Hanoi  - Vietnam will review the environmental and economic impact of controversial Chinese-backed bauxite mining projects in the country's Central Highlands, Vietnamese press reported Monday. According to the state-owned Vietnam News, the decision came at a meeting of the Politburo of Vietnam's Communist Party on April
16, but was not announced to the public until Monday.

Nanjing (China), Apr. 27 : The Chinese mainland and Taiwan decided on Sunday to double flights between them and change chartered flights to regular ones for the first time, as their ties are now in "a new era of peaceful development".

Total flights between the mainland and Taiwan will grow from 108 chartered per week to 270, including regular ones, according to an agreement signed between Chen Yunlin, the president of the mainland''s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), and Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan''s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Chinese researchers, who make the final sprint toward its market launch, believes that a 1.6-metre tall robot with twinkling eyes will be a boon to the bed-ridden, infirm, lonely, disabled and elderly people.

Li Ruifeng, a member of the project with the Harbin Institute of Technology in this capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province said, "We are working on testing the precision functions and ways to reduce the cost in preparations for an anticipated market launch of the robot in two to three years."

Beijing - Negotiators from Taiwan and China signed a series of agreements Sunday to increase cooperation and investment across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's chief negotiator Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, met Chen Yunlin from the mainland Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits in the southern city of Nanjing.

Taiwan agreed to clear the way for Chinese companies to do business on the island, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

New Delhi, Apr 26 : Chinese ideograms found in the Cuban city of Cienfuegos have been discovered to date back about 20 years earlier than the existing earliest evidence of Chinese presence in the country, it has been reported.

The ideograms, which have been dated to 1862, were found during the reconstruction of the Cathedral in the city said experts from the Office of Conservator from Cienfuegos, 256 km east of Havana, reports China Daily.

Dharamsala, Apr 25: On the occasion of the 20th birth anniversary of the 11th Panchen Lama, which falls on April 25, Tibetans from all walks of life have demanded that China to free him immediately.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, also known as the 11th Panchen Lama, is said to be under captivity of the Chinese authorities for the last 13 years.

Many Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns and Tibetan students gathered at the Tsuglagkhang Temple to offer prayers to the Panchen Lama.