Beijing - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi telephoned Hillary Clinton to offer his congratulations on her nomination as US secretary of state, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

The spokesman said Yang expressed satisfaction at the state of relations between the two countries and looked forward to cooperation with Clinton so that ties could develop further.

The spokesman, Liu Jianchao, made no reference to differences between Clinton and outgoing President George W Bush over the US position on human rights in China.

London, Dec 2 : A Chinese man was left stunned when he woke his wife from a 10-year coma by nibbling on her toes.

London, December 2 : Beijing Olympics theme composer Tan Dun is upbeat that member of the video sharing website YouTube will give rise to revolutionary methods of playing music when they try performing his work.

The website is said to be organising a competition to discover new classical musicians, and wants users to submit videos showcasing their musical talent.

Those interested may submit their entries by 28 January next year. A final public vote will take place two weeks later.

Since the website’s members have to perform their own versions of Tan Dun''s composition, using an instrument is not necessary.

Beijing - China Tuesday called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to cancel his planned meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

It was time for the French side to make a choice, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing.

He also warned that political and economic ties between Paris and Beijing would suffer if Sarkozy pursued the planned talks.

France, which currently holds the EU presidency, should respect China's concerns and take concrete measures, he said.

Beijing, Dec. 2 : In a major revision of numbers, China’s Ministry of Health has acknowledged that nearly 300,000 children became sick after consuming milk tainted with the toxic plastic melamine.

According to the ministry’s web site, this casualty figure is probably the largest the country has ever experienced.

The ministry said in a statement late Monday that authorities across the country found that 294,000 babies had suffered from urinary problems after consuming milk powder tainted with melamine.

Hong Kong  - All 21,000 tickets to see three Chinese astronauts who performed the country's first spacewalk were snapped up in a matter of hours in Hong Kong Tuesday.

Thousands of people queued up at 21 distribution outlets across the former British colony to get the free tickets for the appearance by the astronauts at the Hong Kong Stadium on Sunday.

The astronauts are due to fly into Hong Kong on Friday for a four-day visit, after which they will go to the gambling resort of Macau, a one-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong.

The spacewalk by Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng in September generated patriotic fervour that Beijing appears keen to capitalize on.