Several dozen Chinese relatives of passengers on Flight MH370 have demanded that Malaysia apologise for its handling of the search for the missing plane and for the prime minister’s statement saying it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

A minivan carrying 15 children to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of eastern China, killing 11 children, state media and an official said.

Four Chinese oil workers employed by a British company have been freed in the southern jungles where they were kidnapped 17 months ago.

President Hu Jintao has stepped aside as Communist Party leader to clear the way for Vice President Xi Jinping to take the helm in China.

The man once considered China’s most-wanted fugitive was sentenced to life in prison for smuggling and bribery in a lurid corruption case that reached into the highest echelons of the Communist Party and involved a decade-long extradition fight.

Italy wants China to buy its government bonds or invest in its companies in an attempt to aid its economy.

CHINESE arms firms held talks with representatives of Muammar Gaddafi’s beleaguered forces in July over weapons sales, but behind Beijing’s back, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

China has dismissed reports that retired President Jiang Zemin, who led the country through massive changes after the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, has died.

Northern Sudanese troops appeared to have seized the contested town of Abyei, a UN spokeswoman said, increasing fears of conflict as the country’s south prepares to become the world’s newest country.

IN China’s first official response to Google’s threat to leave the country, the government yesterday said foreign internet companies are welcome but must obey the law and gave no hint of a possible compromise over web censorship.

China spurned any hint of compromise today in its first official response to internet giant Google’s threat to leave the country over censorship.

POLICE arrested nine people in south-west 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.

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.

CHINA brushed aside international appeals yesterday and executed a British drug smuggler who relatives say was mentally unstable and unwittingly lured into crime.

Reporting rules which were relaxed for foreign journalists ahead of the Beijing Olympics will not be extended, China said today.

A woman who survived by drinking rainwater was rescued alive today after being trapped in the rubble of China’s earthquake for more than 195 hours.

China said it was struggling to find shelter for many of the five million people whose homes were destroyed in last week’s earthquake, while the region remained jittery today over warnings of aftershocks.

A SHIPMENT of Chinese arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South African port workers refused to unload the vessel and neighbouring countries barred it from their ports, China said yesterday.

A SHIPMENT of Chinese arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South African port workers refused to unload the vessel and neighbouring countries barred it from their ports, China said yesterday.

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader won the disputed presidential election outright, a top US envoy declared today.

The controversial shipload of weapons intended for Zimbabwe will return to China, officials confirmed today.

China still plans to route the Olympic torch through Tibet and to the summit of Mount Everest despite the violent protests there.

China’s politically powerful vice president stepped down today in a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.

CHINA’S vice-president stepped down yesterday in a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.

China’s politically powerful vice president stepped down today in a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.

Burma’s closest ally China today issued a plea for calm in the face of a looming disastrous confrontation between protesters and troops.

China will take part in a climate change meeting convened by the US government this week, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said today.

Taiwan today pledged to forge ahead with its campaign for United Nations membership, as China celebrated an expected victory after a Taiwanese application to enter the world body was rejected for the 15th straight year.

The New York Times has welcomed the release today of one of its researchers who has spent 3 years in a Chinese prison.

CHINA’S military successfully hacked into the Pentagon’s computer network, it was reported yesterday, although the Chinese government dismissed the accusation as groundless.

BEIJING Olympics organisers vowed yesterday to come down hard on any cases of children being used to produce merchandise for the Games, after a report accused factories of “gross exploitation”.

THE Olympic Games have displaced more than two million people in the last 20 years, mostly minorities such as the homeless and poor, a rights group said yesterday.

A TIBETAN activist unfurled a Tibetan flag and then set himself on fire yesterday outside the Mumbai hotel where Chinese President Hu Jintao was courting Indian business leaders eager to boost trade between Asia’s emerging giants.

A Tibetan activist unfurled a Tibetan flag and then set himself on fire today outside the Mumbai hotel where Chinese President Hu Jintao was courting Indian business leaders eager to boost trade between Asia’s emerging giants.

A British army battalion has been send to Kosovo after the UN mission in the Serb province raised its security threat level to Stage Black.

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin submitted his resignation today from his last official post as chairman of a largely ceremonial government military panel, the government said, completing a long-planned retirement.

Chinese activists have been forced to leave their homes and placed under watch by authorities two days before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, a human rights group said today.

CHINA is changing its constitution to protect private property rights for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution — a key step in making capitalism its economy’s driving force.

CHINA president Hu Jintao called for a bigger public role in government and "democratic election", the government's news outlet said yesterday.

A prominent Chinese surgeon today accused the government of concealing the full extent of a deadly disease outbreak, saying Beijing has several more deaths and five times as many cases of infection as publicly reported.

The Chinese president says the world must take "as much time as is needed" to defuse the situation with Iraq and avoid war.

US PRESIDENT George Bush yesterday said “all options are on the table” for dealing with North Korea, but he expected a nuclear standoff to be resolved diplomatically.

China today revealed plans to become the planet’s third nation to explore space by blasting off a manned capsule sometime this year.