A 22-year-old man made the bomb that exploded at the front gate of a nursery school in eastern China, killing eight people, including himself, investigators said.

The news agency run by China's ruling Communist Party launched a global English-language television channel today as part of efforts to expand its influence abroad.

Police in Shanghai said today they had cracked a major child trafficking ring following the arrest of 47 suspects and rescue of 21 babies following a months'-long crackdown.

China's leading newspaper, the State-run People's Daily, has claimed that efforts were made to cover up an accident at a tin mine in the south of the country which officially left more than 70 miners dead.

Main roads in northern China have been cleared of huge snow drifts to allow relief convoys to reach tens of thousands of stranded herders.