China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, has become a national hero overnight

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China has succeeded in sending its first manned spacecraft into orbit, making it only the third country ever to send a human into space.

A Long March 2F rocket known as the Shenzhou V blasted off from the Gobi desert launch pad at 0900 (0100 GMT), and was orbiting Earth 10 minutes later.

On board was a single astronaut, Yang Liwei. He is expected to circle the planet 14 times, returning to Earth after a flight of about 22 hours.

President Hu Jintao was there for the launch, and said it was "the glory of our great motherland and a mark for the initial victory of the country's first manned space flight".

Only the United States and the former Soviet Union have previously sent humans into space.

Yang Liwei, a 38-year-old lieutenant in the People's Liberation Army, was only publicly confirmed as the first astronaut - or yuhangyuan - just before the flight began.

His first words to mission control from space were, "I feel good - see you tomorrow."

He is reported to be supplied with freeze-dried shredded pork with garlic sauce and fried rice for his flight, as well as tea to drink.

Programmes on Chinese state television were interrupted to announce the successful launch.

For many ordinary Chinese, it was the first they had heard of it. The space programme had been kept a closely-guarded secret until the moment of the launch itself.

Soon afterwards, small crowds began gathering near giant screens outside shopping malls in Beijing as pictures showed Shenzhou streaking into the sky.

China has been involved in space flight programmes since the 1970s, but two early efforts to put an astronaut in space were cancelled.

In the 1990s, the Chinese began a collaboration with the Russians which gave a major boost to the space programme in training and equipment.

Four Shenzhou spacecraft have already gone into orbit on test flights. One reportedly carried a monkey, a dog and a rabbit to test life-support systems. 

Millions marched against the Vietnam War outside the White House

The Peace Moratorium is believed to have been the largest demonstration in US history with an estimated two million people involved.

In towns and cities throughout the US, students, working men and women, school children, the young and the old, took part in religious services, school seminars, street rallies and meetings.

Supporters of the Vietnam Moratorium wore black armbands to signify their dissent and paid tribute to American personnel killed in the war since 1961.

The focal point was the capital, Washington DC, where more than 40 different activities were planned and about 250,000 demonstrators gathered to make their voices heard.

Some peace demonstrators gathered on the Capitol steps last night singing songs and holding a candlelit vigil until rallies began in the morning.

Addressing a rally in Washington, Dr Benjamin Spock, the child care expert, said the war was a "total abomination" that was crippling America and must be stopped.

Outside the White House, there were scuffles and several arrests made when police clamped down on black activists.

In Portland, Oregon, 400 protesters clashed with police after an attempt to prevent conscripts entering an army induction centre.

Administration supporters have been critical of the moratorium. General Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called protesters "interminably vocal youngsters, strangers alike to soap and reason".

In a letter to President Richard Nixon, 15 Republican Congressmen have called for an intensification of the campaign.

Supporters of the war made their views known, too.

In New York, where the mayor, John Lindsay, had ordered the US flag to be flown at half-mast for the day, police officers and fire fighters drove with their headlights on in protest at the moratorium day as did many ordinary American citizens.

Some offiicials wore badges that read: "USA - Unity and Service for America".

But Senator Edward Kennedy, a vocal anti-war campaigner, called for combat troops to be withdrawn from Vietnam by October next year and all forces by the end of 1972.

Speaking in Boston, Senator Kennedy was careful not to accuse the president of perpetuating the war.

"I do not believe that President Nixon is committed to continuing the war in Vietnam, but I do believe this nation is in danger of committing itself to goals and personalities that guarantee the war's continuance."

President Nixon continued to work from the White House without comment, as thousands marched around him.

Peace activists congregated outside US embassies across Europe. In London a crowd of some 300 people demonstrated opposite the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

congregate: to come together; to assemble; to meet（聚集）