Pop on the pitch South Korean pop star PSY (center) performs his international hit Gangnam Style at half-time during the 2013 Asian Dream Cup charity soccer match at Hongkou Stadium in Shanghai on Sunday. Proceeds from the match, in which Shanghai Koehler Team Friends lost 2-0 to Park Ji-sung Team Friends, will go to areas affected by the Sichuan earthquake in April. Photo by Peter Parks / AFP

Inner Mongolia

5 killed, 2 missing in mining fire

Five people died and two others are missing after a fire broke out on Sunday at a mine in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, local authorities said on Monday. The fire occurred at around 1 pm at Rongda Mining Co in Hulun Buir city when seven miners were working underground, the regional work safety bureau said.

Hubei

Death toll hits 6 in drowning accident

The death toll from a drowning accident in Hubei province rose to six after another body was found on Sunday night, local authorities said on Monday. The sixth body was found at about 10 pm in the Juzhang River in Lianghe township, Dangyang city. The six victims were all junior high school graduates from Lianghe Township Middle School. Four students drowned while swimming in the river. The other two victims tried to help but also drowned.

Yunnan

7 killed as truck, minivan collide

Seven people were killed in a road accident in Yunnan province on Sunday, local authorities said on Monday. The accident occurred at around 10 am when a truck from Panzhihua, Sichuan province, collided with a minivan on National Highway 108 in Yongren county, Yunnan, the county government said. Four women and three men in the minivan were killed at the scene.

Gansu

Uranium plant allows media visit

A uranium enrichment plant in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, has opened its manufacturing base to domestic media for the first time, China Central Television reported on Monday. Reporters were not allowed to photograph the centrifuge working area, however, as the centrifuge is a vital part of uranium-enrichment equipment and its secrets are strictly controlled around the world. All the equipment, including the centrifuges, was developed independently in China, according to the China National Nuclear Corp.

Sichuan

Chengdu launches free bus service

People in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, can soon ride a free bus from 5 am to 7 am to ease the city's heavy rush-hour traffic, Voice of China reported on Monday. Residents with travel cards will be allowed to take a free ride but can only do so once for each bus. The scheme will last for two months from July 1. In addition, the Chengdu authorities plan to launch 60 free transit lines shuttling around the city's major residential community areas, commercial districts, schools, and hospitals, as well as institutional locations, before the National Day celebrations.

Drug manufacturer pays with his life

A drug manufacturer and trafficker was executed in Sichuan province on Monday, according to the China News Service. Zhang Yongsheng, 36, a resident of Suining city in Sichuan, was arrested in May 2009 after the police found he was involved in a drug case, the report said. Zhang, together with his younger brother and uncle, manufactured and sold drugs in 2009, said the report, adding the city's intermediate people's court sentenced him to death. Zhang appealed to a higher court, but lost the appeal.

Official probed for corruption

Guo Yongxiang, head of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles' branch in Sichuan province, has been investigated for seriously violating discipline, according to the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. Guo, born in 1949, is from Linyi, Shandong province. He was deputy governor of Sichuan from May 2007 to Jan 2008. He was also a member of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislative body.

Tibet

Lhasa attracts 1.18 million tourists

More than 1.18 million tourists visited Lhasa city, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, between January and May, the local tourism bureau said on Monday. The bureau said the number of visitors represented an increase of 35.9 percent year-on-year, while tourism revenue reached 1.03 billion yuan ($166.7 million), up 49.4 percent from the same period in 2012.

Shandong

Counterfeit yuan notes found

Counterfeit 100-yuan notes starting with the serial number C1F9 have been discovered in Yinan county, Shandong province, Xinhua reported on Sunday. Local bank employees said the bills were sophisticated and could scarcely be recognized with the naked eye. Police asked consumers to be cautious about money they receive bearing the C1F9 number, and to report all fake money to local police once discovered.

Beijing

H7N9 bird flu less deadly than H5N1

The H7N9 strain of bird flu, which was first reported in humans in China this year, has a lower fatality rate than the H5N1 strain that emerged in 2003, researchers said on Monday. A study by researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing and the University of Hong Kong found that the fatality risk for a symptomatic case of H7N9 flu could be 0.16 percent to 2.8 percent. This means it is much less deadly than the H5N1 strain, which killed 375 of the 630 people infected around the world in the past decade, according to a paper the researchers released.

Hebei

Rape trial after prior execution

Wang Shujin will stand trial for a crime another man was convicted and executed for, at a court in Handan, Hebei province, on Tuesday. Nie Shubin, 19, was executed in 1995 for the rape and murder of a woman, identified as Kang, in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, in 1994. After Wang was caught by the police in 2005 for other crimes, he confessed that he raped and murdered the woman.

Shanghai

6 hurt in chemical factory explosion

Six people were injured in a chemical plant explosion in Shanghai's Jinshan district on Monday afternoon. A fire broke out at about 2:20 pm at the plant, owned by Shanghai Shengying Chemical Co, which produces ethylene oxide, a hazardous substance. Local news website Xinmin.com said 60 fire engines were sent to the scene, according to the local government.

Heroin smuggler arrested at airport

A foreign citizen found with more than 800 grams of heroin on arrival at Shanghai Pudong International Airport has been arrested, Shanghai customs officers said on Sunday. The man was a passenger on flight TG664 from Pakistan via Bangkok to Shanghai on April 20. His passport showed he had entered and left China almost once a month since September and described himself as a business traveler. Machine scans did not reveal anything in his luggage but a quantity of heroin was found on his body wrapped in foil.

Guangdong

Reporters face bribery charges

Two reporters are under investigation on bribery charges in Guangdong province. According to prosecutors in Shaoguan, Hu Yazhu from Nanfang Daily confessed he accepted bribes from Wei Zhenshun, an interviewee, in 2011. Hu was detained in Guangzhou on Friday but the amount of money involved was not revealed. Liu Wei'an, a former reporter with southcn.com, Nanfang Media Group's news portal, was detained on May 22 on the same charge.

Shaanxi

Rare birds to be released into wild

Thirty-two crested ibis will be released in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi province in early July, according to the State Forestry Administration. The birds were raised in captivity. The crested ibis, almost extinct in the 1980s, has gradually recovered. Now more than 1,700 live in the wild and in captivity.

Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily USA 06/25/2013 page3)