Hollywood star Richard Gere expressed outrage Tuesday over the death in a Chinese prison of a key Tibetan dissident, as the US Congress explored ways to ratchet up pressure on Beijing over Tibet.
Google has quietly removed the Chinese name for a South China Sea shoal bitterly disputed by Beijing and Manila from its maps service, following an outcry from Filipinos.
The warmth of the friendship between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin does little to counter the bitter economic winds blowing through their shared border.
The Dalai Lama has long enjoyed an avid following among Western musicians and, as he turns 80, both new and veteran stars are offering songs to spread his message.
As one of Hong Kong's most outspoken democracy advocates, media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been on the receiving end of everything from rotten animal entrails to Molotov cocktails in the past 12 months.
Campaigners protesting China's annual dog meat festival were forcibly dispersed by unidentified men as they attempted to rally outside a government office.
A Chinese university has earned comparisons with Harry Potter's Hogwarts due to its bizarre castle campus, but local traditions supplied the magic at a Confucian-style ceremony for its degree graduates.
The world's tallest peak, Mount Everest, moved three centimetres (1.2 inches) to the southwest because of the Nepal earthquake that devastated the country in April.
Rescuers extended their search for victims of a Chinese cruise ship sinking to include a vast stretch of the Yangtze rive, as the confirmed death toll rose to 396.