A tornado has killed 51 people and destroyed a large number of buildings in the eastern province of Jiangsu, according to Chinese state media.

New trade, education, research and cultural links will be forged between Cork and another large Chinese city after a formal agreement was signed yesterday.

Chinese officials are launching a campaign to crack down on stripteases and other lewd shows that have become popular at funerals in some rural areas, the Ministry of Culture said.

Twenty-two people have died after a tugboat on a test voyage capsized in eastern China with an international crew on board, officials said.

68 people were killed and nearly 200 others injured, most with severe burns, after an explosion today at a car parts factory in eastern China that supplies General Motors.

Beijing has launched a security crackdown on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the crushing of pro-democracy protests centred on the capital’s Tiananmen Square.

China’s Public Security Ministry said it has rescued 382 abducted babies and arrested 1,094 suspects after busting four major internet-based baby trafficking rings.

A potential exports boost could be on the cards after it was revealed that plans have been made to officially twin Co Cork with Jiangsu province in China — with the event to be held at the Chinese-owned Fota Island Resort during the Irish Open.

A million cockroaches have escaped from a farm in China.

Chinese police have broken up a criminal ring accused of taking meat from rats and foxes and selling it as lamb in the country’s latest food safety scandal.

Taiwan has heightened surveillance of travellers from China after authorities confirmed the island’s first case of a deadly new strain of bird flu.

China has amended a law to require that adults visit their aged parents “often” – or risk being sued by them.

A knife-wielding man went on a murderous rampage in a kindergarten in eastern China, leaving three children and one teacher dead, it was reported today.

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

Landslides slammed into three mountain hamlets in western China early today, killing 17 people and leaving 44 missing, while crews drained an engorged reservoir in another part of the country following heavy rains.

CHINESE authorities executed a man who attacked a kindergarten, slashing 29 children and three teachers with a knife.

A Chinese court sentenced a man to death today for an attack on a school that left 29 children and three kindergarten teachers hurt last month.

Seven children and a teacher were hacked to death and at least 20 others injured today at a kindergarten in China’s north-west Shaanxi province.

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.

Police in Shanghai said today they had cracked a major child trafficking ring following the arrest of 47 suspects and rescue of 21 babies following a months'-long crackdown.

China declared an official emergency today in eight provinces hit by a drought that has left nearly four million people without drinking water.

A giant lake in China supplying water to 30 million people has become undrinkable through pollution.

China put nearly half a million soldiers to work clearing roads today as the country struggled to cope with winter storms that have brought it to a virtual standstill.

Snow and ice has caused chaos in China, disrupting the nation's busiest holiday travel season.

BLIZZARDS stranded more than half a million train passengers in a Chinese town yesterday.

Blizzards stranded more than half a million train passengers in a Chinese town today.

A man in southern China’s Jiangsu province has died of bird flu, becoming the country’s 17th official fatality from the disease, the government said today.

Typhoon Wipha, which fizzled into a tropical storm while sweeping across eastern China, killed nine people and left three missing when it lashed the region with winds, torrential rains and landslides, reports said today.

China has not kept promises to provide information about what actions it has taken against makers of products recalled in Europe, the European Union’s consumer protection chief says.

MORE than 100 people have died in floods and landslides in China, and tens of thousands have fled their homes in the east where dykes are in danger of being breached by a swollen river.

Nearly half a million people have been evacuated from a potentially deadly flood zone surrounding central China’s swollen Huai River, state media reported today.

Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 94 people and left 25 others missing in seven Chinese provinces, state media reported today.

At least 14 people were killed when a tornado ripped through two provinces in eastern China, state media reported today.

Chinese police have arrested two men suspected of stealing almost 51 million yuan (£3.3 million) from the bank where they worked as cashiers, state media said today.

An incoming tide swept away and left dead 19 people who were harvesting seaweed in eastern China, state media reported today.

Sixteen Chinese workers were missing today after they were swept out to sea while harvesting seaweed, state media said.

Car production at the former MG Rover factory in Longbridge will start again in June, a council leader claimed today.

Tornados and torrential rains killed at least 30 people as storms battered eastern China earlier this week, with millions more affected by flooding and other storm damage, state media and officials said today.

Workers at MG Rover were today hoping more jobs would be created at its Longbridge, UK factory after Chinese firm Nanjing bought the collapsed carmaker.

A tornado tore apart houses in two towns in eastern China, killing seven people and injuring more than 80 others, it was reported today.

Ding Junhui raised the roof at Beijing’s Haidian Stadium and delighted an estimated television audience of 100 million by beating Stephen Hendry to win the China Open.