Beijing - The Chinese government has agreed to buy shares worth 3 billion yuan (441 million dollars) in each of two major airlines hit by the global economic crisis, the airlines and state media said on Thursday.

China Eastern and China Southern both said they had agreed to issue additional shares valued at 3 billion yuan via the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets.

The government bailout should "improve the carrier's financial condition and free up cash," the official Xinhua news agency quoted China Eastern spokesman Luo Zhuping as saying.

Beijing, Dec. 11: Activity in initial public offerings in China has fallen to a three-year low, according to a report released by market researcher Zero2IPO Group.

The amount of money raised by Chinese companies in the first 11 months of the year through IPOs fell 70 percent over last year to 21.8 billion dollars, the China Daily quotes the report, as saying.

The number of IPOs and total capital raised also touched three-year lows, falling 44.3 percent and 75.3 percent respectively year-on-year.

Beijing - China's authorities are moving against the signatories of a public appeal asking for more freedom and democracy in the country, human rights activists said Thursday.

Several prominent activists who signed the document, called Charter 08, have been detained by the authorities, Human Rights Watch said in a statement released in Hong Kong.

At least 10 other people have been questioned by police, the statement said.

"The drafters and signatories of an historic public appeal for human rights and democracy in China are facing unprecedented retaliation by the government," Human Rights watch added.

Beijing - International negotiators on Wednesday tried to reach a compromise on verifying the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, as the latest round of negotiations entered its third day.

The talks in Beijing, attended by negotiators from the United States, China, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea, centered on a draft verification protocol proposed by the Chinese hosts.

Delegates from China, the US and North Korea held bilateral meetings in the morning to clarify their positions and remove any potentially ambiguous passages from the text.

Beijing - Hit by the global financial crisis, China's government has asked its aviation industry to suspend buying new planes or delay the delivery of already ordered planes, aviation authorities said Wednesday.

The Chinese Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) "encouraged" airlines to cancel or defer taking delivery of new planes next year.

Leasing contracts with foreign companies will not be renewed either, owing to the crisis and falling passenger numbers, the CAAC said.

Beijing  - Liu Xiaobo, a prominent Chinese human rights activist, has been detained by police, Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa was told Wednesday by a lawyer supporting Liu.

The writer and chairman of China's Pen Club signed an appeal for more democracy and freedom in China together with about 300 other intellectuals and activists on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the declaration of universal human rights.

The circumstances of Liu's arrest, with his apartment searched and his computer seized, indicate that the former philosophy professor at Beijing University faces prosecution, sources close to Liu said.