Briefly

CHINA

Spanish foreign minister to pay visit

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno will pay an official visit to China starting on Tuesday. During the two-day visit, both sides will have in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday. "Spain is China's important strategic partner in Europe," Lin said. Political mutual trust between the two countries has strengthened in recent years, and their pragmatic cooperation has yielded rich outcomes, he said. Noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership, Lin said he believes the visit will help deepen mutual understanding and trust between the two countries.

SWEDEN

Nobel economics prize goes to three

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded on Monday to the American-Israeli Joel Mokyr, France's Philippe Aghion and Canada's Peter Howitt for work on technology's impact on sustained economic growth. Mokyr, 79, won one half of the prize "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress", the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Aghion, 69, and Howitt, 79, shared the other half "for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction", it said.

UNITED STATES

Shooting kills four and injures 20

A mass shooting early on Sunday at a crowded bar on an idyllic island considered to be the largest Gullah community on the South Carolina coast left four people dead and at least 20 injured, officials said. A large crowd was at Willie's Bar and Grill on St Helena Island when sheriff's deputies arrived and found many people with gunshot wounds. An estimated 5,000 or more Gullah people live on the island.

China Daily - Agencies