Seven people were killed and 22 injured when two knife-wielding men hijacked a truck and then attacked a crowd, Chinese police sources said.

An overloaded double-decker bus burst into flames on a highway in central China early today, killing 41 people on board and injuring six, state media said.

Two attackers, a policeman and a civilian were killed today during an attack on a police station in China's far western Xinjiang region, state media reported.

The Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming, China's most recognisable athlete, has retired from basketball.

China has dismissed as "pure rumour" reports that retired president Jiang Zemin, who led the country through massive changes after the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, has died.

"It's too soon to tell" was the response Zhou Enlai, the first prime minister of China's Communist government, supposedly gave to a question about the historical significance of the French Revolution.

The veteran investor Anthony Bolton claimed yesterday that the case for investing in China was as strong as ever, despite the fact that the value of the fund he manages has slipped by a fifth since the start of the year, and is languishing below its net asset value.

Severe floods are continuing to inundate southern and eastern China - reports suggest more than 100 people have been killed.

Torrential rains which have left more than 170 people dead or missing in China are forecast to continue.

Thousands affected by destructive floods in province of Guizhou in south west China.

Police tightened security in the capital of China's vast region of Inner Mongolia yesterday after nearly a week of protests.

Fields of watermelons have been exploding in China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather.

China's trade surplus with the rest of the world surged in April, with record exports driving the world's second-largest economy to a $11.4bn (£6.97bn) positive balance for the month.

China's ocean monitoring agency says it is adding ships and personnel to beef up enforcement of the country's vast maritime claims.