Taipei - Taiwan and China agreed Monday to hold a second round of high-level talks in Taipei next week, despite threats by pro-independence activists to disrupt the meeting.

"The Chinese mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) chairman Chen Yunlin will lead a delegation to Taiwan from December 3 to 7, the first meeting on the island between the two parties," the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

Paris - By a significant margin, the French believe that China has supplanted the United States as the most powerful country in the world, according to a survey made public on Monday.

Taipei - Taiwan's state-funded Straits Exchange Foundation said Monday that China had apologized to Taiwan for the losses and troubles caused by the recent tainted milk scandal.

The foundation said it received a letter of apology to Taiwan's consumers and manufacturers Monday from the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.

Beijing- Mainland China's stock markets plummeted Monday by more than 6 per cent to their lowest levels in more than two years over global recession fears.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 116.27 points, or 6.32 per cent, to close at 1,723.35. The Shenzhen Component Index plunged 424.14 points, or 6.89 per cent to close at 5,734.81.

Washington, Oct 27 : A tunnel, buried for nearly 2000 years, has been found in Changan City, Shaanxi Province, in China.

According to a report in The Epoch Times, the entrance to the 4-meter deep tunnel was found during reconstruction of the Han Dynasty’s Xian Gate.

The tunnel, which is intact and filled with mud, might have been built as an escape route for the emperors, according to an archaeologist.

Wang said that the Xian Gate, the gate closest to the Weiyang Palace (a palace complex, located near the city of Changan), was an entrance that was likely used by the royal families.

He said there were only two reasons for building such a tunnel under an entrance near the palace.

Taipei - A Taiwan delegation flew to China Monday to hold preparatory talks on the upcoming Taipei-Beijing dialogue aimed at expanding exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

The 11-member delegation is led by Kao Kung-lien, vice chairman of the Straits Exchange Association. The talks will be held Monday afternoon in Shenzhen, south China.

The talks would pave the way for the November 3 formal dialogue between Taipei and Beijing to discuss expanding exchanges as proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou.

China negotiator Chen Yunlin will be the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan since 1949, when Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War.