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Here are today’s picks from our editors.

China improves legal support for reform, opening-up in Hainan

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has issued a circular on enhancing legal support for comprehensive reform and opening-up on the island province of Hainan, said a statement from SPC on Thursday.

To advance the establishment of the pilot free trade zone and a free trade port with Chinese characteristics on the island, the SPC stressed the importance to improve the implementation of trials to ensure a legal, international and convenient business climate, and a fair, open and unified market in Hainan.

The circular underscored the significant role of justice in protecting intellectual property, and the SPC supports the idea of establishing an intellectual property court and an international intellectual property exchange on the island.

To secure financial market orders and promote the internationalization of the Chinese renminbi, financial cases must be judged carefully, according to law, said the circular. (Xinhua)

Over 160,000 purchasers register for China's first import expo

More than 160,000 purchasers from over 80,000 domestic and foreign companies have registered for the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), organizers said Wednesday.

According to the China International Import Expo Bureau, it had planned to organize 150,000 purchasers, but registration exceeded expectations.

The bureau said over 40 companies from countries including the US, France, Germany, and Japan had already signed up for the second CIIE in advance to secure exhibition booths.

Shanghai is scheduled to host the first CIIE from November 5 to 10.

Over 130 countries and regions and more than 2,800 companies have confirmed participation in the CIIE. (Xinhua)

Moscow to decide retaliatory measures on US sanctions: foreign ministry

Russia will decide on retaliatory measures on US sanctions imposed due to an alleged nerve agent attack in Britain has been blamed on Moscow, which it denies, their foreign ministry said Thursday.

"The Russian side will work on developing retaliatory measures," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists.

On Thursday, the Kremlin called the latest action by the US State Department "unacceptable."

The announcement of US sanctions caused the value of the ruble to plunge early Thursday and Russian stock markets to fall.

Zakharova said the United States was "knowingly presenting demands that are unacceptable to us" as conditions for the sanctions to be lifted. (AFP)

Thai citizenship for rescued 'cave' boys puts plight of stateless people on center stage

Thailand on Wednesday granted citizenship to three stateless young football players and their coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, who were rescued along with nine other teammates from a flooded cave last month. Another stateless member of the Wild Boars football team, who had not been in the cave, was also given citizenship. 

Ekapol and 12 "Wild Boars" survived a nine-day ordeal trapped inside a flooded cave and were saved after a massive and dramatic international rescue mission last month.

The coach and three players were considered stateless despite being born in Thailand, until local authorities verified their documents and qualifications, including birth certificates, and conferred them with citizenship.

The exact number of stateless people in Thailand is unknown, but while government statistics puts the number at 488,105, the International Observatory on Statelessness (IOS) claim it could be anywhere between 2-3.5 million individuals.  (CGTN)

Bullet train to link Beijing and Hong Kong in 9 hours

In nine hours and at a fare of about 1,000 yuan ($146), passengers will be able to travel from Hong Kong to Beijing via the much-awaited Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Rail when the Hong Kong Section is put into use next month.

The current train journey between the capital and special administrative region takes about 24 hours, which will be slashed to about nine hours - eight hours on the Beijing West- Guangzhou South bullet train and 48 minutes from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.

A port will also be established at Hong Kong West Kowloon Station where the mainland and HKSAR will carry out exit and entry supervision. (ECNS)

British Museum to return looted antiquities to Iraq

The British Museum said Thursday it is returning to Iraq a collection of 5,000-year-old looted antiquities seized from a London dealer shortly after the US-led invasion in 2003.

The eight objects were confiscated by police in May that year after the dealer failed to produce proof of ownership and were passed to the museum for analysis earlier this year.

Three of the objects carry Sumerian inscriptions which identify their origin as the Eninnu temple in the ancient city of Girsu, now known as Tello, in southern Iraq.

They will be handed over to the Iraqi embassy during a formal ceremony at the museum on Friday, and from where they will be returned to Iraq.(AFP)

Two asteroids named after well-known Chinese scholar couple

Two asteroids have been named after Chinese space scientist Guo Yonghuai and his wife Li Pei, an applied linguist, with approval from the International Astronomical Union (IAU), according to the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

The two asteroids, No. 212796 and No. 212797, were discovered in October 2007 by a Chinese researcher from the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

Guo Yonghuai was a professor at USTC and the first dean of the chemical physics department.

Li Pei accompanied Guo to teach at USTC in 1960. She devoted her life to English language teaching and research, and was honored as "the mother of applied linguistics in China." (Xinhua)

Thanks for listening and be sure to catch us tomorrow.

And now for the Question of the Day:

Who wrote the Chinese novel Teahouse?

(Answer:  Chinese novelist and dramatist Shu Qingchun, best known by his pen name Lao She.)

Today’s quote is from English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

“History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man. ”

 (Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Ryan Yaoran Yu, Lance Crayon, and Terry Guanlin Li)