An explosion at a factory in eastern China has killed 16 people and injured dozens more.

Thousands of troops were called in to central China after a massive earthquake rocked the region today bringing fears of a huge death toll.

A COMMON illness that typically causes little more than a fever and rash has killed 24 children in China, and health officials fear the worst may be yet to come as outbreaks occur in neighbouring countries.

A tornado tore through eastern China, killing two young children and injuring 46 others after it flattened two classrooms in a village school today.

Chinese president Hu Jintao has ordered an investigation into the weekend crash of a military transport plane that killed all 40 passengers and crew.

The Chinese government today reported two new human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a nine-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman.

China reported its first three confirmed human cases of bird flu today – two of them fatalities.

A man armed with home-made guns opened fire at a primary school in eastern China, injuring 16 students before escaping. No deaths were reported.

TYPHOON Matsa has weakened to a tropical storm as it has plowed north up China’s coast, but eastern provinces are still bracing for torrential rains and possible floods, domestic media said yesterday.

Thousands of people fought with police in a town in eastern China after a traffic dispute grew into a riot, overturning and burning cars, smashing windows at a police station and looting a supermarket.

CHINA reported four new suspected outbreaks of deadly bird flu in three new regions yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed and suspected outbreaks to seven.

Rescue workers searched today for 50 people missing after a rain-fed mudslide struck in south-western China, while floodwaters in the nation’s east were ebbing under sunny skies.

At least 23 people were killed when a ferry carrying more than twice its licensed passenger load overturned on a river in central China.