Taipei- Taiwan announced new measures Tuesday to further open up the island to the mainland by allowing Chinese people to visit through two of its former defence outposts.

"The cabinet is expected to approve the new measures this Thursday to allow mainland Chinese to visit the Taiwan proper via Kinmen and Matsu," a statement from the Mainland Affairs Council said Tuesday.

New Delhi, Sept. 2 : Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will undertake a three-day official visit to India at the invitation of External Affairs Minister from September 7-9,2008.

Foreign Minister Yang will be visiting Kolkata and New Delhi.

In Kolkata, he is scheduled to formally inaugurate the Consulate General of People''s Republic of China.

In New Delhi, he will hold delegation level talks with the External Affairs Minister and will call on the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Foreign Yang''s visit to India follows a similar visit to Beijing undertaken by Mukherjee in June 2008.

Beijing - China on Tuesday praised the "great contribution" to improving bilateral relations by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned on Monday.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Fukuda's resignation was an "internal affair of Japan" but said ties had improved significantly between the two nations during his 11 months in office.

"Recently, through the joint efforts of two governments and people from all circles, China-Japan relations have witnessed good development, with deepening strategic cooperative relations," Jiang told reporters.

"The prime minister (Fukuda) has made a great contribution to it," she said. "We think highly of him."

London, Sept. 2 : Over 170 million Chinese schoolchildren were forced to see and hear a two-hour propaganda broadcast on the Olympics and China''s response to the Sichuan earthquake in May.

According to The Telegraph, on Monday evening, the first day of the new academic year, the Ministry of Education ordered all primary and middle school children to watch The First Lesson of the New Term, a brightly-lit variety show which skillfully weaved together China''s "Olympic spirit" and its fortitude in the face of disaster.

Parents were required to sign a chit to certify that their child had watched the spectacle.

Beijing - China and Russia have shown interest in buying stakes in Germany's state-owned railway, Deutsche Bahn AG, in its initial public offering this year, the German finance minister said Tuesd

Singapore - Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng and a team of ministers were to arrive in China Tuesday for meetings on environmental, industrial and bilateral cooperation with Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Thursday and Friday, said The Strait Times Tuesday.

At the top of the agenda, Singapore's deputy prime minster will co-chair meetings on the progress of the landmark Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City project and meet with Tianjin party secretary Zhang Gaoli, Major Huang Xingguo, and other leaders.