All the 17 trapped miners in the coal mine flooding 10 days ago in Dengfeng of Central China's Henan Province have been confirmed dead.

The last victim's body at the accident was found yesterday at noon.

More than 300 rescuers tried to find the trapped men since the October 9 incident at the Changda Coal Mine.

SHANGHAI

Navy ships visit

Two Pakistani naval vessels arrived in Shanghai on Saturday on a five-day goodwill visit.

The destroyer Babur and supply depot ship Nasr, with 629 officers and sailors, are under the command of Commodore Muhammad Shafi.

LHASA

Inventor's home

Officials believe they have found the historical residence of the inventor of Tibetan characters in a village in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

A farmer named Baima Samzhub, in Tunba village of Nyemo County, was surprised when he found frescoes on the wall in a room of his home as he removed a white lime coating from the wall.

After initial research done in the village, 140 kilometres from Lhasa, the regional capital, historians and archaeologists believe the house is the former residence of Tunmi Sangbozha, who invented Tibetan characters. He lived about 1,300 years ago.

CHUXIONG, Yunnan

Victims get relief

Relief materials, including 900 tents and 13 tons of grain, arrived in Southwest China's Yunnan Province on Saturday where earthquake victims are trying to repair their shaken lives amid continuing aftershocks.

A strong quake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, struck Dayao on July 21 of this year, killing 16 and injuring about 600 people.

BEIJING

Landscape project

Beijing is to invest 4.2 billion yuan (US$506 million) to build the city's second green belt before 2008, according to Beijing municipal officials.

The green belt will cover 1,650 square kilometres in 10 suburban districts and involve 2 million people, 930,000 of whom are rural residents.

Air route opened

China Northern Airline is to open a new international air route from Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China, to Singapore on October 27.

Singapore, with a large number of Chinese residents, has seen rapid economic and trade exchange with China in recent years.

RUOQIANG, Xinjiang

Scientific research

The first team of Chinese scientists has headed for Lop Nur, known as the "Sea of Death," in northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to study climate change and its effects.

The move, which aims to probe environmental changes in the Lop Nur area, is part of a national programme which focuses on studying the continental environment in China.

YAN'AN, Shaanxi Province

Fatal boiler explosion

A boiler explosion in Yan'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province killed one person and injured four on Saturday.

The accident took place when five workers were installing a boiler at the Shaanxi Shuangji Petrochemical Co, an oil refining plant under construction in Fuxian County.

All five victims were rushed to hospital, where one later succumbed to his injuries.

Officials in charge of workplace safety said yesterday the other four injured workers were out of danger, and the cause of the accident is under investigation.

GUANGZHOU

Heavy investment in SARS care

South China's Guangdong Province has earmarked 130 million yuan (US$15.7 million) to hospitals to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and purchase ambulances for SARS patients.

The investment will mainly go to 158 hospitals in underdeveloped areas.

The provincial departments in charge of health and financial affairs have jointly issued a circular, requiring each of the hospitals above county level to have at least one ambulance with effective protection equipment.

LANZHOU

Drug carriers nabbed

Two persons who were discovered transporting 18.5 kilograms of illegal drugs were arrested by the Public Security Bureau of Lanzhou in Northwest China's Gansu Province, Xinhua reported yesterday.

It was the biggest drug bust in recent years in Lanzhou.

A total of 54 cubes of drugs were discovered in a hidden box at the back of the truck the two suspects were driving from Yunnan Province to the border of Sichuan Province and Gansu Province.

Other suspects were arrested in Lanzhou with a large sum of money.

BEIJING

Industrial architecture awards

Sixteen architecture institutes were given awards for their excellent blueprints of industrial mono-structure workshops during a just-concluded international architectural designing contest at Beijing's Daxing District.

Sponsored by the Beijing Bio-engineering and Pharmaceutical Industrial Park, the winners were selected from 96 participating works by an appraisal committee to share a total of 1.3 million yuan (US$157,000) in prizes.

The park is one of the city's four pillar high-tech parks during the period of 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), sources said.

Tracking education history

A total of 140 top executive officials received a special brochure called "Knowledge Account" from the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University on Friday.

Initiated by the school's executive development programme, "Knowledge Account" charts how the learning experience of its holders can be used to further their education.

The account will supervise the education of its holders and make whole-life learning possible and reliable.

(China Daily 10/20/2003 page3)