It’s been billed as the sale of the century — the sales of state assets from Ireland, Greece and Portugal, the three countries being bailed out by the EU and IMF to raise up to €58 billion in total to pay off creditors.

Heavy rain hindered efforts by workers to repair reservoirs and place sandbags along breached riverbanks today as the death toll from China’s worst flooding in a decade climbed above 1,000.

A Chinese news agency has reported that an aftershock has killed one person and injured 260 others in Sichuan province.

HOW could you not fall in love with a country like China that labours massively to make foreign visitors welcome after centuries of isolation?

China’s largest city is bracing for more power shortages during the sultry summer months, amid official forecasts of price rises for electricity, coal and oil.