hello and welcome to this edition of on saturday, august 18. i'm qi zhi in beijing. let's take a look at some of the major events that have happened in china and around the globe during the past week:
leaders from the shanghai cooperation organization members states held their annual summit and watched a joint anti-terror drill. china published a white paper on its food safety, defending the quality of its food exports. a powerful earthquake hit southern peru, killing more than 500 people. and the taliban freed two south korean hostages in the first major breakthrough in a hostage incident more than three weeks old.stay tuned.
heads of state from member countries of the shanghai cooperation organization gathered in the kyrgyz capital bishkek thursday for the sco's annual summit.
leaders from china, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, russia, tajikistan and uzbekistan, exchanged ideas on international and regional issues of common concern.
they also signed a long-term good neighbor cooperative treaty, which legalizes the idea of maintaining permanent peace and friendliness among sco countries.
at the summit, chinese president hu jintao put forward a proposal on achieving mutually beneficial cooperation and joint development.
"we should carefully follow the terms of this good neighbor treaty, enhance win-win regional economic cooperation, promote equal exchanges between different cultures, and deepen cooperation with other countries and international organizations."
on friday, the leaders gathered in russia's chelyabinsk to observe a joint anti-terror drill sponsored by the sco.
following recent overseas complaints about some of china's exports, the government issued a white paper on food safety on friday, defending the quality of its food exports and pledged to strengthen global cooperation to improve quality control.
the state council also named vice premier, wu yi, as the head of a working group on food safety.
in the white paper, china reiterates previously released figures showing more than 99 percent of its food exports meet standard set by the united states, the european union and japan. it also emphasized the proportion of chinese food products that passed quality inspections had risen steadily in recent years, from 78 percent in 2006 to the current figure of 85 percent.
professor luo yunbo, with china agriculture university, says the release of the report demonstrates the government's resolute desire to ease food safety concerns.
"the policy paper gives objective descriptions and comments on the current status of china's food safety measures. it points out both positive and negative sides. the figures it cites are in accordance with most of our laboratory research, so i think it's convincing and reliable."
a powerful 8 magnitude earthquake shook peru's coast near the capital on wednesday afternoon, killing more than 500 people and left thousands homeless.
president alan garcia traveled to one of the hardest-hit cities, pisco, thursday to coordinate relief work with local officials.
the government also declared a 3-day national mourning starting thursday.
a united nations spokesperson conveyed u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon's concern to the peruvians.
"the secretary-general was deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death and destruction wrought by the powerful earthquake and extends condolences to the family and friends of those who died."
chinese president hu jintao also send a message of condolence to president garcia.
taliban militants released two female south korean hostages on monday afternoon after holding them for more than three weeks. it's the first significant breakthrough in the hostage incident.
purported taliban spokesman qari yousef ahmadi said during an audio message that the insurgent group decided to release these two to press the us government to free the taliban prisoners.
"the taliban leadership decided to release these two korean hostages for the sake of good relations between the korean people and the taliban. we are expecting the korean people and their government to force the kabul administration and the us to take a step toward releasing taliban prisoners."