China

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators in Shanghai shouted and jostled with police on Sunday evening as protests over China's stringent COVID restrictions flared for a third day following a deadly apartment fire in the country's far west.

The wave of civil disobedience, which has spread to other cities including Beijing, is unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago and comes amid mounting frustration over his signature zero-COVID policy.

BEIJING (AP) — Protests against China’s pervasive anti-virus controls that have confined millions of people to their homes spread to Shanghai and other cities after complaints they might have worsened the death toll in an apartment fire in the northwest.

Shanghai police used pepper spray against about 300 protesters, according to a witness. They gathered Saturday night to mourn the deaths of at least 10 people in an apartment fire last week in Urumqi in the Xinjiang region in the northwest.

BEIJING, Nov 26 (NNN-ACN) — Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel said Friday on his last day in China that the visit was a successful one, with a high level of understanding and commitment from Chinese leaders.

Before concluding the official visit, the president met in Beijing with Asian authorities of the Assembly and the Government, and paid tribute to the heroes of the Chinese people. China was the last stop of an international tour of countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city’s draconian “zero-COVID” lockdown that had lasted more than three months.

The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that had killed 10, according to the official death toll, as emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze — a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures.

BEIJING (AP) — A fire in an apartment building in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region killed 10 people and injured nine, authorities said Friday, amid stringent lockdowns that have left many residents in the area stuck in their homes for more than three months.

The fire broke out Thursday night in the regional capital of Urumqi, where temperatures have dropped below freezing after dark.

HONG KONG (AP) — A 90-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal and five others in Hong Kong were fined after being found guilty Friday of failing to register a now-defunct fund that aimed to help people arrested in the widespread protests three years ago.

BEIJING (AP) — A fire in an apartment building in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region has killed 10 people and injured nine, authorities said Friday, in the second major fire accident in the country this week, which left a total of 48 dead.

The fire broke out Thursday night in the regional capital of Urumqi, where temperatures have dropped to below freezing after dark.

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court on Friday sentenced Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu to 13 years in prison on charges including rape.

Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court said Wu was given 11 years and 6 months for a 2020 rape, and 1 year and 10 months for the “crime of assembling a crowd to engage in sexual promiscuity” in a 2018 event in which he and others allegedly assaulted two women they had gotten drunk.

The court said the three victims in the rape case had also been drunk and were unable to consent.

BEIJING, Nov 24 (APP): China is willing to work with the Pakistani side to deepen cooperation in military training, joint exercises and military technology between the two militaries and contribute new strength to maintaining regional peace and stability, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman, Wu Qian said on Thursday.

BEIJING, Nov 24 (Reuters) - China reported record high COVID-19 infections on Thursday, with cities nationwide imposing localised lockdowns, mass testing and other curbs that are fuelling frustration and darkening the outlook for the world's second largest economy.

The resurgence of infections, nearly three years after the pandemic emerged in the central city of Wuhan, casts doubt on investor hopes for China to ease its rigid zero-COVID policy soon, despite recent more targeted measures.