China

Dr Chongyi Feng, a China studies academic at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), was halted at Guangzhou airport.

Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan said officials had contacted relatives of Dr Feng, who is an Australian permanent resident but a Chinese citizen.

It comes as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang concluded a five-day Australian visit.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported Dr Feng was stopped from boarding flights in Guangzhou on Friday and Saturday.

The candidate will be chosen by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing electors, rather than a public vote, which pro-democracy campaigners have been fighting for.

Carrie Lam, deputy to the current leader, is China's choice for the role and is expected to win.

Ahead of the vote, around 1,000 people took to the streets to demand a greater say in who will lead Hong Kong.

Mrs Lam's main rival, former finance chief John Tsang, is the public's favourite, according to opinion polls.

The third candidate is retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.

Near a busy bus station in the Chinese city of Wuhan, on 24 March 1992, someone left a baby to be found. It's quite likely that they watched and waited from a safe distance until the girl was spotted. She was picked up and taken to the Wuhan Children Welfare House, close by. There she was given a name, Xia Huasi, meaning "China's", and assigned a birth date chosen at random by the director of the home.

The secretary general, Dame Meg Taylor, is leading a delegation to Beijing, Guangzhou and Hainan Province, with a focus on partnerships for sustainable development.

She said China was a valued partner of the Pacific region and the Forum was looking forward to a deeper and more dynamic relationship.

Dame Meg said increasingly China was taking a leadership role in addressing climate change.

She said the agency hoped it continues this role as the world implements the bold initiatives of the Paris Agreement.

Photo: AFP Dame Meg Taylor 

Tillerson will deliver this message on his first official trip to Asia, a three-country tour that promises to be a tightrope walk of diplomatic tensions -- and nowhere more so than in Beijing, North Korea's closest ally and protector.

The US state department said it was not "a viable deal" while the UN ambassador said North Korea was not "rational".

China's suggestion came after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles,breaking international sanctions.

Meanwhile the US has begun deploying a missile defence shield in South Korea.

It is also conducting its annual large-scale drills with the South Korean military, which routinely infuriate North Korea.

The fifth biggest firm in South Korea gets an estimated 30% of its sales from China, and employs about 20,000 people there.

But in the past week, several of its businesses have faced a backlash from hackers, customers and Chinese partners.

On Monday, Lotte said that more than 10 of its department stores across the country had been closed down suddenly. So what's going on?

Background: Missiles and a golf course

China's Ministry of Commerce, in a public notice jointly issued with the country's customs agency Saturday, said the decision was made to comply with a UN Security Council resolution that China helped draft and pass last November.

Resolution 2321 imposed some of the toughest sanctions yet against the North Korean regime, after it disregarded an earlier UN ban to test what it said was a nuclear warhead in September 2016.

Trump fought unsuccessfully in Chinese courts for years to try to gain control of the trademark, but his fortunes changed suddenly last year during the latter stages of his campaign for the White House.

China's trademark review board announced in September it had invalidated a rival claim for the Trump trademark, clearing the way for Trump to move in. In November, soon after the election, it awarded the trademark to the Trump Organization. The trademark was officially registered this week after a three-month notice period for objections expired.

January's fatalities were up to four times higher than the same month in past years, and brought the total H7N9 death toll to 100 people since October, data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission showed late on Tuesday.

Authorities have repeatedly warned the public to stay alert for the virus, and cautioned against panic in the world's second-largest economy.

But the latest bird flu data has sparked concerns of a repeat of previous health crises, like the 2002 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).