Deaths in explosion at China bank: Xinhua

An explosion at a bank in northwest China's Gansu province has led to "dozens of deaths and injuries", the official Xinhua news agency reported Friday.

BEIJING — An elevated portion of highway in central China collapsed on Friday after a truck loaded with fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least nine people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters to the ground. The official Xinhua News Agency said nine people were confirmed dead and another 13 injured, including four in serious condition. It said the collapse smashed and buried at least 25 vehicles. Earlier reports by China National Radio and some other outlets of 26 people killed were later removed from websites, without explanation.

More than 40 people were injured Friday after a disgruntled former employee ignited a petrol bomb at a bank in a Tibetan-inhabited region of northwest China, local authorities said.The attack in Tianzhu county at 8:00 am (0000 GMT) sparked a fire at the Agriculture Credit Cooperative in Gansu province, according to a statement issued by the county government. Among the injured, 19 are in a serious state.

Twenty-one miners have been killed in a gas blast at a colliery in southwest China, state Xinhua news agency reported Friday, citing rescuers.The accident occurred late Thursday at a coal mine in the city of Anshun in Guizhou province. All workers known to be in the pit were accounted for following the explosion, as 10 workers escaped to safety, Xinhua said.But search and rescue work was continuing, Xinhua said, citing the possibility that more workers could have been in the pit when the explosion occurred than the 31 on the official work register.

Twenty-one miners have been killed in a gas blast at a colliery in southwest China, the official Xinhua news agency reported Friday, citing rescuers.The accident occurred late Thursday at a mine in the city of Anshun in Guizhou province.Ten workers escaped to safety and all miners known to have been in the pit were accounted for, but search and rescue work was continuing in case there were other unregistered miners working at the time of the blast, Xinhua said.The cause of the explosion was under investigation.

NEW YORK — Police have identified a suspect being sought in the hit-and-run deaths of a pregnant woman and her husband whose baby died on Monday, a day after the Brooklyn car crash. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said police are looking for 44-year-old Julio Acevedo, who had a DWI arrest in February. Acevedo was going at least 60 mph when the car slammed into the cab carrying the couple to a hospital, police said.

A roadside bomb blew up near an Israeli embassy convoy headed to Israel from the Jordanian capital on Thursday, causing no casualties, an Israeli envoy posted in Amman confirmed."The Israeli embassy convoy left Amman and was headed for the Hussein bridge when the blast occurred. Nobody was hurt," the diplomat contacted by telephone told AFP, referring to the Allenby Bridge between Jordan and the West Bank.The bridge stands about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Amman.

At least 65 people have been killed in landslides in northwest China, state media reported Sunday, in the latest natural disaster to strike the nation.The landslides in a mainly Tibetan region of Gansu province happened on Saturday night, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Mao Shengwu, the head of the affected prefecture.