A Chinese mother met with double tragedy when her daughter was killed in a strong earthquake that struck southwest China over the weekend, five years after another one left her son dead, a report said.

Three Chinese government ships moved into territorial waters off disputed Tokyo-controlled islands late Monday, Japan's coastguard said.

Pandas living in a reserve near the epicenter of China's weekend quake clambered up trees in panic as their forest home was jolted, but none were injured, officials said Monday.

Rescuers struggled to reach a remote, rural corner of southwestern China on Sunday as the toll of the dead and missing from the country's worst earthquake in three years climbed to 208 with almost 1,000 serious injuries.

A U.S. private equity tycoon announced Sunday the establishment of a US$300 million endowed scholarship program in China for students from around the world, and billed it as a rival to the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

China on Sunday accused the United States of human rights violations through military operations abroad and failing to protect its own citizens from gun violence, in a rejoinder to a U.S. rights report.

Wu Yong sobs as fellow villagers carry away his teenage boy's coffin, after a terrifying tremor in the mountains of southwest China robbed him of the only son he is likely ever to have.

A strong earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday.

The Chinese student killed in the Boston Marathon blasts grew up in an intellectual family in a northeastern Chinese city with gritty, industrial roots, and graduated from a highly competitive high school that routinely sends students abroad.

China will send its special envoy on North Korea to the United States next week for talks on maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the foreign ministry said on Friday.