Beijing - Five people died on Sunday after a dispute at a video-game centre in south-western China escalated into a pitched battle involving at least 20 people, some armed with knives and batons, state media said on Monday.

Several youths got into an argument with the manager of the Milky Way Express games centre in the Nanping district of Chongqing city late Sunday evening, the official Xinhua news agency quoted city police as saying.

Taipei - China's decision to allow Taiwan's former vice president Lien Chan to attend the APEC summit in Peru and to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao marked a major milestone in cross-strait relations, according to Taiwan media.

China's move can be interpreted as Beijing's response to President Ma Ying-jeou's call for a "diplomatic truce" with China, they said.

A China Post editorial characterized Beijing's embrace of Lien as a positive sign of across-strait detente.

Beijing - Chinese authorities have detained a consumer electronics' tycoon reputed to be the country's wealthiest person over alleged share price manipulation, state media said Monday.

Stock market investigators detained Huang Guangyu, the head of Gome Electrical Appliances, for questioning last week, Caijing magazine and other media reported.

The investigations relate to manipulation of share prices last year for a company run by Huang's elder brother, Huang Junqin, the magazine quoted unidentified sources as saying.

Athens - Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to arrive in Athens on Monday for an official three-day visit.

The Chinese president's trip to Greece follows a regional tour of South America, Central America and Cuba where he sealed trade and investment deals with Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru.

China told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Lima, Peru over the past weekend that his government wants to help shore up worldwide growth and reform global financial rules.

Dharamshala, Nov 23 : Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Sunday said that he is not planning to retire, quashing speculation about the future of the
73-year-old leader.

Speculation had been growing that the Nobel Prize winner, who fled into exile in 1959 after an unsuccessful uprising in Tibet, will have to play a less forceful political role in future, especially if his health begins to fail.

While addressing a news conference on Sunday at Dharamsala, seat of Tibetan government in exile, in Himachal Pradesh, after a meeting of hundreds of Tibetans this week, Dalai Lama said, till his death he is committed to the Tibetan cause.