SINGLE people in China have come up with an innovative way of pleasing their pushy parents during the annual Lunar New Year holiday — they are renting fake dates.

China performs about 13 million abortions every year, mostly for single young women who experts say know little about contraception, state media said today in a rare disclosure of sensitive family planning statistics.

A RECENTLY married couple were killed in a lightning strike at the weekend while climbing on a rugged section of the Great Wall of China.

A recently married couple were killed in a lightning strike while climbing on a rugged section of the Great Wall of China.

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said in China today that there were significant human rights problems in Tibet, but argued against boycotting the Beijing Olympics over such issues.

British foreign secretary David Miliband called today for Sudan to speed up the deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur and to end aerial bombing in the troubled region’s western districts.

AN online game that a Chinese local government set up in which players can torture and kill corrupt officials is proving a roaring success.

MIDDLE-AGED people who are overweight but have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels are kidding themselves if they think their health is just fine, scientists have warned.

It’s missing some paragraphs and gets a couple of facts wrong, but the wizards of China’s thriving product piracy industry have worked their magic again and produced a rush translation of the latest Harry Potter book.

Taiwan’s opposition leader and Chinese President Hu Jintao promised today to work together to end hostilities between Taipei and Beijing, during the highest-level meeting between the two sides since they split amid civil war nearly six decades ago.

European scientists have confirmed the identity of the Sars virus in a key step towards finding drugs to fight it, but anxiety in Hong Kong was unabated today as a doctor said two of the three babies born to Sars-infected mothers were in a critical condition.

Nine people were injured today by two home-made bombs that exploded at two of China’s top universities.