Lijiang (China), July 28 : Every evening for two hours, about a hundred music lovers gather to listen to the ancient Naxi music in the 800 years old Lijiang Old Town, a world heritage site which attracts visitors from different parts of the world, in Yunnan province of China.

Their charm is to listen to an orchestra comprising 20 elderly men, at least four of them octogenarians and two of them blind. It plays scintillating traditional music on over a century old musical instruments like the “Erhu” or “Pippa”.

New Delhi, July 28 : China has urged the United States to stop supporting and conniving with Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao made the remarks when commenting on a report that Republican presidential candidate John McCain had met the Dalai Lama on Friday.

“China is seriously concerned about the report," Liu said, adding that the Tibet issue is China''s domestic affair.

He urged the relevant people in the United States to abide by the basic principles of international relations.

Beijing - An international human rights group on Monday condemned China's detention of a housing activist who was due to be released over the weekend, saying it was the latest attempt by Beijing to assert control during the Olympics.

Ye Guozhu, 53, was supposed to be released on Saturday after completing his four-year prison sentence for protesting against the Beijing government's forced eviction of his family in 2003 to make way for Olympic-related construction.

Ye's family was informed by Beijing's Chaobai Prison on Thursday to not bother going to the prison to pick him up as he had been taken away by the Xuanwu branch of the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

Beijing - Typhoon Fung Wong (Phoenix), which lashed Taiwan on Monday morning, continued to strengthen as it headed toward China's east coast, and is expected to make landfall near Xiamen City before midnight, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday.

The storm was moving in a north-westerly direction Monday morning at wind speeds of 151 kilometres per hour at its centre, Xinhua cited the weather observatory in south-eastern Fujian province, where Xiamen is located, as saying.

London, July 28 : Four giant panda cubs were born within 14 hours at a breeding centre in southwest China over the weekend.

The birth boom began on Saturday at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Centre when Qiyuan, a nine-year-old bear whose name means Magic Luck, gave birth to female twins at 5:24 pm and 6:16 pm, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Eight-year-old Chenggong, or Success, gave birth to a cub a little more than an hour later, followed by 8-year-old Zhuzhu, or Pearl, who gave birth at 6:55 am the following morning, the centre''s expert Yang Feifei said.

The breeding centre is currently raising 71 pandas in captivity.

The giant panda is revered as an unofficial national symbol of China.