Beijing

Coal mine flood traps 20 in central China

Coal mine flood traps 20 in central ChinaBeijing - Rescuers were search

Paralympic Games open in Beijing

Paralympic Games open in BeijingBeijing - The 2008 Paralympic Games opened on Saturday night with fireworks and spectacular performances before 91,000 people in Beijing's "Bird's Nest" national stadium.

The 4,000 athletes from 48 Paralympic committees paraded around the track in the vast new arena, which also hosted last month's Olympic Games.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven led the celebrations at the start of the three-hour event.

Envoys discuss North Korea's nuclear programme

North Korea may be willing to accept food aid from South Korean NGO Beijing - Envoys from South Korea and Japan discussed North Korea's nuclear weapons programme on Friday, amid uncertainty over whether Pyongyang is preparing to reassemble key facilities.

Officials said US chief negotiator Christopher Hill would hold trilateral talks with the South Korean and Japanese envoys on the nuclear programme on Friday evening.

Police quell more riots in east, south China

Beijing - Riot police have quelled two violent protests by thousands of people in southern and eastern China, in the latest of several recent clashes between ordinary residents and local authorities, officials and a rights group said on Friday.

Up to 30 people were detained for questioning after riot police broke up a protest by migrant workers demanding compensation for a teenage boy who was seriously injured after he climbed into a textile factory in the eastern city of Ningbo, police said.

"There are now 20 to 30 under investigation and being interviewed," a police officer in Ningbo's Xiangshan county told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

Chinese region tightens controls over Muslims for Ramadan

China MuslimBeijing  - Officials have tightened controls over mosques and religious practice in China's restive Xinjiang region for the ongoing Ramadan festival, according to exiled Uighurs and local government notices seen on Thursday.

Xinjiang officials ordered Muslim restaurants to stay open during the traditional Ramadan fasting and imposed restrictions on mosques and government work units, Dilxat Raxit of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress said in a statement.

Smuggled elephant gets detox for heroin addiction

Beijing  - An elephant rescued from smugglers in China has undergone a detoxification programme to cure it of heroin addiction, state media said on Thursday.

The 7-year-old male Asian elephant was scheduled to return to the south-western province of Yunnan this weekend after finishing its three-year rehabilitation programme on the southern island of Hainan, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The elephant, named Xiguang, became addicted after smugglers used heroin-smeared bananas to lure it and five other elephants across the border from Myanmar into Yunnan, the agency said.

Wildlife experts in Hainan gave Xiguang regular injections of methadone at five times the normal human dose, it said.

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