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Tibetans storm Chinese Embassy in Paris Phayul[Monday, March 17, 2008 02:46] By TenamParis, 16 March: A group of Tibetans stormed the Chinese Embassy in Paris this afternoon. One Tibetan protester climbed the Chinese Embassy and replaced the Chinese flag with the Tibetan National Flag. Tibetans and Tibetan supporters in thousand, in an appeal by the Tibetan Community here had gathered few blocks away from the Chinese embassy. After a while a group of Tibetan broke away from the cordoned area and started running towards the Chinese Embassy. After a brief scuffle with the police in front of the Embassy,...

MANILA, Philippines -- As a trial-court judge, Florentino V. Floro Jr. acknowledged that he regularly sought the counsel of three elves only he could see. The Supreme Court deemed him unfit to serve and fired him last year. Case closed? Not in the Philippines, where vampires are said to prey on unwary travelers and wealthy politicians consult fortune tellers and card readers. Mr. Floro, 54 years old, has become a media celebrity. He is now wielding his new clout to campaign for the return of his job -- and exact vengeance on the Supreme Court. Helping him, he says, are...

Some 200,000 people are being evacuated from China's financial hub, Shanghai, as a powerful typhoon barrels towards the country's east coast. Residents from the city's exposed areas were being moved to temporary shelters ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Wipha. Forecasters said the storm, expected to make landfall by early Wednesday, could be the worst to hit in a decade.

About 50 million people are affected in Bangladesh About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water, researchers believe. Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) annual meeting in London, scientists said this will lead to higher rates of cancer in the future. South and East Asia account for more than half of the known cases globally. Eating large amounts of rice grown in affected areas could also be a health risk, scientists said. "It's a global problem, present in 70 countries, probably more," said Peter Ravenscroft, a research associate in...

Jose Maria Sison, the former Communist leader in the Philippines, has been arrested in the Netherlands, charged with the murders of two former political associates. 66-year-old Sison has been living in the Netherlands since 1987, and was the founder of the Philippine Communist Party. The party's military wing, the NPA or New People's Army, is waging an armed rebellion across the Philippines that has cost 40,000 lives. The National Public Prosecutor for the Netherlands, John Lucas, explained the reasons for Sison's arrest. "He's suspected of involvement in the murder of two people in the Philippines. We think that he was...

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is keen for the deal to be ratified The Philippine government is urging the country's senate to ratify a $4bn (£2bn) trade deal with Japan, which it says may create more than 300,000 jobs.The agreement, struck last year, would bolster local exports such as shrimp to Japan, the government said, a market being eyed by trading rival Thailand. Japan has also pledged to employ at least 1,000 Philippine nurses. But the opposition-dominated senate has objected with claims the deal would see toxic waste sent to the Philippines. However, this has been denied by the government, which...

The researchers disovered at least 74 new temples The great medieval temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once at the centre of a sprawling urban settlement, according to a new, detailed map of the area.Using Nasa satellites, an international team have discovered at least 74 new temples and complex irrigation systems. The map, published in the journal PNAS, extends the known settlement by 1000 sq km, about the size of Los Angeles. Analysis also lends weight to the theory that Angkor's residents were architects of the city's demise. "The large-scale city engineered its own downfall by disrupting its...

In the first of a series of features to mark one year to go before the Beijing Olympics, the BBC's Michael Bristow finds China determined to win gold on home soil. The school is training some of China's best young sporting talent At Beijing's Shichahai Sports School, children as young as six are training hard to be the Olympic stars of tomorrow. Along with several thousand others, the school is part of a sports machine that aims to bring glory to China through sporting success. And success comes no more glorious than the Olympic Games, to be held in...

Taiwan has submitted its first formal application to join the United Nations, a government spokesman has said.He said an application signed by President Chen Shui-bian had been delivered to the UN Secretary General. The Chinese foreign ministry immediately dismissed the move, saying it was "doomed to failure". Taiwan has long campaigned to join the UN but all such attempts have been blocked by China which regards the island as a breakaway province. The government in Taipei held the UN seat for China until 1971 when it was replaced by Beijing. This was the first time the country launched a...

In light of all the things I've been hearing about bad imports from China and also in light of all the saber rattling and outcry against China that I've been hearing for years from well-meaning people here in the U.S., I thought it might be time to put down into writing some things about China that most people in America would never know and which I myself have seen and experienced. For starters let me say that this is a subject which I have particular knowledge of, since I spent the last two years ('05-'06) living in mainland China. I...

When Niu Jian Fang and Jiao Na got married they knew China's rules - one couple, one child. Many Chinese take fertility drugs in the hope of a multiple pregnancy A woman can only give birth once. So, four years ago, Jiao Na got pregnant and gave birth to a son, Bei Bei. And then a few minutes later she had a daughter, Jin Jin, then another son Huan Huan, a second daughter, Ying Ying, and finally another girl, Ni Ni. She and her husband beat China's one-child policy by having quintuplets. But life has not been easy for...

Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought.State media say researchers identified more than 2,000 pictorial symbols dating back 8,000 years, on cliff faces in the north-west of the country. They say many of these symbols bear a strong resemblance to later forms of ancient Chinese characters. Scholars had thought Chinese symbols came into use about 4,500 years ago. The Damaidi carvings, first discovered in the 1980s, cover 15 sq km (5.8 square miles) and feature more than 8,000 individual figures including the sun, moon,...

Three people have been killed after a bomb exploded at a bus station in the southern Philippines.A young boy was among the dead and at least 15 other people were hurt in the blast, in the city of Cotabato. Local police told reporters it was unlikely the explosion was related to the country's mid-term elections, held earlier this week. Cotabato is on Mindanao island, where Islamic militants have been fighting the largely Catholic government. Police chief Jomar Yap told the Associated Press that an improvised explosive device was left in a cluster of stalls at the station. "Witnesses heard...

The motorway was closed to traffic for four hours during the drill They came before dawn - gathering with anticipation in groups along the narrow country roads, in the rice paddy fields and on the rooftops of farms and warehouses.Some had brought their young children with them, a few had binoculars, many more had cameras and they were all eagerly looking towards a stretch of one of Taiwan's main freeways, connecting the north to the south of the island. Soon, the large crowd numbering more than 1,000 would hear the ferocious roar of jets and witness six combat fighters...

Iraq is a tragic problem for the U.S., but hopefully a temporary one. America's substantial military presence is unlikely to outlast the Bush administration. And though the threat of jihadist terrorism persist, it does not pose an existential threat to America as did the Soviet Union. Thankfully, like Humpty Dumpty, the old USSR is gone, no matter how hard Vladimir Putin might attempt to put it together again. But there is another potential superpower that makes many Americans uneasy: China. China is increasingly asserting itself around the globe. With the world's largest population, swiftly growing economy, ancient culture, and authoritarian...

Unemployment and poverty rose, and governments fell in 1997 Asian finance ministers have agreed plans to pool the region's vast financial reserves to protect their currencies from speculative attack.The agreement, reached at a meeting in Japan, comes almost 10 years after speculators triggered an economic crisis across the region in 1997. Its effects were felt across the region and exposed the Asian economic miracle as having very shaky foundations. It also forced a suspension of the New York stock exchange. Under attack from the speculators, the so-called Asian Tigers like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia saw their currencies collapse. In...

President Hu (l) met honorary KMT head Lien Chan (r) at the forum Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for closer economic and cultural exchanges between China and Taiwan. Mr Hu was speaking at a China-Taiwan forum in Beijing, aimed at improving ties between the two rival neighbours. More than 30 MPs from Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), are taking part in the two-day event. It comes just days after Taiwan, seen by China as part of its territory, rejected Beijing's plan for the Olympic torch to pass through the island. President Hu told some 500 participants...

Six road workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf extremists were found beheaded Thursday in Jolo. The severed heads of the six mostly-Christian workers were found in the jungles of Jolo by soldiers, four days after the workers were seized while heading to a government road project, said Major General Ruben Rafael. The workers were seized by Al Bader Parad, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf, responsible for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history. One of the soldiers who found the remains said, on condition of anonymity, that the heads had been scattered in various places in Jolo. The soldier said...

XIAN, China: The tomb of China's first emperor is potentially one of the most spectacular on Earth, but a heated debate is developing over whether to excavate it at all. Chinese archaeologists have expressed concern that they do not currently have the expertise to properly preserve what they find inside the tomb - located in China's central province of Shaanxi – but new technologies may be closing that gap. Qinshi Huang's enormous tomb complex is the home of Xian's famed terracotta warriors; 8,000 life-size figures that were discovered by accident in 1974. The tomb itself, though, has not yet been...

Several vehicles were burned out in the riot Security is tight in a town in central China following riots that involved as many as 20,000 people.A BBC correspondent in the town, in Hunan province, has seen riot police and soldiers protecting government buildings and patrolling the streets. He says it appears the protests began after a local firm took over the town's bus routes and doubled the fares. Vehicles were burned and several people were injured in clashes with police as the protests climaxed on Monday. Reports said one person had been killed, although this was denied on Wednesday...