Rescuers yesterday recovered the body of one miner from a flooded southern China coal shaft as hopes of finding 122 still trapped underground faded, state media reported
Authorities detained 11 people believed responsible for the accident, including the owner, a manager, the board chairman and chief technician of the mine, and suspended two mayors who had jurisdiction over mines in the area, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Only four miners managed to escape after the tunnel 480m underground became flooded on Sunday at the privately owned Daxing Colliery in Wanghuai Township, Meizhou City, in Guangdong Province.
The body of one miner was raised to the surface early yesterday, and rescuers continued to search for 122 others, Xinhua said. Late on Tuesday, officials revised the number of miners they believed were trapped underground from 102 to 123, it said.
The chances of finding any survivors was growing smaller everyday, Xinhua quoted Guangdong Vice Governor You Ningfeng (
"Currently, they are still trapped about 480m underground. The chance of survival for the trapped miners is slim after being stranded for more than 55 hours," he was quoted as saying.
The Daxing mine was operating without a license and despite a government ban on mining in the area following a flooding incident at another facility on July 14, Xinhua said.
Mine bosses "were just gambling with the lives of the miners," Guangdong Communist Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang (
Some 65 mine managers fled immediately after the accident -- including the 11 detained by police yesterday -- but most had returned by late Tuesday, Xinhua reported.
The report did not give the names of the mine officials.
Meizhou City Mayor He Zhengba (何正拔) and Xingning City Mayor Zeng Xianghai (曾祥海) have been suspended over the accident for failing to supervise coal mine production in the area, it said.
A miner and an official with the Xingning City Coal Industry Bureau were also given disciplinary warnings for failing to perform their duties during the rescue work, Xinhua said.
An estimated 15 million to 20 million cubic meters of water had rushed into the shaft, but rescuers were still unsure what triggered the flood, Xinhua said. Four pumps were working around the clock to extract the floodwater and another five were expected to boost efforts yesterday, Xinhua said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of