Thirty six people died when a double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly-flammable methanol in northern China early today, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.

Police have launched a massive manhunt for four inmates who killed a guard and escaped from a northern Chinese prison over the weekend.

China has destroyed 91,100 birds around a farm in Inner Mongolia to stop a bird flu outbreak, the World Health Organisation said today.

TWO nearly identical sequences of the SARS virus genetic structure have been reviewed and authenticated by experts.

Main roads in northern China have been cleared of huge snow drifts to allow relief convoys to reach tens of thousands of stranded herders.