At least 22 people were crushed to death yesterday when a huge crane toppled over in a Shanghai shipyard, the latest in a string of deadly accidents that highlight China's woeful safety standards.
The official Xinhua news agency also said at least 47 people were killed when illegally stored explosives went off in a northwestern village in the early hours of Monday. Villagers said they believed the toll was much higher.
In Shanghai, Xinhua said 11 people were still pinned under the wreckage of the 600-tonne gantry crane and there was little hope of getting them out alive. Three people were seriously injured and hospital doctors said their chances of survival were slim.
Employees at the Hudong China Shipbuilding plant in the port city's Pudong district said the crane collapsed on a group of workers and engineers yesterday morning. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
People in the Shaanxi Province village of Mafang said they believed the toll from the explosives blast, which razed at least 30 cave houses carved out of loess hillsides, was much higher than officially reported.
"The explosion came in the middle of night when the whole village was asleep," said one man in the village 400km north of the provincial capital of Xi'an, home of the famed Terracotta Warriors.
"I think there were at least 150 people killed," said a village woman. "The blast could be heard a dozen kilometers away," she added.
They said the explosives were stored in one of the cave houses still popular in the area because they are cool in the searing summer.
A local government official said rescue teams were combing the rubble for more victims.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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