THEIR faces black with coal dust, 19 miners trapped underground for a week were pulled to safety yesterday in northeastern China as rescuers searched for three missing colleagues.

RESCUERS said yesterday there is little hope of finding alive 11 miners trapped underground after a gas explosion in a central Chinese coal mine that killed 26 of their comrades.

Dozens of anxious relatives and friends of 11 miners trapped underground by an explosion in central China gathered outside the site today as rescuers battled tons of coal dust in a bid to reach them.

A dawn explosion in a Chinese coal mine killed 20 and trapped 17 workers underground today in the country’s central region, a national work safety official said.

The first group of rescuers and divers today entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, but returned within hours and described the situation underground “very difficult.”

The first group of rescuers and divers today entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, while no further signs of life came from underground since tapping was heard yesterday.

Tapping has been heard coming from a flooded Chinese coal mine where 153 workers were trapped more than five days ago, a rescue official said today.

China’s capital woke up to orange-tinted skies today as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country’s north, delaying some flights at Beijing’s airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.

Unusually early snow storms in north-central China have claimed 40 lives, caused thousands of buildings to collapse and destroyed almost 500,000 acres of winter crops, the Civil Affairs Ministry said.

A gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in northern China today, killing at least 73 miners and trapping dozens in the still-burning shaft, an official said. It was the country’s deadliest coal mine accident in more than a year.

China declared an official emergency today in eight provinces hit by a drought that has left nearly four million people without drinking water.

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy has been infected with the H5N1 virus, the Chinese health ministry said yesterday — the fourth reported bird flu case this month.

Three more Chinese brands of eggs containing melamine have been identified as a local authority admitted that officials knew about the contamination for a month before it was publicly disclosed.

The death toll after a torrent of sludge, mud and mining waste ploughed into buildings in northern China has risen to at least 34 people, with hundreds more feared trapped in the rubble, state media reported today.

Stung by criticism of their pollution-ridden atmosphere, Beijing’s Olympic officials today promised the air would be clean in time for this summer’s games.

Chinese police were hunting for two men responsible for a coal mine in northern China where an explosion caused the deaths of 105 people in the country’s second deadliest mining accident this year, the government said today.

CHINA sentenced a man to death and jailed another 28 people for up to life yesterday for their roles in a massive slavery and child labour scandal involving scorching brickworks.

POLICE have detained 168 people linked to a human-trafficking network supplying slave labour to mines and brick works in north and central China, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.

A gas explosion in a Chinese coal mine killed 19 miners and left seven missing, a government news agency said today.

An underground explosion and flooding from a rain-swollen river have left at least 64 Chinese workers dead and seven others missing in separate disasters, state media reported today.

An explosion in a Chinese villager’s home has killed at least 47 people in a coal mining area that has suffered a series of deadly blasts blamed on mishandled explosives.

An explosion in a Chinese villager’s home has killed at least 43 people in a coal mining area that has suffered a series of deadly blasts blamed on mishandled explosives.

An underground flood trapped 44 miners in a coal mine in northern China, and nine mine managers were detained after apparently trying to conceal the scale of the disaster, the government said today.

A cave-in at a gypsum mine in northern China killed 27 workers and trapped 20 others, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.

An explosion in a northern Chinese coal mine caused a massive cave-in that killed 16 miners and trapped another 11 miners below ground, the government’s Xinhua News Agency reported today.

A gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China killed 33 people, in the latest disaster to strike the country’s accident-prone mining industry, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.

New York: The euro fell against the dollar for the first day in four on speculation the European Central Bank will signal its currency’s 22% surge in the past year threatens the region’s economic recovery.

Hundreds of people have been advised to go into quarantine, after health chiefs announced a new cluster of 20 or more possible SARS cases in Toronto.

A LAST-MINUTE case has shattered Singapore’s dream of being stricken off the World Health Organisation’s list of SARS-affected countries, after a 39-year-old man was diagnosed with the disease.

THE global death toll from SARS passed 500 yesterday after China reported five more deaths from an illness the government is trying desperately to stop spreading out of control in the countryside.

Following pressure from the Canadian government, the World Health Organisation today lifted its warning against non-essential travel to Toronto, saying it was satisfied with measures to stop the spread of the deadly Sars virus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) today accepted a leading scientist’s findings that the Sars bug, which is causing panic worldwide, is more deadly than first thought.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has called a Cabinet meeting in Toronto instead of Ottawa to show the World Health Organisation erred in warning against travel to Canada’s largest city because of Sars.

CHINA shut down a major hospital in Beijing and put more than 2,000 employees under observation for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) yesterday, as Hong Kong health experts said the disease may be even deadlier than originally thought.

IN Hong Kong, health officials revised the territory’s SARS death rate to 7.2% of all reported cases, from about 5%. Officials fear it may rise further.

BEIJING and Toronto were declared pariah cities by the World Health Organisation yesterday which urged travellers to stay away.

Travellers should avoid Toronto, Beijing and China’s Shanxi province because of Sars, the World Health Organisation said today.

China today reported a new Sars death and warned officials not to hide cases of the disease, while leaders in hard-hit Hong Kong geared up for a massive clean-up targeting the territory’s back alleys where germs might fester.

After looking at secretive military hospitals in Beijing, the World Health Organisation today said its investigators will visit new parts of China amid a surge in cases of the deadly Sars virus in an inland province.

After assuring the Chinese public for weeks that a deadly outbreak of disease was under control, Premier Wen Jiabao today admitted the “overall situation remains grave” as four new deaths and dozens of new cases were reported.

Deaths worldwide from severe acute respiratory syndrome reached at least 100 today, as the main casualty China revealed that fatalities have been much more widespread than it had previously reported.

China today reported another death from severe acute respiratory syndrome and revealed that fatalities in recent weeks have been much more widespread than previously reported.

The Chinese government today promised things would get better after a month that saw more than 200 people die in workplace accidents.

A five-year-old boy was beaten to death by his father in northern China after he failed to count to 100 as demanded, a newspaper reported today. The father was charged with murder.