The Philippines government has raised the official death toll from the typhoon disaster to 1,744 people, but the final number is expected to be much higher.

A festival dedicated to dog meat in southern China has been targeted by protesting animal lovers, who have won a minor concession from local officials, said an activist.

An axeman has killed three children and injured 13 others at a daycare centre in south-western China.

A coal mine fire has trapped 28 workers underground in eastern China as rescuers elsewhere tried to reach 42 miners not seen since heavy rains flooded two other mines over the weekend.

Widespread flooding in southern China has caused 175 deaths, with 107 people missing and more storms expected, the government said today.

Massive flooding in southern China has killed 132 people and forced 860,000 to flee their homes, and more storms are on the way, the government said today.

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.

Four tourists died when their hot-air balloon caught fire and crashed during a sightseeing trip in China.

At least 16 people were killed and more than 320,000 evacuated from their homes in southern and central China after heavy rains toppled houses, flooded roads and damaged a dam.

Authorities have moved more than 300,000 people from their homes in southern China after heavy rain toppled houses, flooded roads and damaged a dam, Chinese state media said today.

FLOOD water from southern China pushed up river levels in northern Vietnam yesterday, worsening inundations across a wide region that have killed at least 120 people on both sides of the border.

HEAVY rains in southern and eastern China have left at least 62 people dead or missing, while more than one million residents have been evacuated.

At least 55 people have died and seven are missing in flooding across a broad stretch of southern China, state media reported today.

Heavy rains in southern China triggered floods that killed six people and forced the evacuation of 150,000 residents, state media reported today.

A CIRCUS lion bit off a 10-year-old boy’s arm through the bars of its cage.

A circus lion bit off a 10-year-old boy’s arm through the bars of its cage, it has been revealed today.

A crocodile shot to death in south China during a search for a missing nine-year-old boy was found to contain the child’s remains, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A tour bus in the wrong lane on a road in south China ploughed into another oncoming bus, killing 13 passengers and injuring 75.

China’s death toll from Typhoon Saomai rose to at least 104 today, with another 190 missing, as the most powerful storm to strike the country in five decades weakened into a tropical depression.

Typhoon Saomai, the most powerful storm to hit China in five decades, raged ashore today and churned across the crowded south-east, killing at least two people, wrecking houses and capsizing ships after 1.5 million residents were evacuated.

THE death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon jumped to 57, with 16 more people missing, after the storm knocked down houses and set off landslides and flash floods in China, news reports said yesterday.

The death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon jumped to 57, with 16 more people missing, after the storm knocked down houses and set off landslides and flash floods in China, news reports said today.

China’s death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon has jumped to 48, with 15 more people missing, after the storm knocked down houses and set off landslides and flash floods, news reports said.

The death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon rose to six in south China today as the storm weakened further into a tropical depression but continued to drench an area where 400,000 people had been evacuated.

Tropical Storm Prapiroon left five people dead in south China, official media reported today, as high winds and heavy rain lashed an area where 400,000 people had earlier been evacuated.

Typhoon Prapiroon roared towards southern China today packing winds of up to 80 mph.

Landslides triggered by torrential rain in southern China have killed at least 12 people and injured 24, while thousands of residents escaped unhurt after a rain-swollen river flooded their villages, the government said today, as the region braced for more heavy rain.

A Chinese orphanage director and nine other people have been sentenced to prison for buying and selling scores of infants who were adopted by foreign parents, the government announced today.

A 35-year-old Chinese woman who handled sick and dying chickens has died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, becoming the mainland’s sixth human fatality, the government and the World Health Organisation said today.

World Health Organisation officials say they are trying to determine why the bird flu outbreak in Turkey has spread so quickly among humans, especially children.

A BUS was swept away by fast, muddy flood waters in south China, the latest in a string of disasters across the country where 536 people have died in floods and landslides this year.

Flooding and landslides in areas throughout China have killed 536 people over the past two weeks, forcing the evacuation of 1.4 million and making this one of the deadliest summer rainy seasons in a decade, the government said today.

Nearly 900,000 people have been evacuated from two regions of southern China where at least 46 have died in flooding that was the worst in a century for some areas, the government said today.

The death toll in torrential flooding in a mountainous region of southern China has risen to 32, while more than 300,000 people were evacuated following the worst flooding to hit the area in a century, news reports said today.

TORRENTIAL summer rains have killed 384 people in central and southern China, while more than 100,000 have fled their homes to avoid rising rivers.

Torrential summer rain has killed 381 people in central China and the nation’s south, while more than 100,000 have fled their homes to avoid rising rivers.

A 27-year-old man whose family kept chickens in Vietnam died today, becoming Asia’s 19th bird flu fatality, while Malaysian authorities quarantined a pet-store owner on fears he may also have caught the virus striking the region’s poultry.

Two more bird flu deaths in people – one announced in Vietnam and one in Thailand – brought the death toll from the disease to 12 today, and China said it suspected the virus had reached poultry in one of its remotest regions.

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.

Typhoon Imbudo killed at least 20 people in southern China when it hit the coast this week, official media reported today.

ONE of the most powerful typhoons in years ripped into southern China yesterday after killing at least 10 people in the Philippines and injuring dozens more.

THE SARS crisis surged in Taiwan with eight new fatalities and a record jump in infections yesterday, as the World Health Organisation visited a poor and medically backward Chinese province that could be fertile ground for a future epidemic.

The number of SARS cases in China passed 5,000 today as Taiwan recorded a record jump in infections and a hospital boss was fired for allegedly covering up an outbreak.