Society

China and Uruguay signed deals in finance, tourism, science and technology as well as contracts for local goods worth more than half a billion dollars, authorities said on Wednesday.

The deals were inked during a visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who arrived in the small South American nation of just over three million people on Wednesday.

On a tour that also took him to Cuba, Xi met here with President Jose Mujica. They signed deals under which Beijing will buy $528 million in exports from Uruguay, which lies between Argentina and Brazil on the Atlantic.

China's purchases include soybeans, wool and bone meal, as well as paper pulp and dairy products. China is Uruguay's number two trade partner after neighbouring Brazil.

North Korea said it will set up a new economic zone near its border with China, signaling the nation’s deepening dependence on its economic benefactor after leader Kim Jong Il’s three visits there in the past year.

The Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone will be set up to “boost friendship with China and expand and develop external economic relations,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said late yesterday, citing a parliamentary decree. The report didn’t elaborate on the development plans.

China on Tuesday executed a music student convicted of stabbing a woman to death after hurting her in a car crash, a crime that sparked national debate over China's "rich second generation."

Yao Jiaxin was executed after the high court in north China's Shaanxi province turned down his appeal over the April 22 death sentence, China Central Television reported.

The execution was also approved by China's Supreme People's Court, which noted the "extremely despicable and odious" nature of the crime, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A woman hangs mugwort on the gate of her house in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, June 6, 2011, as believed by ancient people to keep away disease.