Beijing

A city of more than half a million people was forced to cut off its water supply as a toxic slick slowly moved down one of China’s large rivers towards the Russian border, state media said on Monday. The taps were turned off Sunday in Jiamusi, home to 550 000 people, as the potentially lethal chemical pool approached along the Songhua river.

Forty-two miners were trapped for a second day on Sunday in a flooded mine in central China, as more than 200 rescuers raced against the clock to pump out water to save them, state media said. The miners have been trapped since shortly before midnight late on Friday when the Sigou mine suddenly flooded, according to the Xinhua news agency. The mine is located in Shisi township, Xin’an county, Henan province.

Sixteen workers were killed and 42 others remained trapped in two separate coal mine accidents in China, state media reported on Saturday, as the toll from a massive mine blast in the northeast rose to 169. The accidents were the latest disasters to strike China’s mines, which are considered the most dangerous in the world, especially in recent years as demand for raw materials has escalated to help fuel rapid economic growth.

Eighty-eight miners were killed and another 36 remained trapped underground after an explosion on Sunday at a coal mine in China’s north-east Heilongjiang province, state press said on Monday. Xinhua news agency said a rescue team of 269 people was involved in the search for those still trapped.

At least 14 died, hundreds more were injured and thousands of houses collapsed when an earthquake measuring 5,7 on the Richter scale hit near a popular tourist spot in east China on Saturday, officials said. The epicentre was near the city of Jiujiang, home to 500 000 people and a scenic spot for centuries.

China warned on Wednesday a bird flu outbreak in northeastern Liaoning province had not yet been controlled and could become a ”disaster”, mainly due to the use of fake and shoddy poultry vaccines. ”In Heishan county, Liaoning province, the epidemic is still serious,” said Agriculture Minister Du Qingling, two weeks after poultry started dying from the bird flu there.

A Chinese company has had its licence suspended after it tried to make money by selling land on the moon, state media reported on Monday. The Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology Company managed to sell large swathes of pristine lunar property before being shut down, the Xinhua news agency said.

Nearly 9 000 chickens have died in China’s fourth outbreak of avian flu in just more than two weeks with migratory birds the most likely culprits, the ministry of agriculture said on Friday. Also, about 4 000 poultry and water fowl have died in fresh outbreaks of bird flu in northern Vietnam’s Bac Giang province.

China said on Tuesday it would seek to improve relations with Japan despite the appointment of hardliners to the new Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "We have noted that Koizumi has reshuffled his Cabinet," foreign ministry spokesperson Kong Quan said.

At least 10 children died and 45 were injured, five of them seriously, in a stampede at a primary school in south-western China’s Sichuan province, state media said on Wednesday. The stampede started when children panicked as they were going down a dark stairwell to leave the school on Tuesday evening.

China was struck by another outbreak of bird flu and a fourth person died from the virus in Indonesia on Tuesday amid warnings that the lethal disease could cost the Asia region up to -billion. Health ministers and experts from 30 countries are meeting in Canada to forge a coordinated international effort against the virus.

China plans to send more athletes overseas to gain big event experience so they can make a mark on home turf at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, according to one of the country’s top athletics officials. Feng Shuoyong, vice-director of China’s Athletics Administrative Centre, says they need to be toughened mentally to handle the pressure that comes with such major competitions.

The World Health Organisation expressed concern on Thursday about the latest outbreak of bird flu in China as the ministry of agriculture revealed more than 91 000 birds had been culled. A Thai farmer has died from bird flu after contact with infected poultry, and in Russia, the virus has been discovered in the province of Tula.

A United States company has set up operations in China to sell land on the moon for 289 yuan () an acre, cashing in on renewed interest in space travel after the successful five-day voyage of Shenzhou VI. The so-called Lunar Embassy is touted as the first extraterrestrial estate agency.

China on Monday strongly protested over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s controversial visit to a war shrine, calling it a ”serious provocation” ”The Chinese government firmly opposes Prime Minister Koizumi worshipping the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines A-grade war criminals,” China’s ambassador to Japan Wang Yi said in Tokyo, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, stands 8 844,43m above sea level, about four meters shorter than previously thought, according to the latest Chinese survey. The new height compares with China’s previous measurement of Mount Qomolangma, the Tibetan name of the mountain, of 8 848,13m which was done in 1975.

Fifty-nine trainee police officers were missing on Monday after mountain torrents swelled by Typhoon Longwang swept away two buildings at their academy in south-east China, state media reported. At least three people were killed as Typhoon Longwang brought heavy rain, flooding and strong winds to south-eastern China.

At least 34 miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s central province of Henan on Monday, local officials and state media reported, in yet another disaster to blight the beleaguered industry. The blast occurred around dawn in a pit belonging to the Henan Hebi Coal company, a large state-run enterprise in the north of the province.

Maria Sharapova piled on the first seven games before Shahar Peer could find her feet but then had to struggle to finally scrape a 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 win Thursday in her opening match at the China Open. Sharapova lifted the first five games against her fellow 18-year-old ranked 48th, in just 18 minutes.

Good news travels fast in the Williams household, with debutant Venus hyped up about this week’s China Open after glowing reports on the event from her 2004 defending champion sister Serena. ”It’s become a legend in our house, it’s hard to separate myth from reality about this tournament,” said treble Wimbledon winner Venus.