the authority said.

    The decline in foreign-currency assets was due mainly to valuation losses on foreign-currency investments, which was partly offset by interest and dividend income from foreign-currency assets.

    The fall in Hong Kong dollar assets was due mainly to valuation losses on Hong Kong equities held by the Exchange Fund and fiscal draw downs.

    The Monetary Base stood at 325.2 billion HK dollars(41.74 billion U.S. dollars), down 1.1 billion HK dollars(141.19 million U.S. dollars) or 0.3 percent from April. The decline was due mainly to a decrease in Certificates of Indebtedness and the market value of Exchange Fund Bills and Notes outstanding.