The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai lured a British businessman to a hotel in the south-western mega-city of Chongqing, where she got him drunk and fed him poison, according to testimony today in one of China’s highest-profile murder trials in years.

A TOP militia chief has surrendered in south Sudan after clashes that killed more than 160 people, the army said yesterday, as the soon-to-be independent nation reels from a string of bloody battles.

CELEBRITIES can now post online corrections to what they consider misinformation and slurs about their character.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for a Canadian accused of masterminding a pyramid scheme that has left millions of dollars unaccounted for.

BRIAN COWEN was under pressure last night to fight for the release from jail of the mother of a Cork student when he meets Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

A Chinese man attacked two American tourists on the opening day of the Olympic Games, killing one of them before committing suicide, Beijing officials said today.

A rights group said today that a Chinese teacher who posted pictures online of schools that collapsed when a massive earthquake hit Sichuan province in May has been sent to a labour camp for a year.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon – the next UN secretary-general - arrived in China today to discuss sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear test.

North Korea is not planning a second nuclear test and is willing to return to six-party talks under certain conditions but warned that it would take action if it feels pressured, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has told a Chinese envoy his country has no immediate plans to conduct another nuclear test but that US policy towards Pyongyang will determine the future, a report says.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a Chinese envoy that while Pyongyang has no immediate plan to carry out another nuclear test, whether it will do so in the future hinges on US policy toward the country, a news report said today.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and China’s foreign minister said today their governments had agreed to try to resume stalled talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear programme and called on the communist nation to show restraint.

China’s president Hu Jintao appears to have sent a special envoy to North Korea, a former South Korean politician said today, amid speculation that the North might conduct another nuclear test.

A special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao today told US President George Bush that China wants a strong UN response to North Korea’s claimed nuclear test, a White House spokesman said.

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.

War-torn Afghanistan today pleaded for protective clothing for its staff after the first possible cases of bird flu were detected, as Azerbaijan reported three people killed by the deadly disease.

The deaths of two more people in China and two in Turkey have brought the global toll from bird flu to 78, the World Health Organisation said today as it urged stepped-up preparation in case the illness turns into a pandemic strain.

HONG KONG braced for potential violence as anti-globalisation protesters kicked off a flurry of demonstrations yesterday against this week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting of nearly 150 rich and poor nations.

A 10-year-old girl in southern China has tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the government said today, making her the country’s fourth human bird flu case since last month.

CHINA hopes to conduct a space walk in 2007 and might recruit women into its next group of astronaut candidates, a senior space programme official said yesterday following the safe completion of the nation’s second manned mission.

China today appointed veteran civil servant Donald Tsang as Hong Kong’s next leader, saying he will promote prosperity and stability in the Asian financial capital.

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.

Three baby girls have been found abandoned in Shanghai – two of them dead and the other still alive inside a plastic bag stuffed in a rubbish bin, newspapers reported.

China sees no need for another UN resolution against Iraq and believes weapons inspections should be strengthened as part of efforts to avert war.

The deadly bombing in Bali was a “brutal and inhuman act” that reinforces the need for the entire world and the United Nations to fight terrorism together, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said today.

Share prices closed a relatively lacklustre morning session slightly lower, with trade locked in a fairly tight range as a lack of solid leads kept most players on the sidelines, dealers said.

Share prices closed the morning lower, pressured by Wall Street's overnight weakness following weak US retail sales data, dealers said.

The letter written by the White House from US Ambassador Joseph W. Prueher to Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Tang has been released in full.

China says it wants a dignified resolution to the spy plane row with the US "as soon as possible".

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has expressed regret over the death of a Chinese pilot when his jet fighter collided with a US spy plane.