Beijing

China’s movie censor will not approve Golden Globe-honoured film The Departed for domestic cinematic release due to its mention of a Chinese plan to buy military equipment. Martin Scorsese was named best film director at the Golden Globes on Monday for the film, a crime thriller many think might earn him first Oscar either for best directing or for best film.

Police in southern China are probing a spate of grisly murders in which the victims were chopped into pieces, including one whose body parts were mailed across the country. Police in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong province, have set up a special task force to investigate the cases, the China Daily reported.

China banned government workers, Communist Party members and students in Tibet from marking a recent Buddhist festival, citing the need to ”tighten up education”, a Tibetan rights group reported. A notice in the official Lhasa Evening News said the ban also applied to ”retired cadres and staff”.

China dismissed a Taiwan accusation of buying diplomatic recognition in Africa with -million in aid and loans on Tuesday, saying it was like a burglar shouting: ”Stop thief!” Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province, said Beijing had offered five African nations aid, loans and debt write-offs during recent state visits.

China on Saturday ordered its Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Nigeria to ”give all their efforts” to free five Chinese telecommunications workers taken hostage a day earlier in the African nation. ”China’s leaders attach the highest importance to this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao said in a statement released on Saturday.

Climate change will harm China’s ecology and economy in the coming decades, possibly causing large drops in agricultural output, said a government report made public on Wednesday. The report comes several days after state media said 2006 was hotter than average with more natural disasters than normal.

Doctors and nurses at a hospital in southern China have donned combat gear after an incident in which angry relatives of a patient attacked hospital workers, state media reported on Tuesday. The Shanxia Hospital in the boomtown of Shenzhen operated on a patient who suffered from bone fracture after a car accident early this month, but he died 17 days later of heart failure.

China’s government, which suppresses a range of information deemed threatening to national security, now wants to keep weather forecasts from falling into the wrong hands, state press said on Monday. New regulations will clamp down on the illegal acquisition of Chinese meteorological information by foreigners.

North Korea said on Monday it wanted all sanctions lifted before it would discuss implementing a nuclear disarmament deal. North Korea made the demand at the opening day of six-party talks in Beijing aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons, according to a source close to the talks.

The long arms of the world’s tallest man saved two dolphins in north-east China by reaching inside them to remove plastic they had swallowed, state media reported on Thursday. The dolphins at an aquarium in Fushun, Liaoning province, had fallen sick after swallowing the plastic from the edge of their pool.

A Chinese coal mine has made the news for a reason other than the grim series of accidents nationwide — it is claiming a world record for the the highest number of simultaneous weddings held underground. The Datong Coal Group in Shanxi province held weddings for 10 miners on Saturday 300m down the pitshaft, the People’s Daily said on Monday.

Beijing Olympics organisers are selling over half the tickets for the 2008 Games at less than each to allow as many people as possible a chance to attend the event. Tickets to competition events would be priced from 30 to 1 000 yuan (,85 to ), with preliminary sessions starting from 30 yuan and finals tickets costing 60 yuan.

North Korea wants sanctions dropped and the United States to free its overseas bank accounts as preconditions for dismantling its nuclear programme, Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday, terms likely to become a sticking point in negotiations.

China’s top safety official shouted and pounded his desk in anger at mine owners and local officials for ”utter disregard for workers’ lives” after a string of deadly mining accidents, state media reported on Tuesday. Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, became incensed during a teleconference with officials on Monday, the China Daily said.

A chubby faced Shanghai gas station intern known as "Little Fatty" has vaulted to the top of internet fame in China thanks to cheeky PhotoShop artists who are turning the plump youth into a pop icon. It all started three years ago when Qian Zhijun, then a 16-year-old high school student, was attending a traffic safety class and someone snapped a picture of his rotund, rosy cheeked face.

A group of wildlife experts weighed into the acrimonious battle over shark fishing on Thursday, saying very few species were threatened with extinction as some activists charge. They said that there was no targeted killing of sharks just for their fins — a Chinese delicacy — as most sharks are caught mainly for their meat.

Chinese sociologists said that the country should promote bolder attitudes towards sex, but that wife-swapping was off the agenda, state media reported on Monday. Chinese attitudes towards sex have relaxed in recent decades, triggering a boom in extramarital relationships.

Chinese President Hu Jintao was to meet on Monday with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe amid accusations that Beijing’s ties help to shore up a pariah regime other governments avoid. China has faced criticism for not toeing the world diplomatic line in isolating Mugabe’s regime, which is accused by opponents and rights groups of using torture and arbitrary arrest to quell dissent.

China celebrated its friendly relations with Africa on Saturday by pledging to double aid to the continent over the next three years in a summit aimed at deepening political and trade ties with nearly 50 African nations. Chinese President Hu Jintao touted ”the common pursuit of friendship, peace, cooperation and development” with Africa”.