Beijing, Dec. 16 : Coca-Cola has come under fire after a private investigation accused it of "serious infringement" of the rights of its dispatched workers in China.

"These employees are involved in the most dangerous, intense and tiresome labor, work the longest hours, but receive the lowest wage and face arrears with and even cutbacks on their pay," the China Daily quotes from a 28-page report written by seven university students after a month of participatory research and released in Beijing on Sunday.

Beijing - World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday urged China to keep flexibility in its economic policies and avoid trade protectionism.

Zoellick said he discussed the importance of resisting protectionism with Chinese leaders and "had a sense that they are maintaining flexibility" in trying to stimulate and rebalance the domestic economy.

"The most important thing that China can do for global stability at this point is to keep its own economy growing well," he told reporters.

Beijing - A riot involving hundreds of villages and police in northern China's Shanxi province was caused by a dispute over compensation for the death of a worker, state media said on Saturday.

Police in Shanxi's Pingyao city said the villagers in Wangjiazhuang were led by relatives of a man who died of a heart attack while working as a gate keeper at a local agricultural firm, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The man's foster son, Duan Qijun, was accused of leading "more than 150 people wielding wooden rods to block both gates of the company" on Friday morning in a bid to win more compensation. the agency said.

Beijing - Shares in China's two stockmarkets plunged by nearly 4 per cent on Friday, following a regional fall prompted by the US Senate's failure to approve an emergency loan package for the auto industry.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, ended the day on 1,954.21, down 3.81 per cent, or 77.47 points.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite also lost nearly 4 per cent of its value, as the Shanghai Daily newspaper said investors were "taking profits due a gloomy economic outlook and fear of future losses."

Beijing  - Hundreds of millions of television viewers across the world saw China for the first time in August, or at least they saw a new side of the vast nation of 1.3 billion people.

The extravagant opening and closing ceremonies and the perfectly organized Olympic events at spectacular venues won heartfelt praise from international Olympic officials and spurred deep national pride in many ordinary Chinese citizens.

"I think ordinary Chinese people were excited about the Olympics," said Zhang Ming, a politics professor at People's University in Beijing.

"Beijing people were very proud of holding the Olympics," Zhang told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Beijing - China protested Thursday in an uncharacteristically mild manner a private meeting between Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the Dalai Lama that took place a day earlier in Warsaw.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told journalists at his regular press conference that Beijing had contacted the Polish government over the meeting and said Warsaw should respect China's fundamental interests and not create impediments to Chinese-Polish relations.

Liu's statement fell significantly short of Beijing's earlier reactions to international contacts involving the Tibetan spiritual leader.