Antique damage

Researchers accidently damaged a 1,000-year-old porcelain* piece in the Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City, the museum said in a statement on Sunday, without revealing the extent of the damage.

The incident occurred on July 4 while researchers were conducting scientific testing and analysis of the antique, the statement said.

The masterpiece of the Ge kiln porcelain of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) was crushed by a testing instrument due to an error by the researchers, according to an investigation conducted by the museum.

Xinjiang violence

A group of religious extremists* led by militants trained in overseas terrorist camps was behind the weekend attack on civilians in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the local government said on Monday.

An initial probe found that the group leaders had learned how to make explosives and firearms in training camps conducted by East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) terrorist group in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang to organize terrorist activities. Six civilians were killed and 15 others -- including three policemen -- were injured in Kashgar on Sunday.

High-speed trains

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is not as popular as it was a month ago when it first opened.

Trains running on the line had less than a 30-percent occupancy* rate since the catastrophic* train crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, on July 23, which killed at least 40 people. Seats in business carriages were almost unoccupied.

Nineteen families of the victims have agreed to accept government compensation -- about 915,000 yuan (US$143,000) for each victim -- by Sunday, authorities said.

Swimming championships

The world swimming championships ended in Shanghai on Sunday night and after almost 350 races and 40 gold medals, there were just two world records, a far cry from the 43 that were broken in Rome two years ago.

China's Sun Yang and American Ryan Lochte were the only swimmers to break world records at the Oriental Sports Center.