Beijing - One of southern China's largest cities is considering disposing of milk banned from sale after the scandal of melamine contamination by recycling it in bricks, local media said on Tuesday.

London, Nov. 11 : China has said that it will never accept the Dalai Lama''s calls for "high-level autonomy" in Tibet.

According to the Guardian, a leading expert on Tibet warned that it was "almost a point of no return" in the dialogue, and blamed Britain''s recent decision to explicitly recognize Tibet as a part of China for emboldening Beijing.

Beijing - China's monthly trade surplus hit a new peak in October despite slowing export growth amid the global financial crisis, the government said on Tuesday.

Exports were valued at 128.3 billion dollars and imports at 93.1 billion dollars, giving a record trade surplus of 35.2 billion dollars for the month, the Chinese customs administration reported.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell by almost 5 per cent Tuesday as enthusiasm over China's 600-billion-US-dollar economic stimulus package waned amid fresh fears over corporate results.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 703.73 points, or 4.77 per cent, to close at 14,040.9. Turnover was 54.3 billion Hong Kong dollars (7 billion US dollars).

Zhu Weiqun, vice-minister of the Communist party’s United Front Work Department, has clearly stated that China had no interest in engaging with the Dalai Lama’s call for “genuine autonomy” for Tibetans, terming it as an attempt to promote “ethnic splitting.”

Branding the Dalai Lama a would-be ethnic cleanser, the senior Communist party official denounced the Himalayan region’s exiled spiritual leader as a scheming “splittist.” Zhu said the Dalai Lama’s representatives were to blame for the failure last week of the latest talks between the two sides.

Hong Kong - A prominent retired businessman appeared in court Tuesday, accused of taking bribes of more than 50,000 US dollars for helping people join Hong Kong's prestigious Jockey Club.

John Hung, 70, a former executive director of Wharf Holdings and managing director of a property company, allegedly accepted the money in return for proposing applicants for full membership.

He is accused of soliciting a loan of more than 25,000 US dollars and accepting two other loans of 12,500 US dollars in return for helping would-be members.