BEIJING - CHINESE President Hu Jintao visited Aids patients here on Monday as part of a government effort to fight widespread discrimination in China that has been a major problem in tackling the disease.

BEIJING - BEIJING achieved its annual target of low pollution days one month early due in part to Olympics measures, but repeating the success next year will be a big challenge, state media said on Monday.

China's capital on Sunday experienced its 256th so-called 'blue sky day', when air pollution falls below 100 on the local index, the state-run China Daily reported, quoting the municipal environmental protection bureau.

HARBIN - THREE rescuers were killed in a cave-in of a section of a colliery shaft on Monday morning, when they were searching for miners trapped in a mine blast in Qitaihe City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, said a source with the rescue team.

Fifteen miners had been confirmed dead, after the mine blast occurred on Sunday afternoon.