At least 37 people were killed in a stampede at a lantern festival celebration marking the end of China’s Lunar New Year in a town outside the Chinese capital of Beijing today.

EXUBERANT explosions echoed across Beijing yesterday as Chinese people welcomed the Year of the Monkey, a time they hope brings wealth to a country that has made prosperity its official policy.

A TEAM of World Health Organisation (WHO) experts are to visit two suspected SARS patients in a southern Chinese hospital as tourists began canceling trips to disease-hit Guangdong province.