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Wednesday, January 06, 2010 WASHINGTON: The life seems to have paralyzed in the U.S., China AND Britain, as the extreme cold weather keeps lashing even today, Geo News reported Wednesday. Millions of people living in southern England and the Home Counties were told to prepare themselves for up to 40cm (16in) of snow last night, as Britain remained in the grip of the longest prolonged spell of cold weather in 30 years. The Met Office issued its highest level of alert, warning of an impending "extreme weather event" that would bring travel chaos and threaten power supplies. Worst hit overnight will be Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire – parts of which have not seen any snow since the arctic weather began before Christmas. All flights in and out of London's Gatwick and Luton airports were canceled as workers rushed to clear snow from runways. Other airports across the U.K. -- including Manchester Airport, the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool an...

Tuesday, January 05, 2010 BEIJING: Twenty-seven workers were trapped following a fire in a coalmine in central China on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, citing a local official. The accident occurred at the Lisheng mine in the city of Xiangtan in Hunan province, the official told local news agency, adding that rescuers were searching for the miners. The government and provincial work safety board have launched an investigation into the incident.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010 BEIJING: Twenty-seven workers were trapped following a fire in a coalmine in central China on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, citing a local official. The accident occurred at the Lisheng mine in the city of Xiangtan in Hunan province, the official told local news agency, adding that rescuers were searching for the miners. The government and provincial work safety board have launched an investigation into the incident.

Friday, December 25, 2009 BEIJING: A Beijing court on Friday sentenced leading dissident Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for subversion, prompting the United States to accuse China of persecuting its political opponents. The 53-year-old Liu, a writer who was jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, was tried on Wednesday for "inciting subversion of state power" after co-authoring a bold call for political reform last year. He co-wrote Charter 08, which calls for human rights protection and the reform of China's one-party communist system. It has been signed by more than 10,000 people, according to China Human Rights Defenders, an activist network. One of his lawyers, Ding Xikui, told media he was unsure whether Liu -- who has already been detained for a year -- would appeal. He had faced a maximum prison term of 15 years.

Monday, December 14, 2009 SEOUL: The United States and North Korea agreed to discuss a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula at four-nation talks involving the two nations, China and South Korea, a news report said Sunday.The "common understanding" was reached when US envoy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang from December 8 to 10, a news agency said, citing an unnamed Seoul official.A peace treaty would replace an armistice to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War at which Communist North Korea, backed by Chinese troops, fought South Korea, supported by US-led UN troops.Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang was to persuade North Korea to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks -- which also group South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Pyongyang quit the talks in April.Though failing to set a date for the North's return to the six-party process, the US envoy said both sides agreed on the need to resume nuclear disarmament talks during what he termed "very useful" ...

Monday, December 14, 2009 SEOUL: The United States and North Korea agreed to discuss a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula at four-nation talks involving the two nations, China and South Korea, a news report said Sunday.The "common understanding" was reached when US envoy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang from December 8 to 10, a news agency said, citing an unnamed Seoul official.A peace treaty would replace an armistice to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War at which Communist North Korea, backed by Chinese troops, fought South Korea, supported by US-led UN troops.Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang was to persuade North Korea to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks -- which also group South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Pyongyang quit the talks in April.Though failing to set a date for the North's return to the six-party process, the US envoy said both sides agreed on the need to resume nuclear disarmament talks during what he termed "very useful" ...

Sunday, December 13, 2009 BEIJING: Police in central China encircled Sunday a remote hilltop where a gunman suspected of killing 12 people, including his father, was believed to be hiding, state media said. Special police and paramilitary troops have cornered suspect Liu Aibing, 34, on the hilltop in Hunan province and are closing in on him, the Hunan government news website reported.Liu is suspected of shooting 12 people to death with a hunting rifle and seriously wounding two others on Saturday in Yinshanpai village, the report said. Six wooden homes were also torched in the rampage, it said. Earlier, the news agency said 11 people were killed and five homes were destroyed by fire. The killings occurred early Saturday evening, news agency said. Liu, a migrant worker, had recently returned from southern China's Guangdong province where he had sought employment, the website report said. He has a history of mental illness, it added. Among the dead were Liu's father and several c...

Thursday, December 10, 2009 COPENHAGEN: The European Union (EU) put pressure on the US and China to do more with their emission cut targets and called on the two countries to take a leadership role as the Copenhagen climate talks continued on the second day."The US and China have not offered to go far enough to combat climate change," CNN quoted a top EU official as saying Monday.Final negotiations at the conference "will be mostly about what will be delivered from the US and China," said Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister, who pressed US President Barack Obama to do more than he promised in a statement before the conference.The so-called "G2" concept, frequently mentioned in G20 summits this year, reappeared in many media to refer to the responsibility the two countries should assume.China and the US together cover half of the world's emissions so what they can deliver is very decisive, Carlgren said.Jin Canrong, a professor from Renm...

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 BEIJING: Chinese authorities are leaving nothing to chance to mar the country's 60th anniversary celebrations next week, observers say.A report in a New York-based newspaper said every possible precaution has been taken to ensure the show at Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mark the Oct. 1 founding of the People's Republic of China goes without a flaw, hitch or incident.The preparations include about 10,000 police officers and security guards monitoring Beijing street corners and checkpoints and another 800,000 volunteers maintaining security, the report said. There will be a ban on knife sales at some stores and the capital's international airport will close Thursday for three hours. No domesticated pigeons will be allowed for fear they could be used to carry mini bombs and there will be no parade-watching from balconies or through opened windows.Three reporters for Japan's news agency told the daily Chinese authorities assaulted them af...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 NEW YORK: EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana said on Tuesday he did not expect Russia and China to break ranks with Western powers on whether to impose new sanctions on Iran if it continues to refuse to halt its nuclear enrichment program."I don't think that the Russians and Chinese will say ... never again," Solana told reporters when asked about the possibility of a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran for failing to freeze its uranium enrichment program."There's not going to be a breaking of the group," he said.Solana added he did not expect a meeting of six powers on Iran on Wednesday to produce any substantive decision.He said he and foreign ministers from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany would discuss the group's forthcoming meeting with Iran in Geneva on Oct. 1.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 BEIJING: China says a coalmine blast has killed 35 in central Henan province and left another 44 miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the pre-dawn explosion Tuesday happened at Xinhua No. 4 pit in Pingdingshan city in Henan province.A statement on the administration's Web site did not give a reason for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. There were 93 men working underground at the time of the blast, it said.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009 BEIJING: Going green is the only option for Chinese art lover and part-time artist Ma Yihua.Passionate about ancient bronze pieces, the civil servant from Beijing uses old newspapers to recreate the costly classical art, some as old as 2,000 B.C.An art enthusiast from an early age, the self-taught painter and sculptor spends his free-time studying traditional Chinese craftsmanship.More than twenty years ago, an exhibition in Beijing gave him an idea.Ma Yihua said, "I happened to visit the History Museum of China. There was a special exhibit on Chinese bronze. All the pieces dated back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties. I thought the bronze pieces' design, carving and colours were beautiful. I thought maybe I can make one myself."But work in bronze came with a high price-tag, so Ma needed a cheaper substitute.Taught by older generations to recycle all unused goods and materials, Ma's grandmother used to make containers out of old newspapers mi...

TAIPEI: Rescue and recovery efforts continued Wednesday in China and Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot, which killed at least 70 people in both countries.In Taiwan, the death toll was 62 as of Tuesday evening, a Chinese news agency, reported. Another 57 were missing, and three others were killed Tuesday when a relief helicopter crashed.Thousands of households remained without electricity or running water. In mountainous areas, helicopters were used to drop food and water in villages cut off by bridges that had washed away.Sixteen Chinese tourists were evacuated Tuesday after being trapped since the storm at Mount Ali.Morakot made landfall in Taiwan late Friday and in China early Sunday. In China, eight were reported dead and three missing.Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who traveled to the provinces hit by the storm, warned of secondary damage from flooded rivers. He said more than 20 rivers in Fujian, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces were at dangerous levels and continued rainfall could bring more f...

Monday, August 10, 2009 BEIJING: A powerful typhoon killed eight people, toppled houses, flooded villages and forced nearly 1 million people to flee to safety on China's eastern coast before weakening into a tropical storm Monday.Named Morakot, the storm struck after triggering the worst flooding in Taiwan in 50 years, leaving dozens missing and bringing down a six-story hotel. It earlier lashed the Philippines, killing at least 22 people.Morakot, or emerald in Thai, slammed into China's Fujian province Sunday afternoon as a typhoon carrying heavy rain and winds of 74miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according the China Meteorological Administration. At least one child died after a house collapsed in Zhejiang province. By early Monday, the storm packed winds of 52 miles per hour (83kilometers per hour) and churned at about 6 mph (10 kph), it said. Hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000houses collapsed, the official news agency said. About 1 million peop...

Monday, August 10, 2009 BEIJING: China's state news agency said Sunday there was a bomb threat on a plane from Afghanistan scheduled to land in Xinjiang, the restive western region of China that was rocked by ethnic riots last month.News Agency did not identify the airline or the type of plane, but said the Urumqi airport had been told not to allow the plane to land.It said police and emergency vehicles had been rushed to the airport.Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, was the scene of the worst ethnic violence in China in decades when deadly rioting killed 197 people and injured more than 1,700, according to official count.A Xinjiang regional government duty officer, who refused to give his name, said he had not received any information about the incident, while calls to the region's public security bureau rang unanswered.Calls to the Urumqi airport's information counter also rang unanswered.

Sunday, August 09, 2009 BEIJING: China's state news agency says a plane has been hijacked in the restive western region of Xinjiang, which was rocked by ethnic riots last month.China’s official News Agency did not give any details about the hijacking in a brief report Sunday.A man on duty at the government office in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, said he had not heard about the hijacking.The region saw the worst ethnic violence in China in decades last month when deadly rioting in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi killed 197people and injured more than 1,700, according to official count.The government said the violence was the work of terrorists, separatists and foreign forces as part of a plot to carve up China.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A China-bound Afghan passenger flight was sent back to Afghanistan because it lacked the proper documents required to land, not because of a bomb or hijack threat, Afghan officials said. China's Xinhua news agency had reported that Chinese authorities suspected the flight had been threatened by a bomb. But an air traffic official in Kabul and an airport police source in Kandahar said there was no such threat. The plane, from Afghanistan's Kam Air airline, had departed from Kabul but landed in the southern city of Kandahar on its return because of high winds in Kabul, they said. "It can go back to Kabul whenever it wants," the Kandahar airport police source said. The sources said the flight was the first the airline had made on that route, and the airport in China's Xinjiang province denied it permission to land. A press officer for NATO-led and U.S. forces in Kabul, Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, said a plane had made a...

PST, Sunday, August 09, 2009 NEW DELHI: The 13th China-India Boundary Talks were held on Friday and Saturday in the Indian capital. Chinese Special Representative, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Indian Special Representative, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister M.K. Narayanan exchanged in-depth views about relevant issues in an atmosphere of frankness and friendliness. Dai also met with Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the Indian Congress Party and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit in India. Both sides agreed to press ahead with the framework negotiations in accordance with the agreed political parameters and guiding principle so as to seek for a fair and reasonable solution acceptable to both countries. Prior to that, both sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. During the talks, the two sides exchanged in-depth views on the further development of China-India Strategic Cooperative Partnership, as well as regional, intern...

Saturday, August 08, 2009 BEIJING: China marked the first anniversary of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday with its first national sports day that saw up to 34,000 people gather for the world's largest martial arts exercise."We have established August 8 as National Fitness Day to fully embody... the government's loving concern for the life and prosperity of the people," Sports Minister Liu Peng said in an address outside the iconic Bird's Nest national stadium."This is a vivid reflection of the legacy that the Beijing Olympics has left for the people, the society and our system."Liu's remarks came as nearly 34,000 people dressed in white silk performed "taiqiquan," or martial arts shadow boxing, in the drizzling rain outside the stadium early Saturday morning.Ranging in age from seven to 65, the shadow boxers hope to set a Guinness world record for the largest martial arts exercise, organisers said.A year after the Beijing Olympics, reminde...

Sunday, July 12, 2009 GUANTUNXIANG: Thousands camped in tents in southwestern China on Saturday after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake destroyed thousands of homes, killed one person and injured 320, state media reported.At the epicenter of Thursday's quake in Yao'an county, nearly 22,000 people took shelter in some 3,000 tents, and emergency crews rushed in quilts, rice, cooking oil and other supplies, a local news agency said.The quake displaced some 250,000 people, the report said, sharply revising downward an initial estimate of 400,000. The news agency, which cited a deputy governor of Yunnan province where the quake occurred, did not give a reason for the discrepancy. A duty officer at the provincial government offices declined to comment, saying the media office was closed for the weekend.Yao'an, a hilly area, sustained the worst damage, accounting for nearly half the people displaced.In Guantunxiang, one of the hardest-hit villages, Li Fashun's house was reduced to a...