A CHINESE bishop ordained without papal approval has been excommunicated from the Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Saturday, bringing relations between the Vatican and Beijing to a new low.

SO the transfer window slams down on our fingers again, and who were they reaching towards?

HONG KONG businessman Kenny Huang has withdrawn his interest in buying Liverpool.

Hong Kong businessman Kenny Huang has withdrawn his high-profile attempt to buy Liverpool Football Club.

Kenny Huang tonight announced he has ruled himself out of the running to buy Liverpool, in a statement released by his spokesperson.

The announcement by Indian conglomerate Sahara Group that they were not following through their interest in Liverpool to the bidding stage is likely to have little impact as the process gathers pace this week.

The proposed takeover of Liverpool by a Chinese consortium would not involve direct ownership by the country’s government, although they may have a passive role in the organisation, it has been claimed.

Confusion surrounds Kenny Huang and his interest in buying Liverpool after claims about his links to the Chinese government were met with an apparent denial which was then subsequently dismissed.

Prospective new Liverpool owner Kenny Huang has refused to comment on claims his buy-out is backed by the Chinese government.

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is concentrating on football despite all the debate over who will be the club’s new owners and he is eagerly anticipating what he regards as his “mini home debut” tonight.

THE future of Liverpool appears far from clear after one interested party distanced himself from an official bid and another claimed they were on the verge of completing a deal.

Chinese businessman Kenny Huang has denied reports he has made a formal bid for Barclays Premier League club Liverpool.

A rival consortium to Chinese entrepreneur Kenny Huang are claiming they are close to sealing a deal to buy Liverpool.

The sale of Liverpool could be concluded by the close of the transfer window this month, but chairman Martin Broughton insists the board remain in control of any deal.

CHINESE businessman Kenny Huang has pledged to invest heavily in Liverpool should his ownership bid succeed.

Chinese businessman Kenny Huang has pledged to invest heavily in Liverpool should his ownership bid succeed.

Chinese businessman Kenny Huang hopes to force Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to finally sell up after making an offer to buy the debts of the club’s major creditor Royal Bank of Scotland.

A home appliance dealer who once was China’s richest businessman was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being convicted of insider trading and other offences.

China’s foreign minister warned that US plans to sell $6.4bn (€4.6bn) worth of arms to Taiwan will harm Chinese efforts to unify peacefully with the island, the ministry said, after China suspended US military exchanges and threatened unprecedented sanctions against American defence companies.

A Taiwan court imposed a life sentence on former President Chen Shui-bian after convicting him of corruption today, marking a watershed in the island's turbulent political history.

The first successful birth of a panda cub from artificial insemination using frozen sperm was announced by China today.

A Chinese karaoke bar waitress who became a folk hero after fatally stabbing a Communist Party official who demanded sex was freed today, state media said.

China will begin building a new panda breeding centre next month to replace a world-famous preserve badly damaged in last year’s devastating earthquake in southwestern Sichuan province.

China's Defence Ministry demanded that the US Navy end surveillance missions off the country's southern coast following a weekend confrontation between an American vessel and Chinese ships.

A TEACHER in south-west China has been sent to a labour camp for publicising photos of school buildings that collapsed in the devastating May 12 earthquake, a rights group has said.

THOUSANDS of rioters torched police and government office buildings in south-west China, in unrest triggered by allegations of a cover-up over a girl’s death.

CHINESE surgeons yesterday said they successfully operated on a man with a 33lb tumour that hung down from his face, obscuring his features and warping his backbone.

Chinese surgeons today said they successfully operated on a man with a 33lb tumour that hung down from his face, obscuring his features and warping his backbone.

Raphael Jacquelin and Ming-Jie Huan share the lead at the Volvo China open on three under-par.

China’s death toll from Typhoon Saomai rose to 114 today as authorities said some victims were evacuees who died when buildings used as shelters collapsed in the strongest storm to hit China in more than five decades.

THE Chinese authorities have paid compensation to the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was beaten to death by police amid the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989, an activist said yesterday.

Chinese authorities have paid compensation to the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was beaten to death by police amid the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989, an activist said today.

The host nation is celebrating its first medal of the Olympics after the Greek pair of Thomas Bimis and Nikolaos Siranidis won gold in the synchronised diving.

A Taiwan safari village closed its lion park to the public today after one of the animals attacked and killed a worker, park officials said.

A court in Taiwan today ordered that all ballot boxes be sealed but 10,000 protesters demanded a recount of Chen Shui-bian’s re-election amid claims it was marred by voting irregularities and a mysterious shooting that wounded the president.

A man suspected of killing 25 teenage boys after luring them from Internet cafes and video game parlours was detained in central China, after his latest target managed to escape, a newspaper reported today.

A kindergarten owner who sickened 70 children by mixing rat poison into salt at a rival school’s kitchen was executed in southern China today.

A nursery owner in China has been sentenced to death after he was convicted of creeping into a rival school and lacing salt with rat poison.

The death toll in a northeastern China coal mine blast blamed on faulty ventilation has risen to 115, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.

A giant panda at a Chinese research centre has given birth to twin male cubs, the second set of twins born this year in the country’s panda breeding programme.

A Chinese entrepreneur arrested over articles about the Tiananmen Square protests has gone on trial on subversion charges.

An anti-nuclear protester set himself on fire outside Taiwan’s parliament today, before witnesses extinguished the flames with bottled water.