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BEIJING -- The well-ordered world of young scientist Fu Zhang came crashing down last Monday when an American diplomat rejected his visa application after a three-minute interview. Now there would be no year as a visiting fellow at Ohio State University, which had promised him a $1,500 monthly stipend, $20,000 for laboratory supplies and a chance to work with Bo Yuan, a renowned expert in the study of the human genome. ...... "These are not people who are going to open up gas stations," said Greg Leonard, director of the international student office at Boston University, which reports a higher...

YUSHUI, China -- Under China's one-child policy, couples in this rural county in Jiangxi province once needed a permit to have a baby. Women as a rule were fitted with IUDs after their first child, sterilized after their second. But times have changed. Yushui abolished the permits several years ago and let women make their own decisions about birth control. It stopped setting birth quotas and sterilization targets for family planning workers, too. The only punishment now for having an extra child here is a fine, and even that is only occasionally collected in full.

BENTONVILLE, Ar(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , the world's largest retailer, on Tuesday said quarterly profit rose more than 25 percent as consumers flocked to the discounter in the slow U.S. economy.

Excerpts: TAIPEI, Taiwan, Aug. 6 - Seeking to allay the concerns of local business leaders and Washington, President Chen Shui-bian today softened his position on Taiwan's degree of independence from China, even as Beijing continued criticizing him heavily. President Chen infuriated Beijing on Saturday by declaring in a speech that Taiwan and China were separate countries and by endorsing the passage of legislation that would make it possible to hold national referendums on issues of national sovereignty. But, in a statement this afternoon, President Chen avoided saying whether Taiwan and China were separate and was silent on whether legislation should...

A brochure touts the housing development as "Pure American." Welcome to Orange County. No, not that Orange County. This is Orange County, China. An hour's drive from the heart of Beijing, a Chinese developer, working with a Newport Beach architect and Orange County designers, is capitalizing on what may become the world's largest housing market in an era of rapid economic reform in China. ... At a cost of nearly $60 million, China's Orange County is taking root a few miles from the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. When completed, the collection of $250,000 townhomes and million-dollar-plus luxury estates ...

<p>Condit, 53, gave an apparent concession speech in front of his Ceres home at 10:15 p.m. "I want to thank the voters of the 18th Congressional District for allowing me to serve 11 years -- 12 when I finish," he said.</p>

NEW DELHI, India -- Hindu nationalists marched to parliament and burned Valentine's Day cards Wednesday to show their opposition to the growing influence of Western cultural in India. ........ He said party workers will visit shops selling Valentine's Day cards to distribute flyers telling people to avoid copying Western customs. ....... Most Indians avoid public displays of affection, including hand-holding. Indian movies usually show romantic scenes of couples embracing and dancing seductively, but not kissing. .......

SAN FRANCISCO -- Beneath autumn skies, a freighter carrying four of the world's largest container-cargo cranes glided into San Francisco Bay, squeezing under the Golden Gate Bridge en route to the docks of Oakland. That day in the fall of 2000 was a spectacular, but not singular, triumph for an upstart Chinese company that dominates manufacturing of the most important piece of maritime machinery other than ships. In selling more than 200 ship-to-shore cranes and 300 smaller rubber tire gantry cranes, ZPMC has become a recognized leader in an industry once ruled by U.S. companies and later by Europeans, Japanese ...

For 40 years it's been impossible to fly directly from Beijing to New Delhi -- or between any two cities in China and India for that matter. All direct air links were severed between the two Asian goliaths following a 1962 border war. Now air travel between the world's two most populous nations could explode if India's business leaders take to heart the message Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji delivered on Wednesday in Mumbai, the Indian financial capital. China is well on the road to becoming a manufacturing export powerhouse. India aims to become "the world's back-office". "China and India are ...

When asked if Fund was asked to leave because of controversy surrounding rather startling charges made about his private life on weaselsearch.com (www.weaselsearch.com/ jfund4654544318.htm), the spokesman said... Fund couldn't be reached for comment.

Northern Alliance has achieved total victory in Kunduz, the Afghanistanic city bordering Tajikstan. 30,000 Taliban soldiers surrendered unconditionally after negotiations. The surrender will be carried out under the supervision of the UN.

BEIJING, November 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The Washington Times and some other American media are extremely irresponsible in saying that Chinese state media have issued stories in support of terrorism, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said here Tuesday at a press conference. Some American media, including the Washington Times, after the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S., have reported that Chinese official media -- via large numbers of books, magazines and websites -- highly praised the terrorist attacks as rightful actions against arrogant countries. Asked to comment on the reports, Zhu said, "We have noticed that at times recently, ...

<p>ROME -- Pope John Paul II, in a move with possibly major political repercussions, offered an olive branch to China Wednesday, apologizing for errors of the colonial past and pleading for the establishment of diplomatic relations.</p> <p>In his appeal to Beijing's communist government, which prohibits Catholics from recognizing his authority, the pope said the world was facing "profound disquiet" and would benefit if both sides had direct dialogue.</p>

<p>Just two months before 10 hijackers commandeered two jetliners after takeoff from Logan International Airport, Massport was poised to use undercover State Police to probe for security weaknesses at Logan. But the airlines vehemently objected and the proposal was set aside, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Globe.</p>

Just one day after terrorists hijacked and crashed four commercial jets, lobbyists for the airline industry were already at work, laying the groundwork for a multibillion-dollar plan to rescue the industry. With the airlines grounded and passengers fearful of flying, platoons of well-connected and highly experienced lobbyists - among them Linda Hall Daschle, wife of the Senate majority leader - began sorting through their options, perhaps a ticket tax, perhaps something else. But, as Mrs. Daschle, an American Airlines lobbyist, explained, the group quickly settled on the simplest plan: a cash payment and loan guarantees. Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald, an ...

An Oklahoma U.S. representative -- who supports the aviation security bill scheduled for a vote this week -- violated security measures outside Will Rogers World Airport on Sept. 28, aides confirmed. U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts, R- Norman, was so angry about receiving a parking ticket outside the airport that he shoved the ticket under an Oklahoma City police officer's badge, two of his aides told The Oklahoman. "He said something like, 'Well, what if I'd had a bomb?'" Pryor said. Pryor said Watts "recognized his bad behavior" and attempted to apologize. She said Watts, like other government leaders, has been ...

Since becoming the first foreign fast-food chain allowed to enter China in 1989, Dallas-based Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., KFC's parent company, has built 490 stores in 120 cities, nearly all company-owned, and is still expanding. Just to meet its goals for the 100-plus stores on the drawing boards, Tricon will have to finish a store every three days. When the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, touched off violent anti-American protests in 1999, two KFC outlets were destroyed and 20 heavily damaged. The staff in Li Yang were terrified. But when the sun rose after the first ...

WASHINGTON -- For a few moments Wednesday night, Gary A. Condit stood alone at the back of the House chamber, arms locked across his chest, glancing around as if searching for a friendly face. A hearty handshake from North Carolina Republican Richard M. Burr. A buss on the cheek from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Hugs from Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Atherton) and Sam Farr (D-Carmel), who both sat alongside the beleaguered Condit in the last row as a dozen or so fellow lawmakers made their way over to say hello.

TOKYO -- An explosion and fire tore through a gambling parlor in a bustling Tokyo nightclub district early Saturday, killing at least 44 people, officials said. Some of the victims jumped from third-story windows to escape the fire. Three people remained hospitalized, said Tokyo Fire Department spokesman Takashi Yamagishi. Television footage showed firefighters scrambling up ladders to reach the third and fourth floors of the building in the Kabukicho entertainment district, which were gutted by the blaze. Police at first said that 47 people were hospitalized with injuries, but Yamagishi later said 44 were killed and three who were injured ...

Iraq said on Wednesday its air defense may have hit a Western warplane that was flying over northern Iraq. "The evidence points to the probability that one of the hostile aircrafts was hit." An Iraqi military spokesman told the Iraqi News Agency.