Beijing

North Korea sends top official to China

Seoul: North Korea sent one of its top military officials to Beijing on Wednesday as a "special envoy" of its leader Kim Jong-un, state news agency KCNA reported. There were few details of Choe Ryong-hae's visit, which came amid strained relations between China and North Korea after Beijing backed UN sanctions on Pyongyang for its February nuclear test.

Choe is the most senior North Korean official to visit Beijing since Kim's uncle Jang Song-thaek made the trip in August 2012.

Jang had been seeking a visit to China for Kim Jong-un and to bolster Chinese investment in the impoverished and isolated North. Choe is part of a powerful circle around the North's young leader that is headed by Jang. He is a long-time political administrator and was surprisingly made a vice marshal in the army last year despite having no military background.

China, the North's only major diplomatic ally, publicly condemned the nuclear test and Bank of China recently said it had ceased dealings with the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank, an institution that has been identified as a conduit for Pyongyang's weapons programme....more    

Li Keqiang hails Pakistan as China's 'iron brother'

Beijing: Describing Pakistan as the "iron brother" of China, Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday hailed Islamabad's "positive contribution" towards maintaining peace and stability, combating terrorism and promoting development in South Asia. Heading to Pakistan on Wednesday after his successful visit to India, Li promised to announce a number of lucrative deals to firm up 'all-weather' ties between the two long-time allies. Li termed Pakistan as an "iron brother" of China...  

Khurshid in China, Ladakh incursions on agenda

Beijing: External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid arrived in Beijing on Thursday on a two-day visit for the talks with Chinese leaders, just days after the resolution of a row over Depsang Valley in Ladakh where the troops of People's Liberation Army intruded recently. Besides talks with his counterpart Wang Yi, Khurshid is expected to meet new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is planning to visit India later this month, making...  

Khurshid to go ahead with Beijing visit: Official

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is to go ahead with his May 9, 2013 Beijing visit amid the stand-off between the two countries over the incursion by Chinese troops in Depsang area of Ladakh. External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said on Thursday, in answer to a question, that Khurshid has said that "he intends to go and that is the last word". He said that the Chinese...  

Chinese incursion: We need not press the panic button, says Khurshid

Army chief General Bikram Singh on Wednesday briefed the Cabinet Committee on Security on the Chinese incursion. ...

Death toll mounts to 207 in China quake, over 11,500 injured

Beijing: Over 200 people were killed and 11,500 others injured in the devastating 7-magnitude earthquake in southwest China, which continued to be rocked by hundreds of aftershocks on Sunday, while relief teams made frantic efforts to save hundreds trapped under tonnes of rubble. After suffering the shallow quake on Friday, the Lushan county battered by over 1,300 tremors. The severest aftershocks measured as high as 5.4 magnitude, jolting the area...  

7.0 magnitude quake hits China, 161 killed

Beijing: At least 161 people were killed and more than 5,700 injured when a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday, flattening more than 10,000 homes in a seismic mountainous region that suffered a catastrophic quake in 2008. The quake struck the province on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau at 8.02 am, prompting a major relief and rescue operation in the same area where 90,000 people...  

7.0 magnitude quake hits China, 113 killed

Beijing: Over 110 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured on Saturday when a powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked southwest China's Sichuan province, causing massive destruction in a region that suffered a catastrophic quake in 2008. The quake hit Lushan county of Ya'an city in southwest China's Sichuan province at 8:02 am local time, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The epicentre of the earthquake was reported to...  

China's H7N9 bird flu spreads in Beijing, second case reported

Beijing: The new strain of deadly bird flu spread in Beijing as one more case was reported from the Chinese capital, raising the total number of people affected from the avian influenza in the country to 61. On Saturday, a 7-year-old girl had become the first person in Beijing to be infected with the H7N9 bird flu. Earlier, the flu had been confined to the eastern city of Shanghai and...  

US,China come together to combat North Korea's threat

The North Korean missile test threat has brought two unlikely allies - US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese President Xi Jinping - together. Kerry has reached out to China to help defuse the growing tension in the Korean Peninsula. CNN's Cristina Mutchler reports that both US and China will work together to uphold peace and advancing de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. China is considered North Korea's biggest benefactor ...

Beijing reports first case of new bird flu as virus spreads

Beijing: The deadly new bird flu, which has caused 11 deaths in China so far, spread to Beijing as the capital reported its first case on Saturday, increasing the total number of cases in the country to 44. A seven-year-old child in Beijing was suspected to have been infected with H7N9 strain of bird flu, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted local health officials as saying. It needs to be confirmed...  

38 infected with bird flu, says China

Beijing: The number of people infected with the new H7N9 strain of bird flu in China stands at 38 with the detection of five more cases, while a four-year-old boy who had experienced slight symptoms made a complete recovery. Ten people have died of the virus. By regions, Shanghai continues to have the greatest number of cases, with 15, followed by Jiangsu with 10, Zhejiang with 6 and Anhui with...  

Watch: Robert Downey Jr attends world premiere of 'Iron Man 3' in Beijing

Watch the video for more news from Hollywood. ...

China reports 3 more cases of new bird flu, total goes up to 21

Beijing: China continues to grapple with rising numbers of bird flu cases as three more people were on Sunday confirmed infected with the deadly H7N9 strain, taking the total to 21, while official media blamed the virus on intense farming and density of population. Shanghai, China's biggest metropolis with 23 million people, is bearing the brunt of the new avian influenza as two more cases confirmed there raising the total...  

China: 2 more die due to bird flu, virus traced to pigeons

Beijing: Two more persons on Thursday died in China due to the H7N9 bird flu, taking the death toll from the new strain of avian influenza to five in the country even as officials traced the new deadly virus to pigeons in Shanghai. Also, the total number of cases of the virulent disease in the country rose to 14 with fresh cases coming to light. A person died in Shanghai...  

Fourth death in China due to deadly bird flu, cases rise to 11

Beijing: One more person on Thursday died in China due to the deadly H7N9 bird flu, taking the death toll to four, even as the total number of cases of the new strain of avian influenza in the country rose to eleven. A 48-year-old man died of H7N9 bird flu in east China's Shanghai Municipality on Thursday, the third in the municipality and the fourth in the country, state-run Xinhua...  

Two students beaten to death by staffer in Chinese school

Two primary school boys were allegedly beaten to death by a staffer in southern China, in the latest case of violent attacks against children in the country. ...  

China's first lady serenaded Tiananmen troops

A photo of China's new first lady Peng Liyuan in younger days, singing to martial-law troops following the 1989 bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, flickered across Chinese cyberspace this week. It was swiftly scrubbed from China's Internet before it could generate discussion online. But the image, seen and shared by outside observers, revived a memory the leadership prefers to suppress and shows one of the challenges in presenting Peng...  

Sino-India ties on centre stage as Xi assumes power in China

President Hu Jintao, who took a number of initiatives to put Sino-India ties on a fast track during his decade-long stint, retired on Thursday handing over the power to Xi Jinping, who is set to begin his engagement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by meeting him later in February. ...  

'N Korea tells China of preparations for fresh nuclear test'

North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests in 2013 in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks with Pyongyang, said a source with direct knowledge of the message. Further tests could also be accompanied in 2013 by another rocket launch, said the source who has direct access to the top levels of government...