Beijing, Aug. 11 : Huge LED screens, eye-catching lighting systems and multimedia video shows, were one of the hallmarks of the Beijing Olympic Games'' opening ceremony.

According to the China Daily, this was thanks to the efforts of Yu Jianping, director of the technology group for the opening ceremony, who led a 500-strong team of experts.

From the elevated platform to the video system, the creation team worked hard to ensure that the whole ceremony went without a hitch.

"One of the features of the ceremony was its perfect combination of advanced technology and great originality," Yu was quoted, as saying.

Beijing  - Severe rainstorms caused flash floods and landslides that killed at least 20 people and left 10 missing in south-western China's Yunnan province over the last few days, state media said on Monday.

The storms from Thursday to Sunday affected some 820,000 people in Yunnan and forced the evacuation of 2,400, the Xinhua news agency quoted local officials as saying.

Beijing, Aug. 11 : Referring to Taiwan, Chinese President Hu Jintao has said that the Chinese government will never change its “One China” policy, and urged the United States to support the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

"No matter what kind of changes take place in the cross-Strait relations, our stance of adhering to the one-China principle and opposing ''Taiwan independence'' secessionist activities will never change, and cannot be changed," Hu told US President George W. Bush in Beijing.

Beijing, Aug 10: At least two people were killed when Kuqa county in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang was hit by a series of explosions early on Sunday.

The blasts took place between 3:20 a. m. and 4:00 a. m. (local time).

Local military sources said that they expected the casualties to rise.

State media Xinhua reported eyewitnesses as saying that they saw flashes of fire and heard the sound of gunshots soon after the blasts.

Beijing  - Brunei was excluded from the Beijing Olympics shortly ahead of Friday's opening ceremony by the International Olympic Committee because it failed to register athletes in time.

Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao met his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, Friday amid a flurry of diplomatic activity before they and about 80 other heads of state attended the opening of the 2008 Olympics.

Before he left for China, Sarkozy pledged not to meet the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to France next week.

State media did not say if Hu and Sarkozy discussed Tibet and gave no other details of the talks between the two presidents.