In 1995, Mr Murdoch's News Corporation set up the PDN Xinren Information Technology joint venture with the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily.In November, the head of People's Daily, Shao Huaze, who is also on the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Britain at the invitation of The Times, which is owned by Mr Murdoch. Mr Shao and his delegation stayed at the Ritz, in London, where they received a visit from the Prime Minister, John Major.Political barriers to foreigners breaking into China's domestic media remain immense. Star claims to have some 36 million viewers watching Phoenix, which is broadcast semi-officially in China through satellite and cable.However, in August, Li Kehan, the deputy director of China's film and television ministry said bluntly that it was "not possible" that the channel was reaching so many viewers. Hammering his point home, he described Mr Murdoch's television ambitions in China as "beautiful dreams".Star is clawing back some lost ground in China, particularly in the non- controversial sports arena. But, overall, the Chinese market has proved so difficult for Star that the company is now saying that its main priority in Asia is India.. Twenty-eight people were believed dead last night after a commuter plane crashed and burst into flames in a snowy field outside Detroit.

The twin-engine Embraer 120 turboprop, operated by the Cincinnati-based ComAir, was on its way to Detroit from Cincinnati. A snow storm was beginning at the time. The National Transportation Safety Board said 28 people were believed to have been aboard, and all were feared dead. The pilot had given no indication of trouble, the Federal Aviation Administration said AP - Monroe, Michigan. French pharmaceutical authorities knowingly distributed hormones that risked causing a deadly brain disease and may have infected 1,000 children in 1985, L'Express said. French doctors gave growth hormones to children with dwarfism even though the drugs risked causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow disease, the magazine reported AP - Paris. Thousands of workers turned central Seoul into a rubble-strewn battleground yesterday as they clashed with riot police.

The clashes came as South Korea's main union group called for the biggest strike in the nation's history in protest at a new law which allows companies to lay off workers. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which claims 1.2 million members, said a two-day strike would begin on Tuesday Reuters - Seoul. The Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko arrived in southern France to consult doctors about his health, leaving his nation in the throes of an uprising. Mr Mobutu spent six weeks in the Riviera in November and December following treatment for prostate cancer in Switzerland. On his return to Zaire, he prepared for acounter-attack on rebels holding a large tract of eastern Zaire Reuters - Nice. An Albanian opposition party yesterday repeated accusations that firms running get-rich-quick schemes in Europe's poorest country had given financial backing to the ruling Democratic Party. The alleged pyramid schemes, some offering 200 per cent growth in three months, have drawn millions of pounds from depositors in Albania over the past few years, taking money away from the banks and alarming world finance organisations. Reuters - Tirana.