Beijing - A little-known Islamic group has issued a new terrorist threat against the Beijing Olympics, US intelligence analysts said Friday.

The Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) issued the threat Wednesday in a video posted on the internet, urging Muslims "not to attend the games or be within the vicinity," the SITE Intelligence Group reported on its website.

The six-minute video "Call to the Global Muslim Ummah" had a production date of August 1 and similar graphics to a previous video purporting to be from the same group, SITE said.

Beijing  - China defended its human rights record Thursday after US President George W Bush gave a speech criticizing its lack of political and religious freedom.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his government "puts people first" and was committed to promoting "basic rights and freedom" for the nation's 1.3 billion people.

"We firmly oppose any words or acts that interfere in other countries' internal affairs by using human rights, religion and other issues," Qin said in a statement reacting to Bush's speech in Thailand earlier on Thursday.

He said differences over rights should be resolved through dialogue "based on equal footing and mutual respect."

Beijing - Timo Boll got a pop star welcome on his arrival Thursday for the Beijing Olympics even though the German is out to steal medals in the hosts' number one sport of table tennis.

Boll required a police escort at the airport terminal as he swiftly found himself surrounded a large crowd of fans, autograph- hunters and television crews.

"You don't really see these scenes with me in Germany, but that's normal in China," he said, as he slowly made his way through the airport.

"Table tennis is very popular here. And I am quite popular because I am one of the main rivals of the Chinese. I hope there won't be too much going on over the next days so that I can concentrate on my events."

Beijing - With eight of the World's top ten competing in the women's tennis tournament in Beijing, the competition seems to be as tough as it gets.

Top seeded world number one Ana Ivanovic, who will lose her number one ranking to Jelena Jankovic next week, should overcome Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva in the first round.

Her Serbian compatriot Jankovic, who is the second seed, faces a potentially more difficult clash against doubles specialist Cara Black. The Zimbabwean is ranked number one in doubles at the moment, but could give Jankovic some trouble in the singles.

Beijing  - The German automaker Daimler AG and the Chinese utility vehicle maker Beiqi Foton Motor Co on Thursday signed an agreement in Beijing to form a joint venture.

Beijing  - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Ritcher scale shook a large area of south-western China's Sichuan province on Tuesday, the government said.

The quake struck at 5:49 pm (0949 GMT) with its epicentre on the border of Sichuan's Qingchuan county and the neighbouring province of Gansu, close to epicentre of the devastating May 12 earthquake which killed at least 70,000 people.

The quake could be felt in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, where an Olympic torch relay was held just hours earlier, the official Xinhua news agency said.