Shares of JBS SA, the world’s biggest meat company, and other Brazilian beef producers slumped on the news that China is starting a probe into its imports of the meat, which have surged in recent years.

China will launch an investigation into beef imports, the commerce ministry said on Friday, as the world's biggest meat importer and consumer grapples with an oversupplied market that has sent domestic prices to multi-year lows.

China has approved the construction of what will be the world's largest hydropower dam, kicking off an ambitious project on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau that could affect millions downstream in India and Bangladesh.

China has approved plans to build the world’s biggest dam set to produce three times as much power as the current record-holder. The Chinese government plans to spend 1trillion yuan (£109billion) building the new massive dam over the Yarlung Tsangpo River,

Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson, Mao Ning, on Friday downplayed apprehensions over the country's plan to build the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, saying that the mega project will not affect riparian states and its safety concerns have been addressed through decades of studies.