President Barack Obama granted an audience to Tibet’s Dalai Lama yesterday over the strong objections from China that the US was meddling in its affairs.

Chinese authorities have been challenged by the European Parliament to halt the systematic killing of political prisoners and the harvesting of their organs for profit.

Show jumper Cian O’Connor boosted the efforts of Ireland’s horse industry to break into the emerging Chinese market by winning the Beijing World Cup yesterday.

Presidency preparations at fever pitch

They say that frequently fact is stranger than fiction. In 1945, George Orwell wrote Animal Farm.

China and the US got down to the key issues facing their leaders today after Hu Jintao’s formal welcome with full honours to the White House.

THERE’S a great temptation to quote the Wilde cliche on ‘carelessness’ after Fulham was succeeded by Everton. I’ll stick to blaming Fergie, for his inept tinkering with 10 minutes to go. You truly cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

WHEN, in 1972, Richard Milhous Nixon became the first American president to visit the People’s Republic of China it was as if he visited a different world.

CHINA celebrated its wealth and rising might with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in Beijing yesterday, 60 years after Mao Zedong proclaimed its embrace of communism.

A US Defence Department analyst pleaded guilty today to delivering classified information about US and Taiwanese military relations to a New Orleans furniture salesman who turned out to be working with the Chinese government.

Property developers Treasury Holdings today announced a massive €1.2bn investment in a housing and leisure development in one of China’s fastest-growing cities.

SINN Féin has indeed made a historic breakthrough in having two members elected to two members to the European Parliament last month.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese met Special Olympics athletes from Hong Kong yesterday who failed to make it to the Games due to the SARS crisis.