Beijing

China nabs 137 for organ trafficking

Chinese police have arrested 137 suspects in the latest crackdown on human-organ trafficking.

The operation was jointly conducted by 18 provincial police authorities in late July, which also rescued 127 organ suppliers, according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security on Saturday.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that about 1.5 million Chinese need organ transplants, but only around 10,000 transplants are performed annually due to a lack of donors.

Ministry criticizes US statement

China expressed its strong dissatisfaction and opposition on the press statement released Friday by the US Department of State on the South China Sea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Saturday.

The statement "completely ignored the facts, deliberately confused right and wrong, sending a seriously wrong signal, which is not conducive to the efforts safeguarding the peace and stability of the South China Sea and the Asia Pacific region," Qin said in a statement.

The United States on Friday voiced concerns about rising tensions over the South China Sea, and cited China's establishment of the Sansha city and garrison to single Beijing out for criticism.

Shanxi

Eight dead after coal mine floods

Eight miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in North China's Shanxi province have been found dead, rescuers said Saturday.

Bodies of the mine workers in Hongtong county had all been retrieved by Saturday morning, the rescue headquarters said. Four workers were pulled out alive on Friday afternoon and received treatment at a local hospital.

The coal mine, which belongs to Ji'anda Coal Mining Co Ltd of the Shanxi Luhe Coal-Chemical Group, flooded around 4:17 am on Wednesday.

Twenty-two out of 34 people who were working underground at the time escaped from the shaft, while the rest were trapped underground. An investigation into the cause of the accident is under way.

Heilongjiang

Four killed in suspected arson attack

Four people were killed and two injured in a deliberately lit fire and stabbing in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province Saturday morning, local police said.

Police authorities in Hulan district in Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang, said they received a report of a fire in a residential community at 6:30 am.

The fire was quickly extinguished 15 minutes later. An initial investigation showed that the suspect, surnamed Xing, stabbed a man surnamed Liao during a financial dispute and then set fire to the room they were in.

Three people in the room suffocated to death. The arsonist also died in the fire, but Liao survived. Another person suffered burns, the district public security bureau said in a statement.

Liao and the other injured person have been sent to a local hospital. A further investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.

DPRK

Almost 170 victims recorded in floods

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said recent floods have killed nearly 170 people and left 400 missing across the country.

The official Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday that floods also displaced about 212,200 people and submerged more than 65,000 hectares (160,000 acres) of farmland between late June and the end of July.

The World Food Program is sending the first batch of emergency food aid, the UN agency has said, to provide the flood victims "with an initial ration of 400 grams of maize per day for 14 days".

The flooding occurred on the heels of a severe drought.

Libya

Car bomb explodes in Tripoli

A car bomb exploded near the offices of the military police in Tripoli early on Saturday, a senior security source said, the first such attack in the Libyan capital since the start of a revolt that toppled the regime of Muammar Gadhafi last year.

Several violent incidents have rocked Libya in recent days but these have been mostly confined to the eastern city of Benghazi.

Also in Benghazi, seven Iranian relief workers were seized from a Libyan Red Crescent vehicle on Tuesday after leaving the Islamic charity's offices en route to their hotel. Their driver, a Libyan volunteer, was not kidnapped.

Sudan / South Sudan

Oil deal reported, border talks proceed

Sudan and South Sudan have reached a badly needed oil deal and will discuss restarting oil production soon but still need to resolve key border security issues to end hostilities, a mediator from the African Union said on Saturday.

Local Sudanese media on Saturday reported that the two sides have agreed on $25.80 per barrel in fees for exporting and processing South Sudan's oil through Sudan's oil infrastructure.

United States

Jacksons deny dispute is about money

Three of Michael Jackson's siblings vowed on Friday to keep up their fight to have the pop star's will thrown out, but denied their efforts were motivated by money.

Janet, Randy and Rebbie Jackson said in an attorney's statement issued on their behalf that their aim was only to replace the executors of their brother's multimillion-dollar estate, whom they accuse of mismanagement.

The statement followed two weeks of Jackson clan infighting, including a trip by family matriarch Katherine Jackson, 82, to Arizona - where she has said she was cut off from the outside world and was reported missing.

Reuters - Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily 08/05/2012 page2)