Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
Palates poised for China Wine Awards
It is being labelled as one of the biggest wine competitions ever staged in China, and it takes place in Hong Kong today. At the China Wine Awards, judges will taste hundreds of wines from around the world in an attempt to find not the tipple most suited to the spoiled palates of Western wine buffs but that which suits Asian tastes and complements our food the best.
Xinjiang showcases role as trade and industry hub
Vice-Premier Li Keqiang will open the China-Eurasia Expo today in Urumqi , the regional capital of restive Xinjiang. Leaders of Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan as well as Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen are attending the five-day expo aimed at promoting Urumqi as a regional centre for trade and industry. The region's already tight security is tighter still.
Weathermen face press conference heat
With searing weather persisting in the southern part of the country, the China Meteorological Administration meets the press. In Chongqing it was over 40 degrees Celsius on Monday and authorities decided to extend schools' summer break to next Monday. Temperatures in Guizhou passed 35 degrees, exacerbating the drought that since early July has dried up hundreds of reservoirs and rivers, devastated crops and forced 5.5 million people to endure water shortages.