China's president abruptly cut short a G8 summit trip early today as bloody ethnic tensions worsened in the country's oil-rich Xinjiang territory.

Heavy rains in southern China triggered floods that killed six people and forced the evacuation of 150,000 residents, state media reported today.

China’s southern business capital of Guangzhou, just north of Hong Kong, was rushing today to safeguard its water supply as a toxic spill from a smelter flowed toward the city of seven million people, state media said.