A newly developed vaccine has successfully protected mice against the deadly 1918 Spanish flu virus, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Health and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) have lambasted an on-line petition aimed at getting traditional Chinese medicine withdrawn from the country's healthcare system.

Beijing plans to build 10 open-air theatres before 2008 -- Olympics year -- and will ensure that every urban community can project films, local government sources announced on Wednesday.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a non-profit U.S. cultural organization, pledged on Wednesday to resume and expand its study programs in the United States for Chinese museum curators in the next two years.

The latest edition of Cihai, or "sea of words", the most authoritative encyclopedic dictionary of the Chinese language, will not open the door to buzzwords such as "super girl", according to Wednesday's Beijing Morning Post.

The oasis area in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in west China, has increased to 70,700 square kilometers now from 40,000 square kilometers in 1950.

The number of pedestrians killed by hit-and-run drivers in the United States has jumped 20 percent since 2000 and is at its highest level in a decade, a news report said Tuesday.

The Indonesian government is set to install instrument landing systems (ILS) at 50 national airports to enable airplanes to land and take off safely in case of haze, a Transportation Ministry official said.

The official flood death toll across Thailand stood at 73 as of Tuesday, according the country's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, as more deaths and inundation are being reported in provinces, Thai News Agency said.

A seven-year-old boy and his grandfather were believed drowned Tuesday when the lorry they were traveling in plunged into a river after hit by a car from behind in northern Malaysia.