Maxim Duncan

Relatives of workers killed in a fire at a Chinese slaughterhouse have blocked traffic and scuffled with police, demanding answers to the disaster.

Rescuers have been struggling to reach a remote corner of southwestern China as the toll of the dead and missing climbed to 208.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un delivered his first major public speech, calling for a push to "final victory" despite a failed rocket launch.

North Korea has admitted its much hyped long-range rocket failed to deliver a satellite into orbit, dealing a blow to the reclusive state.

One of China’s most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, was reunited with his family early on Sunday after serving three-and-a-half-years in jail.

China kept silent on Friday about a reported visit by North Korea’s Kim Jong-il that appears intended to line up Beijing behind succession plans.

China has executed a British citizen caught smuggling heroin, the British Foreign Office said, in a move condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The death toll from China’s latest coal mine disaster reached 87 as hopes dimmed on Sunday that more survivors would be found.

A gas explosion killed 42 miners in a Chinese mine on Saturday and 66 remain trapped hundreds of metres underground.