Beijing - A court in China's Tibet Autonomous Region has sentenced eight Tibetan monks to between five years and life in prison after convicting them of bombing a local government office, the London-based Free Tibet Campaign said on Tuesday.

The group identified the eight monks from the Thangkya (Tongxia) monastery in Tibet's Gyanbe township and said they were sentenced on September 23 after a secret trial by the court in Chamdo prefecture.

Beijing  - China's central bank on Tuesday reported that the nation's foreign exchange reserves had soared to a record 1.91 trillion dollars by the end of September, fuelled partly by a large trade surplus.

The latest total of foreign exchange reserves was up 33 per cent from September 2007, following the addition of 377.3 billion dollars to the reserve in the past year, the People's Bank of China said.

China's foreign exchange holdings jumped by 21.4 billion dollars last month alone, the bank said.

China reported reserves of 1.53 trillion dollars at the end of last year, up 48 per cent from 2006.

Beijing  - China's main stock market index plunged by nearly 3 per cent Tuesday despite an Asian regional rally spurred by bank bail-out deals.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies on the larger of the mainland exchanges, lost 2.71 per cent to end the day at 2,017.32, down 56.25 points.

The smaller Shenzhen Component Index also lost nearly 2 per cent of its value after both markets made initial gains in the morning session.

Only 217 shares traded on Tuesday rose, with 1,373 falling and 120 unchanged, state media said.

Beijing - China's main stock market index rebounded with a rise of 3.65 per cent on Monday following its worst-ever week.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, gained 73 points to finish at 2,073.57 after an initial slump of 3.44 per cent in morning trading.

Beijing, Oct. 13 : Top managers of the country''s three leading dairy companies - Mengniu, Yili and Bright Dairy –have issued a first public apology for their companies'' involvement in the ongoing contaminated milk scandal.

During a talk show program, Dialogue, broadcast last night on the economic channel of China Central Television, executives of the three companies admitted to "the problems and mistakes" of their firms.

Beijing  - China plans to build homes in towns and villages for nearly 500,000 members of Tibetan herding families in the south-western province of Sichuan, state media said on Saturday.

The Sichuan provincial government said it will help 470,000 Tibetans to "settle down in permanent brick houses" in the next four years, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The province will invest some 5 billion yuan (735 million dollars) in the project, which will include new primary schools, clinics, offices and "other public service infrastructure", the agency said.