Landslides killed at least 80 people and left an estimated 2,000 missing today in north-west China, the latest disaster caused by widespread flooding in the country.

Rescuers found two bodies in a flooded coal shaft in northwestern China and 11 miners remained trapped today – a reminder of the dangers of an industry that claimed the lives of 36 others just days ago.

China is facing new questions about the safety of its food products today amid the growing scandal of contaminated milk formula that has killed three babies and poisoned thousands.

TAINTED milk formula has killed one baby and caused the development of kidney stones in dozens of others who may have drunk the same product, Chinese authorities said yesterday, in a grim reminder of a milk-powder scandal that killed 13 infants four years ago.

Rescue workers sifted through tangled debris of toppled schools and homes today for thousands of victims buried or missing after China’s worst earthquake in three decades, as the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone.

A spokesman for Tibet’s government-in-exile says 19 Tibetans have died in China’s Gansu province in recent days following anti-government protests, raising the total death toll in the region to 99.

A teacher in north-western China has been sentenced to death for raping 18 primary school girls aged nine and 10, state media reported today.

At least 35 miners were trapped underground after a coal mine gas explosion in western China, state media reported today.