Police kept China’s symbolic heart of Tiananmen Square free of demonstrators today, detaining at least 13 people while activists abroad marked the 15th anniversary of the attack on pro-democracy protesters.

The main hospital treating victims of a train explosion in North Korea laid out young patients on filing cabinets today as it struggled to overcome a shortage of beds and problems with medical equipment, according to an aid official.

Cut off from worried families and sleeping in their offices, hundreds of medical workers are isolated with their patients as Beijing closes off entire hospitals amid sweeping measures to stop the spread of the Sars virus.

US diplomats planned meeting with the captured spy plane’s crew on a Chinese island was delayed without explanation today.