World: China

BEIJING (AFP) - China's ruling Communist Party was expected Sunday to approve a major economic reform plan that would let farmers trade and mortgage their right to land and bolster the nation's food security.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Scientists have sequenced the genome of the giant panda, an achievement which may aid efforts to protect the endangered species, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Authorities in the Chinese province of Sichuan plan to spend 5 billion yuan ($732 million) to settle 470,000 Tibetan herders in permanent houses, state media said, as part of efforts to promote the development of ethnic Tibetan areas.

PARIS (Reuters) - France banned on Friday the sale of two brands of Chinese-made sweets and biscuits that it said had been contaminated with malamine-tainted milk -- the latest country hit by the widening health scandal.

BEIJING - A crane at a construction site next to a Chinese kindergarten collapsed Friday, killing five children, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese dissident Zeng Jinyan said on Friday that she wanted to keep speaking out on human rights but was afraid due to intimidation of her and her jailed husband, who had been tipped for the Nobel Peace Prize.

BEIJING - Beijing will ban half of its 3.4 million cars from the roads during periods of very heavy pollution, a state news report said Friday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Drug-resistant HIV strains are turning up in parts of China as the virus stretches beyond high-risk groups and gains a stronger foothold in the general population, a leading Chinese AIDS researcher said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has stepped up scrutiny of milk production, tightened dairy controls and threatened to "out" offenders amid a widening health scandal, state media said Friday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese military spokesman said relations with the United States are sure to suffer after Washington announced a big arms package for disputed Taiwan, warning high-level contacts could be frozen.

BEIJING - More than 10,000 children remain hospitalized in China's tainted milk scandal, Chinese health officials revealed, while the country defended its dairy products Thursday at a meeting of the World Trade Organization.

WASHINGTON - The House lawmaker in charge of trade wants the government to track what could be a dramatic increase in imports of Chinese-made clothing and other textile products once a deal limiting those goods expires at year's end.

HOHHOT, China - Peering into five pails of foaming milk, Wang Guifeng quickly jotted down the farmer's name before signaling the batch was OK. Every day he rejects milk from two or three farms whose cows don't meet hygiene standards or show signs of disease.

BEIJING - China on Thursday rejected concerns that it would torture Chinese Muslims held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay if they are returned to China, saying they will be dealt with according to the law.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has recalled two batches of herbal injections after three people who used them died, the official Xinhua agency said on Thursday, as the country still struggles to clean up a tainted milk scandal.

WASHINGTON - A group of Chinese Muslims set to be freed into the U.S. this week from Guantanamo Bay found their freedom stymied yet again after a simple government plea: What's a couple more weeks or so in jail after nearly seven years?

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday that the next U.S. president should not allow a repeat of a recent arms sale to Taiwan which it said had damaged ties between Beijing and Washington.

BEIJING - China said Thursday that a prominent Chinese human rights activist should not be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, saying such an honor would go against the spirit of the award.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese government spokesmen said jailed dissident Hu Jia was a criminal undeserving of a Nobel Peace Prize, amplifying Beijing's unhappiness at the possibility Hu could win the honor this year.

BEIJING - The number of villagers sickened by drinking water contaminated with arsenic in southern China has risen to 200, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.

BEIJING - Police have beaten and detained protesters holding a rally in southern China to seek compensation for damaged property, an activist group said Thursday.

BEIJING (AFP) - China published Thursday a new number of children hospitalised after drinking tainted milk, more than tripling the official figure to nearly 47,000.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - China's top negotiator on Taiwan will meet the island's president for the first time, a Taipei official said on Thursday, in what would be a further sign of improved relations between the diplomatic rivals.

BEIJING (AFP) - Three people have died in southwestern China after receiving a herbal injection, the government said, in the latest incident underlining the safety risks of Chinese-made products.

TUOWEIZIRAN, China (AFP) - Farmers in China's large milk-producing region of Inner Mongolia said governmental safety measures taken in the wake of a tainted milk scandal that shocked the world had been rigorous, but apparent flaws remain.

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese authorities are investigating local officials who allegedly hid or downplayed two deadly mining accidents that killed at least 75 people, state media said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - China's top diplomat in the United States says Washington's approval of a multibillion-dollar arms package for Taiwan is a "gross violation" of U.S. commitments to Beijing.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The toll of Chinese children ill from toxic milk formula may have nearly doubled since the Health Ministry's last public count, local media reports show, but an official said on Wednesday the number of new cases was falling.

BEIJING (AFP) - China insisted on Wednesday that it was being open about the impact of milk tainted with the toxic chemical melamine, but declined to make public the latest data on how many children had fallen ill.