Age of Chinese gymnasts investigated

China’s He Kexin kisses her gold medal last week after winning the Olympic women’s uneven bars. BEIJING, China (CNN) — The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to look into whether China’s women’s gymnastics team used underaged competitors, an IOC spokeswoman said Friday. The committee asked the International Gymnastics Federation to clarify the situation, [...]

Spectacular opening for Beijing Olympics

Spectacular opening for Olympics The Olympic cauldron took the form of a huge torch, in a break with tradition (BBC NEWS) – China has presented a dramatic display of fireworks, music and dancing to mark the opening of its Beijing Olympics. Some 10,000 performers took part in the ceremony, watched on TV by an estimated [...]

China promises ‘greatest’ Olympic Games amid new terror threat

China declared Thursday it was ready to stage one of the greatest Olympics ever, but a new terrorist threat, pollution concerns and human rights controversies hung over final preparations. As the world’s best athletes poured into Beijing and the Olympic flame passed over the Great Wall, Games organisers sought to shift global attention to the [...]

World trade talks end in collapse

Marathon talks in Geneva aimed at liberalising global trade have collapsed, the head of the World Trade Organisation has said. Pascal Lamy confirmed the failure, which officials have blamed on China, India and the US failing to agree on import rules. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the result was “heartbreaking”. The talks were launched [...]

Historic China-Taiwan flights begin

The pilot of the plane with the first group of mainland China tourists waves at the Taipei Airport Friday. BEIJING, China (CNN) — The first regular charter flights between China’s mainland and Taiwan began Friday in a sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei. The flight took off at 6:31 a.m. from Guangzhou, capital [...]

Aftershock spurs landslides in quake zone

Engineers and soldiers are still trying to safely drain a lake created by the earthquake. QINGLIAN, China (AP) — Chinese soldiers used anti-tank weapons to blast away rocks and mud holding back waters in an earthquake-formed lake that threatens more than 1 million people living downstream. Television and official Web sites showed People’s Liberation Army [...]

China, Taiwan agree to resume talks within two weeks

China and Taiwan announced on Thursday they would quickly resume talks that have been suspended for more than a decade, in the latest sign of a dramatic thaw in tensions between the rivals. The agreement to gather in Beijing in two weeks came a day after Chinese President Hu Jintao met the head of the [...]

Aftershocks destroy 420,000 more homes

A woman mourns Tuesday for her child who died in a middle school destroyed by the May 12 earthquake. BEIJING, China (CNN) — Two additional aftershocks struck quake-ravaged China on Tuesday, injuring at least 63 people and causing the collapse of more than 420,000 homes, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua. The agency said [...]

China orders evacuation amid quake flood fears

Chinese authorities were Wednesday engaged in an all-out evacuation effort as a dangerously swelling lake formed by this month’s devastating earthquake threatened to engulf the area. As the death toll from the May 12 quake jumped to 67,000, state press said that emergency workers had wanted to move the residents from their homes near the [...]

China: Quake victims need millions of tents

A wedding photographer captures the moment immediately after the earthquake struck. BEIJING, China (CNN) — China’s government has appealed for more than 2 million tents to shelter the estimated 5 million people made homeless by the huge earthquake as the death toll continued to rise. More than 55,740 people are known to have died in [...]