New Delhi, Sep 19: Liquid milk sold by three leading Chinese companies is contaminated with melamine, leading to four infant deaths caused by the chemical.

The fourth death was reported from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Thursday. Two kids in Gansu and one in Zhejiang had fallen victim to contaminated milk earlier.

A total of 6,244 infants who were fed contaminated milk food produced by Sanlu Group have been diagnosed with various urinary tract problems, including kidney stones.

Police in Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, said 12 people were arrested yesterday for their alleged involvement in the milk food scandal, taking the total number of arrests to 18, the China Daily reported.

Beijing - China's main stock market jumped by 9 per cent on Friday, following the announcement of government measures to bolster share prices and earlier gains on Wall Street.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, shot up by 9.46 per cent, or 179.25 points, to end the day at 2,075.09.

The Shanghai index gained 9 per cent immediately after opening, while the smaller Shenzhen Component Index had also soared by 9 per cent at the close of trading on Friday.

Tokyo - Taro Aso, who is likely to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, said Friday that Japan was destined to flourish together with China and South Korea although he also foresaw continuing bumpy relations with the countries Japan occupied before and during World War II.

"There will be problems between Japan and those two nations," Aso said at a press conference. "No need to be flustered, though, because Japan, China and South Korea 
- the three nations are destined to prosper together."

Aso, who serves as secretary general of the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is seen as the front-runner in Monday's LDP presidential election after Fukuda announced his resignation September 1.

Beijing - China's main stock market fell by nearly 6 per cent in early trading on Thursday, following more big losses on Wall Street.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, closed the morning session at 1,816.44, down 5.84 per cent, state media said.

Shares in banking and insurance companies led the plunge, after reports that several major Chinese banks held bonds in the bankrupt US investment firm Lehman Brothers.

New Delhi, Sept 18: The 12th round of the China-India border talks to resolve their decades-old border dispute issue will commence in Beijing from today.

The Indian delegation will be lead by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan while State Counsellor Dai Bingguo will head the Chinese delegation.

This is the 12th round of boundary negotiations between the two sides since they appointed Special Representatives in 2003 to resolve the decades-old issue from a political perspective after the diplomatic parleys failed to yield results.

Beijing - A mudslide in northern China which engulfed several buildings and a market after a dam at an illegally operated mine burst has killed up to 270 people, the official Xinhua news agency said Thursday.

Ten days after the disaster, 260 bodies have been recovered, while 10 people were still missing, rescuers were quoted as saying.

Investigations in the accident which happened at Tashan mine near the town of Linfen in Shanxi province focus on how the mine operators were able to build the unlicensed waste reservoir and operate for years without permits.