CHINA
The impact of China's economic reforms in the last three decades has been as awe-inspiring, if not more, than the country's growth rate during the period, according to a leading international economist.
The country's economy has maintained steady and rapid growth in the first half but faces increasing uncertainty for the rest of the year, said a senior gov't official. Curbing Inflation A Priority
President Hu Jintao has backed Russia's right to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in the face of international pressure over recent events in Georgia.
Premier Wen meets British PM Gordon Brown
Ningxia Transportation Museum
A 19-year-old robber who fainted from injuries he sustained after stabbing a 53-year-old retired teacher in March was sentenced on Monday in Shandong province to 10 years in jail and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,500).
Sotheby's to auction Qing imperial works
The proposed bridge linking Jinmen, one of the outlying islands near Taiwan, to Xiamen, southeast of the Chinese mainland, as proposed by the Taiwan authorities, would be a landmark in cross-Straits relations, Taiwan affairs experts said Monday.
Putting smiles back on children's faces
Cat grows 'wings'

Wu Xin, 30, divorced his wife on Aug 4 in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, because he believed her incapable of bearing a child. But he remarried her the same day after he learned it was he, not she, who was infertile.