Accidents kill 547

Nearly 550 people were reported dead in road accidents during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, which started on January 22 and ended on Sunday, a year-on-year* decline of 34.3 percent, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Another 2,080 were injured in the 1,795 road accidents.

Firecrackers kill one

A man was killed by firecrackers in Beijing during the Chinese New Year while 200 others were injured, according to government figures released on Saturday.

However, casualties* related to firecrackers were down nearly 50 percent from a year earlier, the Beijing authorities said. Nine of the injured remain hospitalized.

Cadmium pollution

The cadmium pollution* in a river in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region following a spill from an industrial plant has been controlled and no new leakage has been found, local environmental authorities said on Sunday.

The cadmium concentration in the Lalang section of the Longjiang River in the city of Yizhou, where the spill occurred, has been brought to within the restricted level, said Gan Jinglin, head of the environmental protection bureau of the downstream city of Liujiang.

Chinese missing in Sudan

A total of 17 Chinese workers have been transferred to a safe place by the Sudanese army after their camp was attacked by rebels, while another 29 Chinese were still being held by the abductors*, the Chinese Embassy in Sudan said on Monday.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel group operating in Kordofan and allied to South Sudan, seized the Chinese workers in South Kordofan state, near the border with South Sudan on Saturday.

(SD-Agencies)