China News

North Korea says that a "special envoy" for leader Kim Jong Un has left for China.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch that the envoy was Choe Ryong Hae, but added no other details.

Choe is the North Korea military's top political officer tasked with supervising the 1.2-million-strong force.

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• North Korea
• China

A Norwegian acrobat has performed death-defying aerial stunts over a canyon in China's Hunan Province.

Footage shown on state TV showed Eskil Ronningsbakken putting himself in a series of positions on the Aizhai suspension bridge, which hangs 330 metres over the canyon.

He also balanced on a trapeze hanging from a hot air balloon and he performed his final stunt blindfolded

The extreme artist has performed similar feats of perilous acrobatics over across the world, including walking a tightrope between two hot air balloons.

Watch: Stuntman survives cliff jump after a terrifying twist

Watch: Wing walkers perform acrobatics over Sydney Harbour

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• China

Surrey police are investigating reports that a 47-year-old suspected paedophile may have been working as a teacher in China.

Surrey police have sent this statement:

Neil Robinson is wanted in connection with the distribution of indecent images of children and the rape of a child. He is now aged 47. The offences he is wanted in connection with took place between 2000 and 2002. He has links to the Sussex and Surrey areas but may have travelled abroad.

We are aware of recent reports that Mr Robinson may have been in China and are liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Chinese Authorities to establish further information.

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• Surrey

Scientists are watching the H7N9 virus closely to see if it could spark a global pandemic but say there is little evidence so far that it can spread easily from human to human.

In comparison, the earlier bird flu strain, H5N1, is known to kill up to 60 of every 100 people it infects.

Experts said they still are not sure how people are getting infected but said evidence points to infections at live poultry markets, particularly through ducks and chickens.

However they added that it was encouraging that reported infections appeared to slow after the closure of live poultry markets in affected areas.

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• China
• Bird Flu

The World Health Organisation's (WHO) top influenza expert, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, said that people appear to catch the latest 'bird flu' virus, H7N9, from birds more easily than the H5N1 strain that began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003.

Health experts are concerned about H7N9's ability to jump to humans, as well as the strain's capacity to infect birds without causing noticeable symptoms - making it difficult to monitor its spread.

Read more: Can you die from the H7N9 bird flu virus?

"This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far," Dr Fukuda said. But he added that experts are still trying to understand the virus, and that there might be a large number of mild infections that are going undetected.

The H7N9 bird flu virus has infected more than 100 people in China, seriously sickening most of them and killing more than 20, mostly near the eastern coast around Shanghai.

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• Bird Flu

Earthquake survivors in south west China's Sichuan province are in urgent need of drinking water, said state news agency Xinhua.

Sichuan Red Cross estimated that drinking water in Ya'an City will run out within three days despite rescue workers' efforts in delivering supplies to quake-hit area.

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• China
• Earthquake