American officials funded the development of an artificial reality environment, one that simulates the most common surroundings in China, to be used by future diplomats and other visitors, so as to get used to the various traditional customs in the Asian country. The platform of the simulator is based on the popular on-line game Second Life, which is currently played by millions of people worldwide. &nbsp...

The international scientific community is in disarray again, after a scientist from Virginia – a naturalized American citizen, who was born in China – admitted to federal indictments on several accounts, including the transmission of classified military data and breaking the Foreign Corrupt Practices law. 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, beset by food and drug safety scandals, has blacklisted dozens of websites for making false claims about traditional Chinese medicine, state media said on Wednesday.

Levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis in China are nearly twice the global average. Nationwide research published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases has shown that almost 10 percent of Chinese TB cases are resistant to the most effective first-line drugs.

Google announced Tuesday it will begin offering free music downloads to Chinese customers. The Chinese Google site will allow searches by song, artist or entire album, then download DRM-free songs.

Music is hosted on China's Top100.cn, a Chinese-based music site. The downloads will be financed by advertising, with revenue split between Google, the music companies, and Top100.cn.

Heading Off Piracy?

BEIJING (Reuters) - China was silent on media freedom on Friday, the expiry date of special Olympic regulations that had officially allowed foreign journalists to report freely in most of the country for nearly two years. Local governments across China, which once had to approve any visit by overseas correspondents to their regions, said they would still follow the temporary rules in the short term.

A congressman said Wednesday the FBI has found that four of his government computers have been hacked by sources working out of China.

Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, said that similar incidents -- also originating from China -- have taken place on computers of other members of the House and at least one House committee.

A spokesman for Wolf said the four computers in his office were being used by staff members working on human rights issues and that the hacking began in August 2006. Wolf is a longtime critic of the Chinese government's human rights record.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday the country was within its rights to block websites with content illegal under Chinese law, including websites that referred to China and Taiwan as two separate countries.