China agrees to open market to US beef, gas

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing and Washington announced Friday an agreement giving US beef, natural gas and certain financial services access to China's massive market in a deal highlighting the warm ties nurtured by their presidents.The deal was unveiled a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump launched a 100-day action plan on economic cooperation during their meeting at the US leader's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hailed the agreement with

May 12, 2017

Trump welcomes stock market surge, consumer confidence on Twitter

 US President Donald Trump welcomed a record surge in the stock market on Thursday, a day after the Dow blasted through the 21,000 mark for the first time after his speech to Congress."Since November 8th, Election Day, the Stock Market hasposted $3.2 trillion in GAINS and consumer confidence is at a 15year high. Jobs!" the Republican president wrote on Twitter.In an address to Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said hewanted to boost the US economy with a "massive" tax relief andmake a $1 trillion

March 2, 2017

China sentences former senior official to life term for graft

BEIJING (AFP) -- A Chinese court Monday sentenced a former top official to life in prison for corruption involving millions of dollars, the latest high-profile conviction in President Xi Jinping's crackdown on graft. Su Rong, 66, was a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a discussion body that is part of the Communist Party-controlled government structure.He was found guilty of bribery, abuse of power and possessing "huge amounts" of assets whose origins he c

Jan. 23, 2017

Chinese head home in world's biggest annual human migration

BEIJING (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of Chinese travelers were packing airports, train and bus stations Friday as they headed home for Lunar New Year celebrations.Officials expect that Chinese travelers will make almost 3 billion trips during the holiday travel rush that starts Friday and runs through Feb. 21. These trips include intercity flights, trains and local bus rides to villages for China's 1.4 billion people.Each year, it represents the world's largest seasonal migration of people as f

Jan. 13, 2017

Pope tells women to feel free to breastfeed in church

Pope Francis encouraged women attending a ceremony in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday to feel free to breastfeed their children in the church."The ceremony is a little long, someone's crying because he's hungry. That's the way it is," the pontiff said."You mothers, go ahead and breastfeed, without fear. Just like the Virgin Mary nursed Jesus," he told worshippers attending an annual ceremony commemorating the baptism of Jesus.The Argentine pope on Sunday baptised 28 children -- 15 boys and 13 girls

Jan. 8, 2017

Chinese official shoots two, kills self at party meeting: reports

A high-ranking city official in China burst into a government meeting Wednesday and shot the mayor and city party secretary before killing himself, state media reported.Suspect Chen Zhongshu, 54, was secretary of the land bureau in Panzhihua, a city of 1.2 million in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the official Xinhua news agency reported.The attack occurred during a meeting of the municipal party committee and high-level city government cadres at the Panzhihua convention and exhibition ce

Jan. 4, 2017

China aircraft carrier to lead Pacific drills for first time

BEIJING (AFP) -- China's navy sent its sole aircraft carrier into the Pacific for the first time, state media reported -- a move likely to ratchet up regional tensions.The duration of the drill and the route of the flotilla were not known. But the Soviet-made carrier is based in the northeastern city of Dalian, suggesting the fleet would enter the Pacific through a disputed island chain between Taiwan and Japan. "A Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, headed towards t

Dec. 25, 2016

China says weapons in S. China Sea not militarisation

BEIJING (AFP) - China said Thursday that the deployment of weapons in the South China Sea had "nothing to do with militarisation", calling the construction of defensive facilities "normal". The comments came after images released by the US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) showed a series of hexagonal structures on each of seven islets China constructed on uninhabitable rocks and reefs.The structures appear to be large anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons systems (CIWS) desig

Dec. 15, 2016

Beijing warns Trump over One China policy

Beijing issued its first clear warning Monday over Donald Trump's fiery rhetoric, as state media said the Asian giant could back "forces hostile to the US" if the president-elect follows through with threats to drop Washington's One China policy.It was the strongest signal yet from Chinese authorities that abandoning the One China policy, which guides relations with self-ruling Taiwan, would upset decades of carefully managed Sino-US relations and end cooperation between the world's top two econ

Dec. 12, 2016

13 detained in China over deadly construction collapse

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese authorities detained 13 people over the collapse of scaffolding at a power plant construction site that killed 74 workers, as a preliminary investigation zeroed in on how the building company had rushed the job.Most of the dead had been working on the interior concrete wall of a massive circular cooling tower 70 meters (230 feet) up when the scaffolding collapsed Thursday morning, resulting in one of China's most serious industrial accidents in years. In a statement issue

Nov. 26, 2016

Chinese Coca-Cola workers strike over asset sale

BEIJING (AFP) -- Coca-Cola workers in three Chinese cities have gone on strike after the US soft drinks giant announced it was selling its bottling interests in the country. Strikes and other labour protests have surged in recent years in China, where growth is slowing and parts of the economy are moribund.The beverage giant announced last week it was selling all its bottling assets in mainland China to Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific and COFCO Corporation, one of China's state-owned food g

Nov. 24, 2016

China power plant collapse kills 67: media

BEIJING (AFP) -- At least 67 people were killed when part of a power station under construction in China collapsed Thursday, state media reported, the latest industrial accident in a country with a dismal safety record. A cooling tower platform plunged to the ground in the early hours, trapping an unknown number of people beneath it, the official Xinhua news agency said.State broadcaster CCTV put the toll at 67, with local reports saying one person was still missing and two others injured.Pictur

Nov. 24, 2016

Over 50,000 evacuated in typhoon’s path in southern China

BEIJING (AP) -- Typhoon Haima forced the evacuations of more than 50,000 people in southern China after hammering the northern Philippines with ferocious wind and rain, triggering flooding, landslides and power outages and killing at least 13 people.No deaths were immediately reported Saturday in China from the typhoon. Residents in the cities of Shanwei and Shantou, in China’s Guangdong province, were forced to move to safer ground as the storm hit, local authorities and state media reported. S

Oct. 22, 2016

Xi warns of globalisation backlash at BRICS summit

BENAULIM, India - Chinese President Xi Jinping said Sunday a rising tide of protectionism and anti-globalisation was endangering the world economy's still fragile recovery as BRICS leaders vowed to forge closer business and trade ties.At a summit in the Indian tourist hub of Goa, host Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa issued a joint declaration on a range of measures, including the setting-up of a new credit ratings agency and fighting tax eva

Oct. 16, 2016

China to free up internet for those attending 2022 Olympics

BEIJING (AFP) -- China's tough controls over the internet will be temporarily lifted for people attending the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, officials promised Wednesday.The communist country restricts access to foreign websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter with a vast network of controls dubbed the Great Firewall of China. Under President Xi Jinping it has tightened its grip on broadcast, print and online media.Content deemed politically sensitive, violent or morally "unhealthy" is reg

Oct. 12, 2016

China ratifies Paris climate deal ahead of G-20 summit

BEIJING (AP) -- China announced on Saturday that it has ratified the emissions-cutting agreement reached last year in Paris, giving a big boost to efforts to bring the accord into effect by the end of this year.  The United States was also expected to announce that it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in advance of the Group of 20 summit that starts Sunday in in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. The White House announced President Barack Obama would speak about climate change shortly

Sept. 3, 2016

China Communist party expels 'insatiable' statistics chief

BEIJING (AFP) -- The "morally bankrupt" former head of China's statistics bureau, responsible for calculating the country's economic figures, has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party for actions including "superstitious activities"  and "insatiably" trading power for sex, a watchdog said Friday.Wang Baoan headed the National Bureau of Statistics until January, when an inquiry into him was announced just hours after he spoke at a press conference in Beijing on China's economy.In a statem

Aug. 26, 2016

China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies in blaze of online glory

BEIJING (AFP) -- China's troubled but beloved Jade Rabbit lunar rover has whirred its last, state media said Wednesday, after it bid humanity farewell on social media.The device, designed for a lifespan of a mere three months, surveyed the moon's surface for 31 months, the official Xinhua new service said, overcoming numerous technical problems and design flaws to become a national icon.But the machine has stopped operations, Xinhua cited the State Administration for Science, Technology and Indu

Aug. 3, 2016