China’s Great Wall Motor has said that its joint venture with BMW faced regulatory uncertainties as both companies pledged to proceed with plans for developing a low-cost electric car.

An explosion at a Chinese factory dormitory killed seven workers and injured one, the state news agency reported today.

The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed today as Sydney became the world’s first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

FROM Beijing’s old official churches to underground congregations in the countryside, China’s Catholics were marking the burial of Pope John Paul II despite an official blackout on the ceremony.