Beijing - Temporary measures designed to improve air quality for next month's Olympics have cut overall air pollution by about 20 per cent, Beijing officials said on Friday.

"I'm sure the effects have already been felt and are quite evident," Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, told reporters.

The aggregated level of major air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter dropped this month by 20 per cent year-on-year compared with July 2007, Du said.

The city said it recorded 22 "blue sky" days in the first 25 days of July, and 13 more "blue sky" days year-on-year in the first six months of 2008.

Sydney, July 25 : A Tibetan professor has said that China will not change its policies on Tibet, and added that Beijing will provide 170 billion yuan to Tibet during the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) to improve social life and infrastructure there.

London, July 25: One of Tibet's most famous poets has been waiting for over a thousand days to get a passport from the Chinese Government.

According to The Independent, Woeser has been waiting 1,151 days for a passport, even though she is a resident in Beijing.

She has now decided to sue the authorities to get the document.

"In China, no matter whether you are from Beijing or Changchun, it is always very easy and convenient to apply for a passport. The procedure is quite simple. Within 15 days of their application, they will get a passport. But such an easy procedure is quite unbelievable for a Tibetan.

Beijing - At least eight people died and others were feared trapped under rubble after a mosque under construction collapsed in north-western China's Qinghai province, state media said on Friday.

About 24 others were injured in the collapse at Taer town in Qinghai's Datong county on Thursday, including three in serious condition, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"The exact number of people at the scene is still unknown," the agency quoted a rescue official as saying.

Beijing - Chinese officials said Thursday they have smashed an international terrorist group that planned to attack an Olympic Games football site in the eastern city of Shanghai.

"We have obtained information that international terrorist organizations would likely launch an attack against an Olympic venue in the city during the Games," the official news agency Xinhua quoted Cheng Jiulong, Shanghai Public Security Bureau deputy director, as saying.

"We have staged raids and cracked a group of terrorists," said Cheng, who is also head of the Shanghai security office for the Olympics.