`Dying' Deng wins assembly vote

China's parliament elected Deng Xiaoping to its ruling presidium, even though the 90-year-old leader is reportedly close to death. The parliament's spokesman Zhou Jue, refused to comment on whether the man who remains the ultimate power in China would ever be able to take his post.

Deng has not put in an appearance at the presidium since the late 1980s. He was last seen in public, looking extremely frail, early last year.