China suspended three officials and apologised to a woman who was forced to undergo an abortion seven months into her pregnancy in a case that sparked a public uproar after graphic photos of the mother and her dead baby were circulated online.

Police arrested nine people in southwest China suspected of trafficking mentally ill people to be murdered in mines across the country in a bid to blackmail mine owners into paying compensation, a local official said.

A Chinese man was today sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend in "a classic crime of passion".

The father of a young Chinese woman who was stabbed to death by a Chinese man told the killer he “could run away from punishment, but not from God”, at the Central Criminal Court this morning.

A Chinese man accused of murdering a Chinese student was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter by a jury at the Central Criminal Court tonight.

A jury in the trial of a Chinese man accused of murdering a Chinese student heard that the accused went home and slept after the killing, which prosecution said was "indicative of a total recovery of mind of someone who lost it earlier", the Central Criminal Court heard today in prosecution's closing speech.

Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of government officials and others accused in a scheme to steal 7.4 billion yuan (€681m) from a state bank through fraudulent loans.

THE Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus returned to haunt China for the first time in six months as a suspected case in southern Guangdong province was upgraded to a confirmed case by senior health officials.

One of two men picked out at an identity parade is the man accused of the double murder of two Chinese students in an apartment in Dublin, a jury has heard.

The father of a Chinese student whose charred remains were found along with a female friend in a Dublin apartment told a Central Criminal Court jury that before the killings, he decided Ireland was an "unsuitable environment" for his son, and had told him to prepare to transfer his studies to Australia.

A mine worker who bombed a supermarket and phoned bomb threats to two restaurants has been sentenced to death by a court in northern China, an official newspaper said today.