New Delhi, Sep 4 : China will set up a new observatory station in Antarctica at the region’s highest peak within two years.

“The 25th Chinese Antarctic expedition starting in October will mainly focus on building a new station on Dome A and further exploration of the Antarctican plateau,” said Wu Jinyou, party secretary with the Polar Research Institute of China.

Wu made the statement during a visit on Wednesday to the Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to promote environmental protection.

Santiago de Chile - At least four people wer

Nicosia, Sept 4 : China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Asia’s biggest oil and gas company, has signed a three billion dollar agreement to develop and operate Iraq''s al Ahdab oil field under a 20-year service contract.

The agreement is the first major oil deal reached between Iraq, which has about one third of the world’s largest reserves, and a foreign firm.

Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has said that time was running out for big western firms to conclude the deals they have been negotiating for many years.

The Minister said that the two sides had renegotiated the terms of an old deal which was signed back in 1997 concerning the development of the Adhab oil field.

Taipei - Four airlines have offered to fly a pair of giant pandas free of charge from China to Taiwan, the Taipei Zoo said Wednesday.

Yeh Chieh-sheng, director of the Taipei Zoo, said two Taiwan carriers - the China Airlines and EVA Air - as well as the China Southern Airlines and Federal Express, have offered to fly the two panda bears - Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan - from Chengdu to Taipei.

The Taipei Zoo will use one of the four carriers to fly the pandas to Taipei in November, and put them on display in January 2009, Yeh told reporters.

Beijing - US-based soft-drinks giant Coca-Cola Co said Wednesday that it had offered 2.4 billion dollars to buy China's Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd.

Coca-Cola said in a statement that it offered 12.20 Hong Kong dollars (1.56 US dollars) per share for Hong Kong-listed Huiyuan, or triple Huiyuan's last closing price of 4.14 Hong Kong dollars.

The takeover is subject to approval by Chinese regulators.

Peshawar, Sept 3: The Pakistan unit of the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) claimed to have kidnapped two Chinese telecommunications engineers and two Pakistanis, as a mark of protest against federal government’s attacks on militants.

They said that such abductions would continue until the government stopped attacking militants.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the two Chinese engineers, their guard and driver were in the custody of his colleagues. He said the four were in good health. “Our aim is to hit the government’s interests wherever they are. We kidnap everyone irrespective of whether he’s Pakistani or Chinese and we’ll continue to do this until they stop killing our people,” the Daily Times quoted Khan as saying.