Taxi drivers in a suburb of Chongqing municipality stopped work yesterday to protest a government plan to increase the number of licensed cabs in the district.

SHANGHAI: Authorities here are determined to curb the growing problem of unlicensed taxis, an official said yesterday.

SHANGHAI: Four foreign-invested hospitals here have been issued disciplinary warnings for substandard services, and a foreign doctor has been found practicing with an expired license, following intensified checks to deal with the rising number of overseas medical practitioners, local health authorities said yesterday.

SHANGHAI: The municipal government here will launch a 160-billion-yuan ($23.4 billion) economic stimulus package, adding to the 500-billion-yuan plan introduced last Friday to boost the slowing economy, officials have said.

SHENZHEN: About 840,000 migrant workers had quit this city's social security system as of Nov 12 to return home or work in other cities, official figures show.

Police departments must standardize procedures for law enforcement and build harmonious relations with the people, the country's top public security official said on Tuesday.

LIUZHOU, Guangxi: They say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but that is not the case for a group of schoolchildren in rural China.

GUANGZHOU: The trial of a gang of seven people accused of murdering at least three people and selling their bodies back to wealthy relatives in Guangdong province, began on Tuesday, the local government said yesterday.

HAVANA: Visiting President Hu Jintao agreed on Tuesday to defer some of Cuba's loan repayments and made an $80-million donation toward its hospital modernization program, Reuters reported yesterday.

President Hu Jintao and ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro held "a long conversation in a sincere and friendly atmosphere", the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The US Food and Drug Administration opened its first overseas office in Beijing yesterday to better ensure the safety of increasing Chinese food imports.

The first daily direct charter flights across the Taiwan Straits are set to start on Dec 15, Taiwan media reported yesterday.

Independence for Tibet autonomous region can never be considered, but the door remains open for talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Call for more trees

Sentences upheld

Chen back in jail

Rulings to be enforced

6 killers given death