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/ 14 February 2008
China was facing a major international crisis linked to the Olympics on Thursday amid mounting pressure over its role in Darfur after United States filmmaker Steven Spielberg severed his links to the Games. So far neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Olympic organising committee has responded to the decision by Spielberg.
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/ 13 February 2008
Freak cold and snow across the southern half of China over the past month killed 107 people and caused ,4-billion in direct economic losses, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The freezing weather downed power lines, triggered a series of road accidents and left millions headed home for the Lunar New Year holiday stranded.
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/ 13 February 2008
Alarmed by polls showing one in four Thai teens will celebrate Valentine’s Day by having sex, police plan to swoop on motels, malls and parks to ensure youths behave themselves. The annual campaign to ensure good behaviour on February 14 will see city officials turn on all lights at public parks in the capital Bangkok.
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/ 11 February 2008
Beijing Olympic organisers said on Monday they backed a ban on political protests by athletes attending this year’s Games, amid an uproar over an effort to silence British athletes. Following widespread anger, the British Olympic Association backed down on Sunday on its plan to prevent British competitors from commenting on ”politically sensitive issues”.
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/ 10 February 2008
China has lost about one tenth of its forest resources to recent snow storms regarded as the most severe in half a century, state media reported on Sunday. A total of 17,3-million hectares of forest have been damaged across China as the result of three weeks of savage winter weather, the China Daily said.
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/ 7 February 2008
The thunder of firecrackers ushered in the Year of the Rat on Thursday, but millions of Chinese spent a cold holiday as teams fought to restore power knocked out by the worst winter weather in a century.
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/ 7 February 2008
The Spring Festival is traditionally the time for China to put up its feet and relax. That has rarely been more necessary. With food prices rising, Olympic expectations growing and much of the country snarled up in snow and ice, China enters the Year of the Rat under more pressure than at any time in more than a decade.
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/ 5 February 2008
Millions of Chinese are likely to spend the biggest holiday of the year without power and water after more than a week of wild winter weather that shut down transport links. Railways and highways were returning to normal across China on Tuesday but millions are still trying to catch trains, planes and buses.
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/ 5 February 2008
China is debating whether to relax control of the internet during the Olympics, allowing access to banned websites such as the BBC, a spokesperson for the organising committee said on Tuesday. Plans to tear down the so-called Great Firewall of China were being debated and a decision was expected soon.
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/ 5 February 2008
China’s prime minister said ”victory” was in sight on Tuesday with the country finally overcoming huge transport and power problems caused by weeks of savage weather. A huge backlog of passengers left stranded at airports, train stations and bus depots by blizzards and icy temperatures in the last three weeks appeared to be clearing.
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/ 4 February 2008
Tyson Gay has heard stories that some athletes may wear face masks at the Beijing Olympics, hoping to fend off fumes in one of the world’s most polluted capitals. ”I hear a lot of people saying, ‘You’ll have to wear a mask, you’ll have to do this or that,”’ the 100m and 200m world champion said on Monday.
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/ 4 February 2008
Former Olympic and world champion sprinter Maurice Greene announced his retirement on Monday, citing nagging injuries. Greene (33) said he planned to pursue coaching and business interests in the United States and had no regrets about his athletic career.
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/ 4 February 2008
Chinese regulators have given permission for Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC) of China, the nation’s largest lender, to buy a 20% stake in Standard Bank, ICBC said. Shareholders of Standard Bank and South African regulators have already approved the deal.
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/ 4 February 2008
Millions remained stranded in China on Monday ahead of the biggest holiday of the year as parts of the country suffered their coldest winter in a century. Freezing storms have killed scores of people and left travellers stranded before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival — the only opportunity many people have to take a holiday all year.
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/ 3 February 2008
Millions of Chinese workers battled for a precious train ticket home on Sunday as authorities struggled to keep order here following a stampede for seats that left a woman trampled to death. Savage winter snows and freezing temperatures that have brought much of the nation to a standstill.
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/ 2 February 2008
Chinese state security forces have arrested one of the country’s most prominent civil rights activists in an apparent crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics. Hu Jia — who used blogs, webcasts and video to expose human rights abuses — is expected to face charges of inciting subversion of state power, his lawyers said on Saturday.
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/ 2 February 2008
Emergency crews struggled on Saturday to restore power to parts of southern China blacked out for a week by heavy snow as forecasters warned of no quick end to the worst winter weather in 50 years. The freak weather has killed at least 60 people and doomed millions to a cold, dark Lunar New Year holiday.
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/ 1 February 2008
Millions of Chinese faced a humanitarian crisis on Friday, as petrol and food reserves dwindled and yet more bad weather was forecast for a country paralysed by record-breaking cold and snow. More than 160 counties and cities in central China were suffering blackouts and water shortages, Xinhua news agency said.
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/ 31 January 2008
China has turned its battle against brutal winter weather into a propaganda push to try to comfort millions of cold, stranded and dismayed citizens, even as storms threaten to continue lashing many areas. Snow, sleet and ice blanketing much of central, eastern and southern China have killed dozens.
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/ 30 January 2008
On the top floor of the Yansha Friendship Shopping Centre in Beijing, Huang Kuoshan and 49 of his colleagues are waiting to be sworn in to the Beijing Workers’ Civilisation Cheerleading Squad. With the Beijing Olympic venues all but ready and the -billion upgrade of the city’s infrastructure nearing completion, it is part of a drive by city authorities to ensure bad manners do not mar the August 8 to 24 Games.
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/ 29 January 2008
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao took a bullhorn in hand to encourage stranded passengers in the snow-bound city of Changsha, as unusually severe winter weather snarled transport throughout the south amidst the country’s worst power crisis.
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/ 29 January 2008
Millions of Chinese shivered through power cuts and water shortages on Wednesday and millions more were stranded by snow that has blanketed parts of central and southern China, raising concerns about their safety. About 50 people have died, including 25 on Tuesday in a bus crash on an icy mountain road.
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/ 29 January 2008
Premier Wen Jiabao rushed on Tuesday to oversee disaster relief efforts as China’s leadership scrambled to limit the impact of the most brutal winter weather to hit the nation for half a century. The snowfalls and freezing temperatures across China have left dozens dead and paralysed infrastructure and power supplies in some areas.
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/ 23 January 2008
Dirty, polluted and congested — China’s large cities have an unenviably poor reputation. But Xiamen, located on the south-east coast two-and-a-half hours by plane from Beijing, is so different from that image that you could be forgiven for thinking you are no longer in China.
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/ 22 January 2008
Chinese police have shut down a website selling real-time porn and arrested 33 people, state media said on Wednesday, part of a campaign which led to the shut-down of 44 000 websites and arrest of 868 people last year. Rights groups have said the campaign has been used as a pretext to crack down on dissent.
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/ 22 January 2008
China’s state-backed miners have looked at Xstrata but are unlikely to bid for it, leaving Brazil’s Vale or Anglo-American best placed to snap up the Anglo-Swiss miner. Vale, which produces a fifth of the world’s iron ore, said on Monday that it was in talks with Xstrata about a takeover.
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/ 16 January 2008
German engineer Michael Bosch is not fazed by the lack of a gym and other creature comforts at his budget hotel in a converted Shanghai office building. He’s stayed at such hotels on nearly a dozen trips to Chinese cities. ”All I need is a clean, warm place to sleep. I don’t care so much about service,” the 32-year-old said as he waited for 10 minutes for a distracted receptionist to attend to him at a Motel168 on the edge of Shanghai’s financial district.
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/ 16 January 2008
When Zhi Lijiang first signed up to be an Olympic volunteer for the 2008 Beijing Games, she could hardly have imagined she would be playing the role of a Canadian tourist in English and etiquette classes. The classes are all part of Beijing’s effort to get its population to speak English to welcome the millions of foreigners expected to flood to the city in this Olympic year.
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/ 11 January 2008
More than 100 000 Chinese died in workplace accidents last year, including on the roads and railways, but the figure was down one tenth from 2006, a senior official said on Friday. Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, said 101 480 people died, but that government education and publicity campaigns were paying off.
Chinese opera, a massive fireworks display and a mystery ending will mark the highly anticipated opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, media reported on Wednesday. The ceremony’s artistic director, Zhang Yimou, China’s most famous filmmaker, has dropped the first hints on the show’s content.
A pig genetically modified in China to make it glow has given birth to fluorescent piglets, proving such changes can be inherited, state media said on Wednesday. The sow was one of three pigs who had fluorescent green protein injected into their embryos when they were bred in December 2006 by scientists in north-east China.
Scientists in China have identified about 400 genes that appear to make some people more easily addicted to drugs, opening the way for more effective therapies and addiction control. Experts believe genetic factors account for up to 60% of a person’s vulnerability to drug addiction, with environmental factors accounting for the remainder.