A Chinese dissident writer who was freed this week after five years in jail for alleged illegal business activities said today that he had been wrongly imprisoned and subjected to treatment “beyond people’s imagination” while in custody.

Strong waves caused by approaching tropical storm Muifa are threatening to hit a chemical plant in China, raising fears of a toxic chemical spill, the state media news agency said today.

A man suspected of killing 10 people, including his wife, father and son, has been captured by police in north-east China.

THE wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo met her jailed husband yesterday, activists said, apparently to inform him he had won the prestigious award amid a media blackout in China.

FLOODING killed four people and forced the evacuation of 94,000 others in the northern Chinese port city of Dandong after heavy rains caused the Yalu river to breach its banks, state media said yesterday.

Flooding killed four people and forced the evacuation of 94,000 in the northern Chinese port city of Dandong after heavy rains caused the Yalu river to breach its banks, state media said today.

A North Korean guard shot dead three people and wounded a fourth on the border with China last week, it emerged today.

Rescuers were scrambling today to save 153 workers trapped after a flood swept through a coal mine in northern China, the country’s work safety agency said.

CHINESE state media said 11 Siberian tigers died at a zoo in the country’s frigid northeast and animal protection officials suspect that the majority died because they weren’t given enough to eat.

China declared a new food safety campaign today after contaminated milk products from an earlier scandal turned up repackaged in several places around the country, exposing weaknesses in the country’s promise to stop such problems from happening again.

Three dairy plant managers and one milk powder dealer in central China were arrested today for allegedly selling milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, shortly after the government launched a 10-day crackdown.

CHINA launched an emergency crackdown on contaminated milk products yesterday after they were found on sale again despite a massive scandal that poisoned hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.

China launched an emergency crackdown on contaminated milk products today after they were found on sale again despite a massive scandal that poisoned hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.

At least 22 people died and seven others are missing after a mine in north-east China flooded, state media said today.

An explosion at a coal mine in north China on Wednesday killed at least 21 workers and injured 36, the government said, in the latest incident to hit the country’s disaster-plagued mining industry.

INDONESIA said yesterday a 16-year-old youth is suffering from bird flu and several other countries also reported more suspected cases in people.

THE Indonesian authorities are investigating whether a 20-year-old woman who lived near a flock of sick chickens died from bird flu after falling ill with symptoms of the disease, a hospital spokesman said yesterday.

An Indonesian women has died of suspected bird flu, a hospital spokesman said today, adding that tests would be carried out to confirm the cause of death.

China reported its seventh and eighth bird ‘flu outbreaks in three weeks today, while Vietnam – which has suffered most of Asia’s human deaths from the virus – ordered police and the military to help fight the disease.

China has reported two new outbreaks of bird flu among chickens in its north-eastern province of Liaoning, bringing the total number of reported outbreaks in the past month to six.

AUTHORITIES ordered all live poultry markets in China’s capital Beijing to close immediately and went door-to-door seizing chickens and ducks from private homes, as the government dramatically beefed up its fight against bird flu yesterday.

CHINA yesterday said it had asked for outside help to test three possible cases of bird flu in humans, and reported that its latest outbreak among poultry lies along a migration route for wild birds.

A bird flu outbreak in northern China that sparked the culling of about 370,000 birds lies along a migration route that spans from East Asia to Australia, it was reported today, as officials continued killing thousands of birds east of Beijing.

CHINA reported its fourth bird flu outbreak in three weeks, saying 8,940 chickens died in a northeastern village despite a nationwide effort to contain the virus.

China and Vietnam have each confirmed new bird flu outbreaks which killed thousands of birds, while officials in both countries warned more infections are likely to occur.

RESCUE crews were searching yesterday for coal miners missing nearly 800 feet underground after a gas explosion in China’s northeast killed 203 people in the deadliest mining disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

Rescue crews were searching for Chinese coal miners missing today after a gas explosion killed 203 people in the deadliest mining disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

A gas explosion in a coal mine in China’s northeast killed at least 203 miners, the government said today, in the deadliest such disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

John von Radowitz

A Chinese factory boss has been sentenced to death for illegally producing fireworks in a workshop where 36 people were killed in an explosion last year, the government said today.

A Chinese woman murdered in north Belfast has finally been identified two months after she was killed, police confirmed today.

TEN years ago, Chinese trio Qu Yunxia, Zhang Linli and Zhang Lirong deprived Sonia O’Sullivan of a medal in the final of the 3,000m at the world championships in Stuttgart.

ON Saturday night, Sonia O’Sullivan watched Berhane Adere win the 10,000m title with her now familiar devastating sprint that demolished the gold medal aspirations of her Ethiopian team-mate Werknesh Kindane and Yingie Sun of China, who were the only two athletes remaining in the contest for the medals at the end of a sensational race.

Li Tie has joined Everton on a permanent basis after signing a three-year deal.

GARDAÍ yesterday launched a murder investigation after a young student, described as a high flyer by her friends, suffered multiple stab wounds in an early morning attack just yards from a housing estate.

THE entire 70-man crew of a diesel-powered Chinese submarine was killed when the vessel had an “accident” while on an exercise in the Yellow Sea, the official Xinhua News Agency revealed yesterday.

Paul Gascoigne insists he is fit enough to continue his career, despite suggestions from a Chinese team that he is "weak".

At least six people have died and a further 21 are missing after a ferry carrying trucks full of liquified natural gas exploded off China’s north-eastern coast yesterday.

Heavy rains triggered a landslide that killed 19 people in a northeast China village, an official newspaper and a village official said today.

China has opened the gates to give western journalists a controlled first glimpse into its widely criticized ‘‘re-education-through-labour’’ system, decried by the Falun Gong for torture and abuse.