China will prosecute the leader of a “cult” on charges of rape, fraud, sabotage, and other crimes, state news agency Xinhua said, as the government deepens a crackdown on illegal religious movements.

Divers have pulled three people alive from inside a capsized cruise ship in China and are searching for other survivors, state media said.

USA: An Oklahoma school expressed concern and disappointment over a video that went viral showing students in a biology class performing a choreographed dance routine with dead cats.

The son of actor Jackie Chan pleaded guilty in a Beijing court to providing a venue for drug users and was sentenced to six months in jail.

A man with a knife killed three children and wounded five more and a teacher in a primary school in China, on the first day of a new term after the summer holidays.

Rescuers have found scores of survivors as they dug through homes shattered by an earthquake in southern China that killed at least 398 people and injured more than 1,800.

A strong earthquake in southern China’s Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes yesterday, killing at least 367 people and injuring more than 1,800.

CHINA: People who eat rare animals could be jailed for 10 years or more under a new interpretation of the criminal law, state media reported, as the government seeks to close a legal loophole and better protect the natural environment.

The death toll from a horrific rampage by a knife-wielding mob at a railway station has risen to 33 as China blamed ethnic separatists for the “terrorist attack”.

A Chinese thief painstakingly wrote out 11 pages of telephone numbers from a stolen iPhone and sent them to the owner.

China’s Communist rulers announced an easing of its controversial one-child policy as part of a raft of sweeping pledges including the abolition of its “re-education” labour camps and loosening controls on the economy.

Violent incidents have spread this week in a tense minority region of western China.

A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China’s south-western Sichuan province today, leaving at least 156 people dead and more than 5,500 injured, nearly five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region.

The death toll in China’s worst mine accident in nearly three years rose to 41 today, with five others still trapped underground.

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

Two men engulfed themselves in towering flames outside a temple that is a popular tourist site in Lhasa, marking the first time a recent wave of self-immolations to protest Chinese rule has reached the tightly guarded Tibetan capital.

North Korean state television has showed Kim Jong Il laid out in an open coffin today.

At least 17 kindergarten children and two adults were killed today when a school minibus with just nine seats but crammed with 64 people crashed on its way to class in western China, state media reported.

JAPAN’S premier-designate Yoshihiko Noda has vowed to provide a safe pair of hands in rebuilding the country from its tsunami-nuclear disasters after he was elected the ruling party chief.

A COURT in south-west China has charged three Tibetan monks with “intentional homicide” for hiding a fellow monk and prevented him from getting treatment after he set himself on fire, state news agency Xinhua reported yesterday.

The Chinese government is tightening adoption rules to combat child trafficking a day after eight people convicted of abducting or murdering children received sentences including the death penalty.

A toddler has been rescued 21 hours after a crash involving two high-speed trains killed at least 35 people in China.

A bullet train crashed into another high-speed train in eastern China, killing at least 35 people, injuring 191 others and once again raising safety concerns about the country’s fast-expanding rail network.

At least one airline had questioned the safety of night-time landings at the relatively new airport in north-east China where a passenger jet crashed and burned while trying to land at night on a fog-shrouded runway, killing 42 people and injuring 54, it was revealed today.

China declared a national day of mourning for victims of a massive landslide in the remote northwest, as authorities today stressed the importance of hygiene and safety for the thousands now living in temporary shelters.

HEAVY rain across western China has caused more mudslides and flooding, killing at least 29 people and trapping more than 10,500 in the latest natural disasters to hit the country, state media said yesterday.

Overnight thunderstorms brought new misery to a remote area of north-western China today as the death toll from weekend flooding and massive landslides rose to 1,117.

Landslides killed at least 80 people and left an estimated 2,000 missing today in north-west China, the latest disaster caused by widespread flooding in the country.

A powerful blast rocked a plastics factory in eastern China today, killing an unknown number of people and injuring hundreds, state media reported.

Rescuers found two bodies in a flooded coal shaft in northwestern China and 11 miners remained trapped today – a reminder of the dangers of an industry that claimed the lives of 36 others just days ago.

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.

A 10TH employee of iPhone-maker Foxconn jumped to his death late on Wednesday, just hours after the company’s chairman promised to make life better for employees at the sprawling production site in southern China.

A CHINESE man who spent 11 years in jail after being tortured into confessing to the murder of a man who later turned up alive has been given €75,000 in government compensation, state media reported yesterday.

A Chinese man who spent 11 years in jail after being tortured into confessing to the murder of a man who later turned up alive has been given 650,000 Yuan (€75,584) in government compensation, state media reported today.

Armed police will patrol schools in China’s capital after a farmer attacked schoolchildren with a hammer, then burned himself to death in the third classroom assault in as many days.

A FARMER attacked children with a hammer, injuring five, before burning himself to death yesterday in China’s third such assault in as many days and prompting the government to demand stricter school security nationwide.

A farmer attacked and injured five primary school children with a hammer in eastern China today before burning himself to death in the latest in a string of horrific assaults on young students, state media reported.

A knife-wielding man attacked 28 children at a preschool in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, the second such attack in two days.

A court in southern China today upheld the death sentence of a former medical worker who was convicted of stabbing eight children to death last month.

A SERIES of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous Tibetan area of western China, killing at least 400 people and injuring more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, officials said.

A mentally ill man went on a stabbing rampage as students left an elementary school, killing a second grader and an elderly passer-by and wounding five others, a Chinese government website said today.

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

Rescuers worked in frigid cold to reach 21 miners trapped underground today as the death toll from a huge gas explosion in a northern Chinese mine jumped to 87 - the deadliest blast to hit the beleaguered industry in nearly two years.

A TYPHOON pummelled China’s eastern coast yesterday, toppling houses, flooding villages and forcing nearly a million people to flee to safety.