Mines are quickly becoming a hot topic in China. From corruption, to safety and murder. This news is sure to draw fire from human rights organizations who wish to highlight China's lack of free press (see second CBS article).
REUTERS
BEIJING, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A gas explosion in southwest China killed 11 coal miners on Sunday and five others were missing, Xinhua news agency reported.
The accident occurred in the Yile Coal Mine at Panxian County, Xinhua reported, citing a spokesman for the Guizhou Provincial Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
Twenty-five miners were working underground when the blast occurred, and only nine managed to escape, the spokesman said.
Deaths in Chinese coal mines, the world's deadliest, fell by 20 percent in 2006 while output grew by about 200 million tonnes.
An average 13 miners a day, or a total of 4,746 people, died in thousands of blasts, floods and other mine accidents last year.
Intrestingly, just a few days ago much of Asia media reported on the beating death of a reporter who's been writing on Mine Safety.
CBS
On Wednesday afternoon last week, in this remote farming village tucked into the snow-dusted hills of Shanxi Province, Lan Chengzhang was beaten to death in the frozen mud of a walled courtyard.
At first glance, he died a martyr to press freedom, courageously investigating conditions in the notoriously dangerous illegal coal mines that dot the region.
he was seen with a colleague in a violent altercation with the owner of an illegal coal mine outside the mine office in this tiny village of mud and straw houses.
"I saw four men beating them up with big sticks really hard," says Xiao Zhou, who says he watched the killing from his village shop next to the mine office, not daring to intervene. "They just hit them really hard and kept shouting 'beat them, beat them.' Their faces were covered with blood."
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