Chloe McCardel will battle exposure, swift sea currents, stinging jellyfish, sharp-toothed sharks and her own physical limits when she attempts a record swim today from Cuba to Florida.

The American defence contractor who says he leaked information on classified US surveillance programmes could benefit from a quirk in Hong Kong law that would ensure a lengthy battle to deport him.

The United States and Japan have offered new talks with North Korea to resolve the increasingly dangerous stand-off over its nuclear and missile programmes, but said the reclusive communist government first must lower tensions and honour previous agreements.

If, as the property gurus would have us believe, it’s all about location, location, location, then Ireland can already claim victory in the European Championships.

The pope left Spanish-speaking Latin America’s most Roman Catholic country today on his way to its least.

OUTSPOKEN artist Ai Weiwei claims Chinese authorities are seeking €1.7 million in back taxes and fines from him.

CHINA has launched an experimental module to lay the groundwork for a future space station.

China today launched an experimental module to lay the groundwork for a future space station.

China’s trade growth accelerated in August despite weakening global demand and its politically sensitive trade surplus narrowed from a more than two-year high.

CHINA has frozen approval of new railway projects and halted some bullet train manufacturing after the collision last month that killed 40 people.

Google is blaming computer hackers in China for a high-tech ruse that broke into the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior US government officials, military personnel and political activists.

China blocked one of its most famous contemporary artists from taking a flight to Hong Kong today and police later raided his Beijing studio, the man’s assistant said.

JITTERY Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a concerted show of force yesterday to squelch a mysterious online call for a “Jasmine Revolution” apparently modelled after pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.

The cost of cleanliness will rise in Cuba after its cash-strapped, communist government announced that soap, toothpaste and detergent will be slashed from monthly ration books.

China has overtaken the US as the world's largest user of energy, experts said today.

China’s biggest national news agency today announced plans to launch its global, English-language television news network as part of efforts to expand the communist government’s media influence abroad.

North Korea executed a former senior official as punishment for the country’s botched currency reform, reports said today.

Thailand moved today to close a refugee camp and send 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to Laos, despite concerns about their safety.

HERTA MUELLER, a member of Romania’s ethnic German minority who was persecuted for her critical depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature yesterday in an award seen as a nod to the 20th anniversary of communism’s collapse.

China has told Australian officials it is conducting a criminal investigation of Rio Tinto employees with a focus on commercial and economic issues rather than espionage, Australia’s foreign minister said today.

Cuba says it respects all human rights, maintaining that the communist government answers to the people – not the other way around – and that state control of all labour unions, social organisations and the media strengthens individual freedoms.

Cubans with classic American cars – or even rusty Russian sedans – are being encouraged to apply for taxi licences and set their own prices for the first time in nearly a decade as the communist government turns to the free market to improve its woeful transport system.

Explosions rocked a county in western China, killing at least two people amid tightened security following an attack last week before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

Former Polish leader Lech Walesa today finished giving evidence in the trial of the country’s ex-military ruler General Wojciech Jaruzelski for his part in the murder of 44 protesters in 1970.

Cuba says it has documented proof that US diplomats on the island are delivering private funds to political dissidents to undermine the Communist government.

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in central China has climbed to nearly 10,000 in the worst-hit province, state news reports said today.

CUBANS are getting wired. The island’s communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time last Friday, ending a ban on PC sales, as another restriction on daily life fell away under President Raul Castro.

Shoppers snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time as Cuba loosened its control on consumer goods and invited private farmers to plant tobacco, coffee and other crops on unused state land.

China moved today to control surging food prices that threaten to fuel unrest in the run up to the Olympics.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called today for “restraint” in Tibet, and offered France as a go-between in any new talks between China and the representatives of the Dalai Lama.

Reports have claimed today that more than 100 people have turned themselves in to police in Tibet’s capital Lhasa to take advantage of a leniency offer after violent anti-government riots.

Nearly 50 years of rule by Fidel Castro ended in Cuba tonight as parliament chose his brother Raul to replace him – a transition that leaves the island’s communist system unshaken.

THE International Olympic Committee says history will prove it was right to award the 2008 Games to Beijing despite concerns over human rights in China.

Snowstorms that have battered many parts of China over the last three weeks have killed at least 60 people and caused 53.3bn Yuan (€5bn) in damage.

Tiananmen Square was the centre of celebrations today as the countdown to the Beijing Games reached the one-year mark, an event China’s communist government hopes will showcase the country’s rising political and economic clout.

Fidel Castro's surprise call to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's radio talk show has fuelled expectations that he could recover enough to reappear in public.

Fidel Castro does not have cancer or a terminal illness and will eventually return to public life, Cuban officials told visiting US politicians.

China’s population would have risen by another 400 million people if not for a controversial birth control policy that limits most families to only one child, state media reported today.

China will tighten controls on foreign mapmakers, who the government says are illegally surveying its territory and endangering national security, a state news agency said today.

Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron today hit back at claims that her new documentary takes a pro-US view of the problems facing Cuba.

A veteran Chinese dissident writer was sentenced to 12 years in prison today on subversion charges.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai today urged Taliban militants to end the violence raging across the country and join forces with his government to help in the country’s reconstruction.

China has shut down a newspaper supplement known for its in-depth reporting on sensitive issues, employees said today, in the latest measure by the communist government to tighten control over the media.

Fidel Castro railed against workers he said have become the “new rich” by stealing fuel and other goods and launched a new anti-corruption campaign in a far-ranging speech that stretched into the early hours of today.