BEIJING
China population tabbed at 1.3 billion
China announced Wednesday that its first nationwide census in a decade puts its population at 1.3 billion, including rival Taiwan.
The figure, reported by the official Xinhua News Agency, was substantially lower than independent estimates that put the number of Chinese as high as 1.5 billion.
Local officials are often accused of underreporting population figures in order to meet birth-control quotas. Ordinary Chinese are reluctant to cooperate with census takers for fear of being punished for having unauthorized children.
The one-sentence report by Xinhua put the exact population at 1,295,330,000, but did not give a breakdown for the figure or any details on how the census was conducted.
Somalia
Militia kidnaps French aid workers
Militiamen ambushed an aid convoy and attacked the compound of a French humanitarian group in Mogadishu on Tuesday, taking away nine relief workers, officials said.
Witnesses said at least eight Somalis were killed in the fighting, which grew out of a feud between a group hired to protect the Medecins Sans Frontieres compound and a rival militia. As many as 30 people, mostly militiamen, were wounded, according to hospital sources.
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