BEIJING - HUNDREDS of taxi drivers in south-eastern China went on strike in a protest against government plans to regulate the industry, with people throwing stones at cars, state media said on Friday.

More than 200 cabs in Fujian province's Putian city had stopped work since Wednesday and protesters had blocked passing taxis that were still in business, demanding the drivers join them, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

STOCKHOLM - SWEDEN says two North Korean diplomats have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling cigarettes into the Nordic country.

Swedish Customs spokeswoman Monica Magnusson says the diplomats - a man and a woman - were arrested when they arrived in Stockholm on a passenger ferry from Finland on Wednesday. They were not identified further.

BEIJING - CHINESE Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday congratulated the European Union for creating the new posts of president and foreign policy chief, calling it a 'step forward' for EU integration.

At a summit in Brussels, European leaders named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to be the bloc's first-ever president, and appointed EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton as Europe's new top diplomat.