Beijing - Helicopters have dropped emergency supplies to isolated villages cut off for up to 10 days by landslides that killed at least 43 people and left 46 missing in mountainous areas of south-western China's Yunnan province, the government said Friday.

Three military helicopters began the drops on Thursday in the worst-hit prefecture of Chuxiong, delivering emergency food, water, clothes, tents and bedding, the provincial civil affairs bureau said.

The death toll across the province had risen to 43, with 46 listed as missing and 29 injured, the bureau reported on its website.

Beijing - Chinese leaders on Friday called for developed nations to take the lead on climate change and share technology to help developing nations to reduce carbon emissions.

Developed nations should "take responsibility and obligations in addressing climate change" and "alter their unsustainable way of life," Premier Wen Jiabao said in a speech at a UN-sponsored conference on climate change.

"As the global financial crisis spreads and worsens, and the world economy apparently slows down, the international community must not waver in its determination to tackle climate change," Wen said.

Shanghai - Roger Federer went through what has become his annual sponsor obligation as he taught a group of Chinese teenagers how to shave at a public relations event as the countdown continued on Friday to the Masters Cup.

The Swiss top seed - number one Rafael Nadal is missing with right knee tendinitis - will open his title defence on Monday against France's Gilles Simon.

Federer showed quick hands off the court as he brandished a microphone in one fist and a razor in the other during the "first shave" with a group of local 18-year-olds.

Wellington  - A new bride died in a car crash on the way home from her wedding reception in Auckland, police said Friday.

Yan Liu, 26, a Chinese immigrant, suffered fatal head injuries Thursday night when the car she was travelling in hit a traffic island in the suburb of Mount Wellington after the reception in a Chinese restaurant.

Her husband was not travelling in the same vehicle. Police said a man and a woman who were also in the car were in serious condition in hospital but the male driver had been discharged.

Yan Liu moved to New Zealand three years ago and worked at an early child-care centre.

Washington, Nov 7: A new study has linked the rise and fall of China’s ancient dynasties with monsoon cycles, with the weakening of the natural phenomenon proving to be the last straw for the kingdoms.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the study was led by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Lanzhou University in China.

The work rests on a 2,000-year-old record of monsoon activity preserved in the layers of stone in a 118-millimeter-long stalagmite found in Wanxiang Cave in Gansu Province, China.

The climate record was preserved in a stalagmite—a rock formed by mineral-rich waters dripping onto the cave floor year after year.

Taipei - A visit by China's highest-ranking official to Taiwan since 1949 continued to draw protests Thursday from Taiwanese concerned that his visit could lead to eventual Chinese control of Taiwan.

Thursday's event - a five-minute meeting at the Taipei Guest House between Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin - was held as thousands of Taiwanese outside shouted "Taiwan is Taiwan, China is China," and "No selling out of Taiwan."