A prominent activist who calls himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher for mocking and pressuring Chinese officials has been given an eight-year prison sentence for subversion.

China’s death toll from Typhoon Saomai rose to 114 today as authorities said some victims were evacuees who died when buildings used as shelters collapsed in the strongest storm to hit China in more than five decades.

A hairdresser in central China cut all the hair off a woman customer when she could not pay for her visit to his salon.

Thirteen passengers on a Chinese jet were taken to hospital suffering lung and ear damage after the plane lost cabin pressure at 25,000 feet and made an emergency landing.

Thirteen children, the oldest just four years old, have died in a fire at a kindergarten dormitory in China.