Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Liu Jian Thursday laid the foundation stone for the China-funded new main building project of Jamhuriat Hospital, a major one in Afghan capital Kabul.

A chamber tomb belonging to the Roman period was found in southwestern Turkey in a construction site, Turkish semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday.

With sulfur dioxide emissions rising more than 25 percent since the turn of the decade, acid rain hit areas in northern China have been rapidly expanding, a source with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said here Thursday.

An American tourist has been found dead in a hotel room in Zanzibar, police in the Indian Ocean archipelago have confirmed.

Almost 20 natural lakes have disappeared each year over the last 50 years, said Zhu Guangyao, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration at the 11th World Lakes Conference on November 1. According to Zhu, about 75 percent of natural and artificial lakes are destroyed by eutrophication. Lake and wetland protection is an enormous challenge for China.

On October 31, the Beijing Water Authority held a working conference on the construction of water projects in the coming months. The average annual rainfall this year is even lower than last year, a drought year. In light of this, rainwater collection will be a feature of future water projects. Over 500 rain-collection projects will be undertaken in Beijing, and 22 places in the city where water tends to pool will be made into large rainwater collection sites. In this way, 40 million tons of rainwater can be reserved annually.

Pakistan has claimed 172 more dengue patients in last 24 hours, and the number of patients with symptoms similar to dengue fever have been admitted to different hospitals reaching 2,350 across the country, it was reported on Thursday.

Standing among some 30 people outside the Chinese embassy in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, Iyare Natama awaits with eager hope that he can obtain a visa to fulfill his first-ever trip to the Far Eastern nation.

U.S. director Oliver Stone defended the timing of his latest movie "World Trade Center" in Beijing on Wednesday, saying the "pain" of the 9/11 attacks needed to be expressed.

Surgeons from the Malaysian National Heart Institute has successfully performed their second mechanical heart operation, Malaysia's national news agency Bernama said here on Wednesday.