HONG KONG, July 10 -- European powerhouse Italy swept Olympic champions China 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-22) here on Sunday to clinch the berth of the World Grand Prix women's volleyball finals.

CLEVELAND - A jury ruled Thursday that McDonald's Corp. discriminated against a restaurant manager who claimed he was forced out of his job after the company learned he had    AIDS.
ADVERTISEMENT
The jury awarded Russell Rich of Akron $490,000 in damages in the second trial on his claim against the fast

MAKULEKE, South Africa (Reuters) - Daniel Mashva heaves his sack of cabbages and sweet potatoes into a rickety shared taxi and travels nine hours under the scorching sun to the market in Johannesburg.
ADVERTISEMENT
By the time he arrives, half his tiny harvest is rotten and the 48-year-old father of five returns to his impo

LONDON - The bombs that destroyed three London Underground cars and a double-decker bus each weighed less than 10 pounds and could be carried in a backpack, police said Friday. Police said the bodies of 49 people had been recovered, but warned that the number of deaths would rise.
ADVERTISEMENT
An explosives expert said the

Chinese are more ignorant about sex than any other subject, the Xinhua news agency quoted a sex expert as saying on Thursday.
"In the survey we conducted, not only youngsters but many grown-ups are sex idiots, which is really dangerous and woeful," Xinhua quoted Xu Tianming, president of the China Sexology Society, as telling a seminar.

The US government said it would press China to open up its markets and protect intellectual property at annual trade talks in Beijing next week.
Monday's annual meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) will be attended by US Trade Representative Rob Portman, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Agriculture Se

Real Madrid winger Luis Figo has accepted terms over a move to Liverpool, but the transfer could still be scuppered by the Spanish club.
The Portuguese ace has been deemed surplu

China and the United States are scheduled to hold a new round of talks today as textile frictions between the two sides continue to flare as hot as Beijing's weather, a China's Ministry of Commerce official said.
"This round, which still concentrates on the technical level, is expected to pave the way for further talks in the Sino-US Joint

XI'AN: Claims that the priceless 2,000-year-old terracotta army in Xi'an is in danger of disintegrating due to weathering have been strongly denied by experts and bosses at the site.
Recent media report

A total of 300 volunteers will take part in the second-phase human trials of a SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) vaccine, experts said yesterday.
Scientists in Beijing will carry out trials among volunteers aged 20 to 60 to test the effectiveness of the vaccine in human beings, Zhong Nanshan, president of Chinese Medical Association,

SINGAPORE: London was awarded the 2012 Olympics on Wednesday, defeating European rival Paris in the final round of voting to take the games back to the British capital for the first time since 1948.
After Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated in the first three rounds, London beat its cross-Channel opponent 54-50 on the fourth ballot

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Chinese Olympic champion Liu Xiang was forced to share victory with America's Terrence Trammell at Lausanne's Super Grand Prix on Tuesday. 
Liu tied with Terrence Trammell in the 110 metre hurdles in 13.05 seconds.
The much-anticipated face-off between Liu and American world champion Allen Johnson

San Francisco (InfoWorld) - This week X1 Technologies threw its hat in the ring for enterprise desktop search, joining big name vendors such as Google, Verity, Autonomy, and a host of smaller players all chasing the red-hot market for PC search.
ADVERTISEMENT
Although desktop search technologies have been around for years,

In Berlin, Green Day proclaimed its majesty with a cover of Queen's "We Are the Champions" as R.E.M. performed "Man on the Moon" in London. And R.E.M. hadn't left the stage before Tim McGraw began singing "Live Like You Were Dying" in Rome. These were just a few thrilling musical moments from Live 8 that you couldn't see on live television. For

Japan has agreed to expand the granting of Japanese visas for Chinese visitors on group tours from the previous designated areas to the entire country.
Media commentators said the agreement might help enhance understanding between the two peoples and improve souring bilateral relations. Currently, groups of Chinese citizens from only eight