
The number of major Chinese cities posting a drop in home prices doubled in October, the government said Friday, in a sign efforts to cool the country’s surging property market are working.
The price of new homes in 34 out of 70 Chinese cities tracked by the government dropped in October from September, doubling [...]

The death toll from a blast at an illegal Chinese coal mine has risen to at least 30, state media reported, as hopes of finding survivors faded.
Thirteen miners were still trapped underground at the remote Sizhuang Coal Mine in Shizong county, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, according to Xinhua.
But the provincial rescue [...]

China surveyed the ruins of another dismal World Cup qualifying campaign on Saturday as North Korea’s bid hit the wall and Australia’s progress was checked by lowly Oman.
China’s loss against Iraq left Juan Antonio Camacho’s men all but out of the running for Brazil 2014, needing a hatful of goals in their final [...]

China’s Middle East envoy Wu Sike cautioned Syria during a visit to Damascus of the dangers of a government crackdown on dissent that he said “cannot continue,” he told reporters in Cairo on Sunday.
Wu said that he “affirmed to senior officials in Syria of the danger of the situation and that it cannot [...]

BEIJING (AP) — Rights activists have criticized a Hollywood studio for filming a buddy comedy in an eastern Chinese city where a blind, self-taught activist lawyer is being held under house arrest and reportedly beaten.
Relativity Media is shooting part of the comedy “21 and Over” in Linyi, a city in Shandong province [...]

China, the world’s most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, will maintain its strict “one-child” policy, state media said Sunday, despite calls for the rules to be relaxed.
The population control measure has prevented almost half a billion births since it was introduced in 1979, Chinese experts claim.
But it has turned [...]

China on Friday blocked online access to news of riots by thousands of people who clashed with police in an eastern manufacturing city in what began as a protest over taxes.
Cars were smashed and several people were injured in the riots, which went on for more than a day and involved thousands of people, said [...]

Taiwan’s security chief called Wednesday for improved defences of a group of islands in the South China Sea, reacting to reports that rival claimants to the disputed waters are building up their arms.
“The Spratly Islands are our territory … We should upgrade our defence capabilities and replace some ageing equipment,” Tsai De-sheng, head of the [...]

China on Wednesday welcomed a proposal by Taiwan’s president for a peace treaty, but dismissed calls by the island’s opposition for a referendum on political talks as a “stunt”.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou last week suggested the island should consider signing a peace treaty with China in the coming decade to put a formal [...]

A Hong Kong court rejected a government bid Wednesday to suspend the processing of residency applications by foreign maids, after a key ruling last month paved the way for them to settle in the city.
Foreigners can apply to stay in Hong Kong after seven years of uninterrupted residency, gaining access to voting rights, [...]