Deng Xiaoping

England have

China'sparamountleader Deng Xiaoping has died at the age of 92.

He had been suffering from failing health for several years and was last seen in public three years ago.

The country's official news agency said his death was the result of advanced stages of Parkinson's Disease complicated by a lung infection and that he had failed to respond to emergency treatment.

Chinese radio's shortwave English language service praised his "outstanding" leadership as a "great Marxist and the true architect of China's socialist reforms and modernisation".

A funeral committee has been announced, to be headed by Jiang Zemin, which regional experts say makes him the most likely candidate to gain the leadership.

Meanwhile Tiananmen Square the symbolic heart of China and the communist party is reported to be peaceful, with no sign of extra security.

The BBC's Beijing Correspondent Humphrey Hawksley said that given Deng Xiaoping's stated disregard for the "cult of the personality" it was unlikely there would be any grand state funerals.

Humphrey Hawksley said: "Deng wished to hand over rule to a collective leadership of modern thinking technocrats and not a god-king that China has traditionally been accustomed to."

International reaction to the news has been complimentary about the dead dictator and his contribution to the world economy.

US Secretary of State Madeline Albright said he was "an historic figure" and that the US would continue to pursue a "multi-faceted relationship with China", based on issues of trade, the environment and human rights.

The UK's Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind expressed his hope economic and political reforms would gather speed, not only for China but to protect Hong Kong's future.

Lanarca Airport was the scene of a 50-minute gunbattle

Egyptian troops and Cypriot forces exchanged fire as the fate of hostages and their abductors aboard a Cypriot airliner lay in the balance.

The Cypriot Government says it was in the process of solving the hostage crisis when the Egyptians launched their own assault on the airliner.

Egypt has blamed Cyprus for the bloodshed and said their special forces helped save the hostages and capture the terrorists.

The crisis began yesterday when the editor of a prominent Egyptian newspaper and friend of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Youssef Sebai, was assassinated at the Nicosia Hilton by two gunmen.

Negotiators then agreed to allow the killers to leave Cyprus with 11 hostages including Egyptians, in a Cypriot Airlines DC8.

However, the plane was forced to return to the island after other states refused to allow it to land.

The Cypriot Government said they then permitted an Egyptian military C-130 Hercules to fly into Larnaca, but gave strict instructions to the Egyptians not to interfere.

Egyptian commandos then launched an all-out assault on the DC8 even as Cypriot negotiations had apparently secured the hostage-takers' surrender.

BBC reporter John Bierman described how the Cypriots opened fire on the Egyptian anti-terror unit resulting in a 50-minute fight between the two sides.

He said President Kyprianou and other senior Cypriot officials observing events were forced to retreat from the airport control tower after it was hit by bullets.

An attempt by one Cypriot officer to order Egyptian soldiers already lying in their firing positions to surrender was described as an act of "insane bravery".

Most of the commandos were forced to seek cover in a nearby empty airliner after their Hercules was destroyed by a shell.

The crisis appears to have ended after the Cypriot National Guard overpowered the Egyptian commandos and the DC8's crew persuaded the gunmen to give up their weapons.

Wounded Egyptian commandos and Cypriots were rushed to Larnaka hospital.

paramount : having the highest rank or jurisdiction; superior to all others; chief; supreme（極為重要的）