A Xinhua headline:
The characters literally mean “American female plant person dies”. Plant person = vegetable = Terry Schiavo.
There’s a brief article about Schiavo’s death here (in Chinese).
UPDATE:
I have received email from several people who don’t know who Terry Schiavo is.
People: you don’t always have to follow American news, but if you don’t know who Terry Schiavo is, you must have been living under a very damp rock recently.
LINK:
Check it! All about Terry Schiavo on Wikipedia. (At the time of posting, the article has not been updated to reflect the fact that female plant person is an ex female plant person.)