Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday met two leading Taiwanese politicians in the latest sign of improving diplomatic ties across the Taiwan Strait.

Hu met separately with Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), and People First Party Chairman James Soong, both of whom were scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing later on Friday.

State media gave no details of any talks between Hu and Lien and Soong, and state media portrayed the meetings as "party to party" rather than diplomatic events.

Beijing - A little-known Islamic group has issued a new terrorist threat against the Beijing Olympics, US intelligence analysts said Friday.

The Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) issued the threat Wednesday in a video posted on the internet, urging Muslims "not to attend the games or be within the vicinity," the SITE Intelligence Group reported on its website.

The six-minute video "Call to the Global Muslim Ummah" had a production date of August 1 and similar graphics to a previous video purporting to be from the same group, SITE said.

Beijing, Aug 7 : A spokesman of the has said that the weather at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony will mainly be overcast but favourable.

Yu Xinwen said that they are expecting a brief shower on Friday afternoon, but the temperature would be between 25 degrees and 30 degrees Celsius.

One of the highlights of the 16-day Games, the opening ceremony will be broadcast world-wide and will see more than 100,000 athletes, performers and spectators attending the ceremony in the National Stadium, or "Bird''s Nest.”

Beijing - Timo Boll got a pop star welcome on his arrival Thursday for the Beijing Olympics even though the German is out to steal medals in the hosts' number one sport of table tennis.

Boll required a police escort at the airport terminal as he swiftly found himself surrounded a large crowd of fans, autograph- hunters and television crews.

"You don't really see these scenes with me in Germany, but that's normal in China," he said, as he slowly made his way through the airport.

"Table tennis is very popular here. And I am quite popular because I am one of the main rivals of the Chinese. I hope there won't be too much going on over the next days so that I can concentrate on my events."

Beijing - With eight of the World's top ten competing in the women's tennis tournament in Beijing, the competition seems to be as tough as it gets.

Top seeded world number one Ana Ivanovic, who will lose her number one ranking to Jelena Jankovic next week, should overcome Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva in the first round.

Her Serbian compatriot Jankovic, who is the second seed, faces a potentially more difficult clash against doubles specialist Cara Black. The Zimbabwean is ranked number one in doubles at the moment, but could give Jankovic some trouble in the singles.

Beijing  - The German automaker Daimler AG and the Chinese utility vehicle maker Beiqi Foton Motor Co on Thursday signed an agreement in Beijing to form a joint venture.