Taipei- The Ninth China Book Exhibition opened in Taipei on Saturday, amid expanding economic and cultural ties between Taipei and Beijing.

Some 400 Chinese publishing companies are taking part in the book fair at the Taipei World Trade Centre, which displays some 120,000 book and magazine titles from China.

Relations between China and Taiwan have warmed following the inauguration of Taiwan's China-friendly president Ma Ying-jeou.

Manila  - The Philippine government on Saturday ordered agriculture and food authorities to prevent the entry of new stocks of milk contaminated with melamine from China.

The Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Food and Drugs were also directed to monitor the markets amid reports that some contaminated products have reached Philippine markets.

Presidential Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said all suspected products should be held immediately.

"They should hold any stock of contaminated milk and make sure it does not reach the market," he said in a radio interview.

Jakarta - At least seven people were injured when turbulence hit a Boeing 747-400 jetliner belonging to China Airlines on Saturday en route from Taipei to Indonesia's Bali island, an airport official said.

A spokesman for the Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport named Dimyati said the CAL-687 jet carrying 357 people dropped drastically to about 25,000-feet altitude from 35,000 feet, jolting passengers.

Beijing - Engineers on Saturday moved the assembled carrier rocket and Shenzhou VII spacecraft toward a launch pad for China's next manned space mission, which was scheduled to be launched next week, state media reported.

The Shenzhou VII, attached to a Long March-2F carrier rocket, was rolled along a 1,500-metre railway from the assembly plant to the launch pad, the semi-official China News Service said.

The move to the launch pad at the Jiuquan space centre in the north-western province of Gansu began around 1:30 pm (0530 GMT) and would take about two and a half hours, the agency said.

Beijing - A fire killed at least five people and trapped 27 others underground Saturday at a coal mine in north-eastern China's Heilongjiang province, the government said.

Forty-four miners were working underground and 12 escaped after the fire broke out around 3:30 am (1930 GMT Friday) at the Fuhua mine in Hegang city, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its website.

Rescuers had recovered five bodies by Saturday afternoon and were still searching for the other missing miners, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Beijing - A fire trapped 32 people underground Saturday at a coal mine in north-eastern China's Heilongjiang province, the government said.

Forty-four miners were working underground and 12 escaped after the fire broke out around 3:30 am (1930 GMT Friday) at the Fuhua mine in Hegang city, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its website.

The Fuhua coal mine was fully licensed to produce up to 60,000 tons of coal annually, the administration said.

The cause of the accident was under investigation, state media said.