Giant panda twin cubs Dashuang (L) and Xiaoshuang are seen at the Chongqing zoo in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 22, 2017. The twin cubs, born in July of 2016, met the public here on Sunday. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)
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BEIJING -- China and the Philippines have confirmed cooperation programs worth 3.7 billion U.S. dollars, during a meeting held in Beijing, a senior Chinese official said Monday.
"The cooperation projects, which are the first batch, on improving people's living standards now only needed a series of bank-related procedures," said Gao Hucheng, China's commerce minister, after a meeting between a Philippine cabinet delegation and Chinese officials. xhne.ws/f8zVM
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BEIJING -- China's fiscal revenue grew 4.5 percent year on year in 2016, to 15.96 trillion yuan (around 2.33 trillion U.S. dollars), according to preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Finance Monday.
This was a sharp slowdown from the 8.4 percent in 2015 and 8.6 percent in 2014, partly because the country's business tax was replaced with a value-added tax, the ministry said in an online statement. xhne.ws/QTo6O
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CHONGQING -- A pair of giant panda twins met with the public for the first time at the municipal zoo in southwest China's Chongqing city.
The baby pandas nicknamed Da Shuang and Xiao Shuang, were born in July, 2016. They now weigh 13.7 kilograms and 13 kilograms respectively and are both in very good health condition. xhne.ws/3VzlI
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GUIYANG -- Police have arrested 12 suspects in connection with producing illegal drugs, and seized 450 kilograms of ketamine in southwest China's Guizhou Province, authorities said Monday.
It is the largest haul of the drug in the province in recent years.xhne.ws/IVqSH
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TOKYO -- Japan's major convenience store chain Lawson and China's Ant Financial Services Group jointly announced here on Monday that customers will be able to use China's online payment solution Alipay to pay for commodities in the around 13,000 Lawson stores in Japan from Tuesday.
"Lawson introduced the Alipay solution in 9 stores in Jan. 2016 for a test run and now this service will be extended to all of Lawson's stores in Japan," said Genichi Tamatsuka, CEO of Lawson. xhne.ws/CWsnm
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DRMNO -- China Engineering Machinery Corporation (CMEC) on Monday began assembling modern mining equipment at a mine here in order to increase its production for the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) in a project worth 123 million U.S. dollars.
Serbian state officials and those from the Chinese embassy met at the Drmno mine, where representatives of EPS and CMEC signed a decision to begin works on installing equipment.xhne.ws/On07g
