Fifteen people died in China after the fall of a bus off a cliff

Fifteen people died and another 20 were injured after a bus fell into a ravine in northern China, local authorities said.
The incident occurred Saturday on a road in Shanxi Province. At least 15 people have died on impact and another 19 were hospitalized.
China's roads are considered dangerous. According to official statistics, about 200 people die daily in road accidents in China.

Biden: U.S. has never defaulted on its debt and never will

The United States, the world's biggest economy, has never defaulted on its debt and never will, said Vice President Joe Biden as he wrapped up his five-day visit to China on Sunday.

"Some Chinese are concerned about investment in the United States," Biden told students at Sichuan

University in the southwestern city of Chengdu -- the last stop on his visit.

"But the U.S. owns 87% of our financial assets and 69% of treasury bonds. China owns only 1% of financial assets and 8% of our treasury bonds. So it's in our interest not just to protect Chinese investors. We have an overarching interest in protecting the investment."

Then, Biden added, "The United States has never defaulted and never will."

China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt with around $900 billion in U.S. bonds, according to the U.S. Treasury. In light of a debt crisis and a downgrade by Standard & Poor's, some have questioned the ability of American lawmakers to create policies to rein in the debt.

The economy has been front and center during Biden's trip, with both Xi and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao seeking reassurance that the U.S. debts are secure. Biden has responded he had unequivocal confidence in the recovery and growth of the American economy.

"No one has ever made money betting against America," he said in remarks on Friday.

Biden arrived in China Wednesday at the invitation of his counterpart Xi Jinping as part of planned reciprocal visits by the two nations' vice presidents.

Political analysts say Biden's trip is an opportunity for American officials to know Xi, who is considered a likely successor to President Hu Jintao.

This was Biden's third trip to China since 1979, when he came with the first Senate delegation to visit the country after the normalization of diplomatic relations.

Tropical storm causes losses of $480m: China

China said a tropical storm caused losses of about 3.1 billion yuan ($480 million), destroying hundreds of homes as it battered the country's east coast before slamming into North Korea on Tuesday.

The Chinese weather agency said it had downgraded Tropical Storm Muifa to a depression after it made

landfall in North Korea early Tuesday, avoiding a feared direct hit on China's densely populated commercial capital Shanghai further south.

The National Disaster Reduction Committee said 1.35 million people were evacuated, 600 houses destroyed and another 4,800 damaged as Muifa skirted China's eastern coast.

There were no confirmed deaths in China, but one person was missing after a boat sank, and four people were killed in neighbouring South Korea.

North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, reported heavy rain but gave no details of any damage or casualties.

In Shanghai, hundreds of flights had to be cancelled and thousands of fishing boats were called back to port over the weekend.

US oil giant ConocoPhillips said the storm had forced it to suspend clean-up operations on a two-month-old oil spill off the coast of Shandong province.

Authorities had expressed concern that Muifa could cause destruction similar to that unleashed by Typhoon Saomai in 2006, which was the worst to hit China in 50 years and killed at least 450 people.

On Monday there was a brief scare after the storm destroyed a dyke protecting a chemical plant from the sea on the north-east coast but China later said workers had managed to repair it.

Thousands of soldiers were on standby to conduct rescue and relief work after the storm passes, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In Dandong, on the China side of the border with North Korea, authorities have set up more than 750 temporary shelters that are capable of accommodating more than a million people, Xinhua reported.

Powerful Typhoon Bears Down on China's East Coast

More than 200,000 coastal residents in eastern China have evacuated and thousands of ships were called back to shore Saturday as Typhoon Muifa bore down on the country after battering the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan.

Zhejiang province moved 206,664 people from its coastal areas while another 80,400 were evacuated in Fujian province, according to local government websites. Thousands of ships along the eastern coast were also called back to shore, they said.

Typhoon Muifa is forecast to hit China early Monday morning, making landfall in the eastern province of Shandong and skimming the coast as it heads north, China's Central Meteorological Administration said.

On Saturday evening, the storm was about 285 kilometers (180 miles) south of Zhoushan city in Zhejiang province and moving northwest over the East China Sea at about 20 kilometers (12 miles) an hour, it said.Though earlier forecasts put China's commercial hub of Shanghai directly in the typhoon's path, the city of 23 million appeared late Saturday to have dodged the brunt of the storm. It was still expected to experience torrential rains and high winds, the administration said.

Dozens of flights in and out of Shanghai and the nearby cities of Wenzhou and Hangzhou were canceled as a precaution and more than 500 people evacuated from Shanghai's coastal areas. The municipal government said rail authorities were also prepared to slow or delay high-speed rail services, depending on the severity of the storm.

Last week, Typhoon Muifa killed four people in the Philippines even though it did not make landfall. The storm caused power outages and injuries as it passed by Japan's southern island of Okinawa on Friday and dusted northern Taiwan with light rain and moderate winds.

Japan's Kyodo News agency said the typhoon caused 27 injuries on Okinawa and knocked out power to more than 60,000 homes.

North Korea's state news agency reported late Friday that some parts of the country would receive heavy rain from the typhoon between Monday and Tuesday. Flooding in recent weeks has caused deaths and damage to homes and farmland in the impoverished country.

China Blames Extremists for Xinjiang Attack

China blamed Muslim extremists for a deadly attack on Sunday in its northwestern Xinjiang region, saying the assailants' leaders were trained in camps in Pakistan.

The government in Kashgar, a city near the border with Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, said that an "initial probe"

had shown that the heads of the group that carried out Sunday's attack, in which 11 people died, had received explosives and firearms training from Pakistan-based camps of the group East Turkestan Islamic Movement before entering Xinjiang to organize the attacks.

The city government said in a statement Monday that its information was based on a confession by a suspect in the attacks. It also said that four suspects had been shot dead at the scene of the attacks Sunday, and a fifth had died in the hospital from gunshot wounds.

The government on Monday also issued arrest warrants for two other suspects who it said fled the scene of Sunday's attack. It identified them as 29-year-old Memtieli Tiliwaldi and 34-year-old Turson Hasan, and said both were members of Xinjiang's indigenous Uighur ethnic minority. The police have offered 100,000 yuan, or about $15,540, for information leading to their arrests.

Sunday's attack came a day after nine people were killed, including one suspected assailant, and 27 injured in a separate attack in Kashgar. The government's statement Monday didn't assign responsibility for that attack.

The weekend's incidents in Kashgar were part of a sharp escalation in violence in recent weeks in Xinjiang, where Uighurs have long chafed at Communist Party rule. Uighur groups have for decades waged a sporadic, sometimes violent, struggle for independence from Beijing, which they accuse of plundering the oil-rich region's resources, suppressing religious freedoms, and swamping it with ethnic Han Chinese migrants.

The latest attacks came just under two weeks after police shot dead 14 Uighur rioters in the city of Hotan, also in Xinjiang, after they attacked a police station, setting fire to it and killing two police officers and two civilians, according to state media. It also comes as party leaders grapple with resurgent ethnic unrest in recent months in neighboring Inner Mongolia and continuing tensions in Tibet.‬

Monday's statement said the assailants in Sunday's attack set off an explosion that triggered a fire in a restaurant, then started attacking civilians with eight different knives. Six civilians were also killed, and 15 people injured, including three police. The 12 civilians wounded were members of China's majority Han ethnicity, the statement said. The government had earlier said that three people were killed.

Beijing regards Uighur separatists as part of a terrorist organization with links to al Qaeda, and has courted international support for its campaign against them. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government, as well as by Beijing.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Monday quoted Pan Zhiping, a researcher with the Central Asia Studies Institute under the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, as saying that ETIM is based somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Xinhua quoted him and other experts as saying that ETIM has traditionally trained members for suicide bombings and car bombings, but recently has used the Internet to spread bomb-making information across borders.

Purported 'iPhone 5' cases proliferate in China ahead of expected Sept. launch

Chinese case makers have begun distributing cases allegedly for Apple's next-generation iPhone, with one report calling the cases "everywhere in China."

Earlier this week a schematic emerged claiming to show Apple's new design for the so-called iPhone 5 M.I.C

Gadget now reports that the alleged iPhone 5 cases are "everywhere in China now."

One vendor is selling the silicon cases on Chinese trade site Alibaba.com for 2CNY ($0.31) each with a minimum order of 500 pieces. Similar to the images published earlier this week, the cases feature curved sides and locate the vibrate switch on the opposite side of last year's iPhone 4 design.

The case designs contradict some pre-existing rumors regarding Apple's next-generation smartphone. In May, parts (1, 2) allegedly for the fifth-generation iPhone suggested that Apple would move the camera flash away from the rear-camera. But, the cases being distributed in China place the flash component in the same location.Chinese case makers have begun distributing cases allegedly for Apple's next-generation iPhone, with one report calling the cases "everywhere in China."

Earlier this week a schematic emerged claiming to show Apple's new design for the so-called iPhone 5 M.I.C Gadget now reports that the alleged iPhone 5 cases are "everywhere in China now."

One vendor is selling the silicon cases on Chinese trade site Alibaba.com for 2CNY ($0.31) each with a minimum order of 500 pieces. Similar to the images published earlier this week, the cases feature curved sides and locate the vibrate switch on the opposite side of last year's iPhone 4 design.

The case designs contradict some pre-existing rumors regarding Apple's next-generation smartphone. In May, parts (1, 2) allegedly for the fifth-generation iPhone suggested that Apple would move the camera flash away from the rear-camera. But, the cases being distributed in China place the flash component in the same location.A number of reports had also suggested that the next iPhone would contain only "slight modifications" from the iPhone 4, with some calling the next device the "iPhone 4GS."

Chinese case manufacturers have in the past been the source of leaks of upcoming Apple products, such as the iPad 2. Last year, Foxconn reportedly became suspicious of the accuracy of leaked cases for the then-unreleased second-generation iPad and reported the issue to local police.

Last December, three Foxconn employees were arrested for allegedly leaking the design of the iPad 2 to accessory companies in China. This June, a court sentenced two former Foxconn employees and a manager at an accessories manufacturer and to prison terms. Court documents show that the employees were paid 20,000CNY ($3107) to provide advance digital images of the touchscreen tablet.

Apple is expected to introduce the next-generation iPhone this fall, with recent rumors pegging the launch for mid-September. The device is believed to include the new A5 processor, a dual-mode baseband chip and an 8-megapixel camera.

China bars HK activist priest as Vatican tension escalates

hina blocked a Hong Kong Catholic priest and rights activist from entering the mainland last week in what he said may have been a show of unhappiness with the Vatican for excommunicating two bishops recently ordained by Beijing.In a sign of escalating tension between the Roman

Catholic Church and Beijing, China said on Monday the Vatican's recent excommunication of the Chinese bishops who were ordained without papal approval was "unreasonable" and "rude.
Father Franco Mella, who recently took part in protests in Hong Kong against China's unilateral ordination of priests, said Chinese immigration officials did not give him any explanation for cancelling his Chinese visa when he presented himself at a checkpoint in China's southern city of Shenzhen on July 19.
"Perhaps it was due to the ordination of the bishop of Shantou (in southern China). That was not recognised by the Vatican and the bishop was then excommunicated by the Vatican," Mella told Reuters on Tuesday.
Mella, who had intended to visit a church in central Henan province, said this was the first time in 20 years of living in Hong Kong that he had been denied entry into mainland China.
Milan-born Mella, 62, is well known for helping refugees and campaigning for residency rights for mainland Chinese women married to Hong Kong men.
"They didn't say anything. They kept me waiting for an hour, watching TV and then three of them came to show me my passport and the stamp on the visa showed it was cancelled," Mella said.
"When I asked them when I can apply to visit China again, they said they didn't know," he added.
Two other Hong Kong-based foreign priests who did not join the protests were also turned away by Chinese immigration officials, one of them on July 21 and the other about six weeks ago, Mella said.
"We are just common priests and we shouldn't bear the confrontation between Beijing and the Vatican," he added.
Mella said he would press on with his work and apply for a China visa in September, when he plans to lead a group of Catholics from Italy on a tour to China.
The Catholic Church has a range of humanitarian projects in China, including helping the disabled and patients of leprosy, or Hansen's disease.
Chinese Catholics, believed to number between 8 million and 12 million, are divided between those who are members of the Church backed by the Communist Party and those loyal to the pope.

Bullet train crashes in China; at least 35 killed

At least 35 people were killed and scores were injured Saturday when a bullet train in eastern China lost power after being struck by lightning and was rear-ended by another train, state news media reported.

The crash sent two passenger cars careening off an elevated track in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang province.

State television showed video of rescue workers in a steady downpour pulling bloodied passengers out of a car standing on its end and leaning against a bridge.

Six cars were derailed in the two trains, one of which originated in Beijing and the other in Hangzhou, state media reported.

The collision is the first major incident in China's massive high-speed rail network, set to reach 10,000 miles by 2020.

The newest line in that network, a Beijing-Shanghai corridor, has been beset by electrical glitches in recent weeks because of poor weather, officials said.

The safety of the national network was also called into question when the head of the railway ministry was removed in February because of a corruption scandal believed to have led to shoddy construction.

The ministry has since decreased top speeds on the system as a precautionary measure.

It was unclear how fast the trains in Wenzhou were traveling before they crashed.

Known as dongche, the trains were part of China's first generation of high-speed rail. Top speeds reach 155 mph. By comparison, the speed on the Beijing-Shanghai line is 186 mph.

Canada to deport Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing

A Canadian court has cleared the way for one of China's most-wanted fugitives to be deported back to his home country after a long legal battle.

Lawyers for Lai Changxing, who is accused in China over a multi-billion dollar smuggling operation, say he

fears execution if he is sent back.

Mr Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999, but he was denied asylum and has fought to stay ever since.

China says he will have a fair trial and will not receive the death penalty.

Canada, which does not practice capital punishment, forbids the extradition of prisoners to countries where they may be executed.

Correspondents say the case has soured diplomatic relations between the two countries.

'Clear stance'

"The life of the applicant is in the Chinese Government's hands," the court ruled, citing a Chinese proverb.

Mr Lai's lawyers have not yet said if they plan to appeal against the decision.

Canadian officials say Mr Lai could be deported as early as Saturday.

China accuses Mr Lai of running a huge smuggling operation in Fujian province in the 1990s. They say he dealt in goods including cigarettes, cars, heating and cooking oil, textiles, chemicals and other goods.

China's foreign ministry released a statement welcoming the court's decision.

"Lai Changxing has been wanted by the Chinese judiciary as a prime suspect in a Xiamen smuggling case and fled after the incident to Canada for many years," said Foreign Ministry Ma Zhaoxu in a statement.

"The Chinese government's stance on Lai Changxing returning to China to stand trial is clear. We welcome the Canadian court's decision."

Lawyers for Mr Lai say at least seven of his associates have died or disappeared in China's justice system.

They argue that Mr Lai would face torture and execution in China as a scapegoat for high-level officials who were involved in corrupt practices - an allegation China denies.

Yao's retirement to squeeze league

BEIJING — Yao Ming's retirement could diminish the NBA's once-burgeoning popularity in China, with many fans saying they would no longer watch games.
"What's the point of watching NBA now?" said an online user called Lubingxia on Sina Weibo, a Chinese

Twitter-like site.
An online poll on Weibo by Monday lunchtime showed 57 percent of respondents would stop watching the NBA after Yao's retirement.
The 7-6 center is expected to announce July 20 at a news conference that he's retiring from the NBA after nine seasons because of leg and foot injuries.
He boosted the popularity of the basketball league in China and throughout Asia, spiking merchandise sales and TV ratings for games after the Rockets made him the top overall pick in the 2002 draft.
Yao, 30, missed 250 regular-season games over the past six seasons.
"He is one of the most influential people in today's society - especially to those born in the 1980s," said Ren Bo, 25, a sports trainer. "It's probably going to be awhile until we see another Yao Ming."
The news upset fans in China, where he has been praised as a role model for the past decade and strengthened that image by carrying his country's flag during the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"It is Yao Ming who makes the kids in China like basketball, and it's also Yao Ming who makes the kids know how a real professional basketball player should be," said Xu Jicheng, a longtime basketball commentator.
"I'm not thrilled about his retirement, but I will still support him," said Guo Ju Fei, 24, a small business owner. "Millions of Chinese still idolize him."
Some online comments conveyed sadness that Yao's retirement would mean the end of a great era and that fans would not get to see him compete at the 2012 London Olympics. There also was some anger that his injuries kept him from reaching his peak in the NBA.
"I still haven't recovered from the fact that Yao is retiring," wrote one online user going by the name of Xie Chen. "The feeling is worse than being dumped."
Others hoped a "miracle" would occur and that Yao would change his mind and remain in the NBA.
Many comments expressed gratitude to Yao for being a Chinese icon and an athlete his countrymen could be proud of.

China releases dissident artist Ai Weiwei

High-profile artist Ai Weiwei has been released on bail in China after nearly three months in detention, but says he is unable to talk about his ordeal.
The influential dissident was arrested in April and accused of tax evasion.
The detention of the famous avant-garde artist sparked an international outcry, with the United States, Australia, Britain, France and Germany joining Amnesty International and other rights

groups in calling for his release.
His supporters said the arrest had nothing to do with tax but was because of his support for activist campaigns in China and his criticism of the ruling Communist Party.
Ai investigated school collapses in the 2008 quake in the south-western province of Sichuan, and launched a "citizen's probe" into a Shanghai fire that killed 58 people in November last year.
The state-run Xinhua wire service said Ai was released partly because he was willing to pay the tax he owed, partly because he had a "good attitude in confessing his crimes", and partly because he suffers from a chronic disease.
Contacted by the media at home after his release, Ai said he could not talk to reporters.
"I cannot give any interview, please. So sorry," he said. "I cannot say anything. I'm on bail."
Born in 1957, Ai came to global prominence after contributing to the design of Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium, and his work was shown in London's Tate Modern gallery this year.
He was taken into custody at Beijing's airport in April during the government's biggest crackdown on activists in years.
John Connell is the organiser of a protest group made up of Australian artists calling for Ai's release.
He says the artist's experience is similar to that of many other imprisoned Chinese dissidents.
"The conditions of many journalists and thinkers in China is not a free one, so Ai Weiwei's release, we can look on that as a positive, but it's also a further call for more action."

Reports: Apple halts delivery of some Verizon iPads

Apple has halted the delivery of a small number of iPad 2s designed to work on the Verizon Wireless network because of a manufacturing glitch, according to news reports Friday. The shipments were halted because some of the iPads carried identity codes already in use on other Apple products, which could cause problems on Verizon's network, according to the Wall Street Journal. The number of affected devices was "extremely small," Apple told the newspaper. Earlier Friday, the technology blog 9to5Mac reported that some iPad 2s being

delivered from China were diverted to Apple mid-shipment. One buyer told the website that Apple is compensating affected users with a $50 credit or accessories. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.

China iPad 2 frenzy causes Apple Store scuffle in Beijing

Just one day after Apple's iPad 2 launch drew long lines in China, conflicting reports emerged Saturday regarding an alleged altercation at an Apple Store in Beijing.

AppleInsider reported on Friday that the launch of the iPad 2 in China drew crowds containing both fans and scalpers. In anticipation of crushing demand for the touchscreen tablet, Apple retail staff had instituted new waiting procedures that included numbered wristbands.

Chinese Mac site MacX (via Google Translate) reports that the Beijing Sanlitun Apple Store temporarily closed for business on Saturday afternoon after an altercation allegedly broke out between scalpers and an

Apple Store employee, though the specific details of the incident remain unclear.

The apparent facts of the incident are that four people were injured and taken to the hospital, one of the glass doors for the Apple Store was broken and the store was closed for a time for cleanup and a subsequent police investigation.

The report alleges that a near "riot" erupted after retail staff attempted to close the store and usher customers out the back door. A separate unconfirmed report claims that a fight broke out between "a foreigner and a Chinese man," though MacX notes that the information "is difficult to distinguish between true or false."

According to another unverified report from Chinese micro-blog Sinatech, police sources claim that Apple Store employees battered a self-proclaimed "jobless" man who may have been acting as a scalper.

Apple has drawn crowds with each of its recent major product releases in China. The launch of the original iPad in September of last year drew long lines, with some customers waiting over 60 hours to purchase the device. A week later, the release of the iPhone 4 saw overwhelming demand as thousands of customers lined up for the smartphone.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has just four retail stores in the country, which has a population of over 1.3 billion. Apple has said last month that it has focused most of its emerging market efforts on China. The company has indicated plans to open 25 retail stores in the country over the next few years.

China's stance on East China Sea, Diaoyu Island consistent: FM

China's stance on the East China Sea and Diaoyu Island remains clear and consistent, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Monday.

 China and Japan have encountered some twists and turns in reaching a common ground on the East China Sea issue. The two sides should properly handle this sensitive issue based on strategic mutual benefits and create sound condition and environment to sort out the issue, Yang told a press conference.

"We have every reason to believe that the East China Sea should be a sea of peace, cooperation and friendship. China has no change in stance in this regard," he said.

He also maintained China's position on the Diaoyu Island is clear and consistent.

"Diaoyu Island is a sensitive issue, which should be handled carefully. We have told the Japan side that last year's accident should not repeat," he noted.

China believes the China-Japan relations are one of the most important bilateral relations for both countries. Maintaining sound ties is a wise choice for both. We hope the two sides could keep the relations in the right direction, he said.

China-Japan relations have been strained since a collision between two Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships and a Chinese trawler on Sept. 7 last year in waters off the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Japan detained the trawler's captain despite China's protests. In response, China halted bilateral exchanges at and above provincial and ministerial levels and suspended talks on expanding aviation services between the two countries.

China’s Spending on Internal Policing Outstrips Defense Budget

China spent more on its internal police force than on its armed forces in 2010, and plans to do the same this year, as the government deployed security forces around the country to control growing social unrest.

China spent 548.6 billion yuan ($83.5 billion) on internal security last year, 6.7 percent more than budgeted and a 15.6 percent increase over 2009, the Finance Ministry said in a report released yesterday. Last year China spent 533.5 billion yuan on national defense, or 0.3 percent more than budgeted, according to the Finance Ministry.

The surge in public security spending comes as so-called mass incidents, everything from strikes to riots and demonstrations, are on the rise. There were at least 180,000 such incidents in 2010, twice as many as in 2006, Sun Liping, a professor of sociology at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, said in a Feb. 25 article in the Economic Observer.

Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee who oversees the country’s security forces, said in a Feb. 21 article in the People’s Daily, the party’s official mouthpiece, that the government must “defuse social conflicts and disputes just as they germinate.”

This year, the government plans to spend 624.4 billion yuan on public security, a 13.8 percent increase from 2010, and 601.2 billion yuan on defense, a 12.7 percent increase, according to the Finance Ministry. The announcement comes days after hundreds of police deployed in cities across the country following an online call for rallies inspired by uprisings in the Middle East.

Like national defense, China spends less on its police than the U.S. Federal, state and local governments spent a combined $213.7 billion on police, prisons and the judicial system in 2005, the last year figures are available, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice.

U.S. spending on the justice system in 2005 was 1.7 percent of that year’s gross domestic product. China’s announced 2010 spending on public safety was 1.4 percent of 2010 GDP.