Traffic accident

FOUR people died and two were injured in a traffic accident in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region yesterday, local police said.

A sedan carrying five people and a mini-bus collided on a road in the Hotan Area at about 6:00 a.m., leaving four passengers in the car, all female, dead at the scene and the drivers of both vehicles seriously injured. The road is used only by workers of a local oilfield for pipeline repair and other vehicles are prohibited, the police said.

Rainstorms kill 1

TORRENTIAL rains have left one dead and three others missing in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the regional flood control and drought relief headquarters said yesterday.

Rainstorms started to pelt Nanning, Baise, Hechi and Liuzhou in the region Saturday, causing landslides and collapsed houses. According to latest forecast from the regional meteorological bureau, heavy downpours would continue to affect Guangxi in the next 24 hours.

Infectious diseases

INFECTIOUS diseases claimed 819 lives in China in August with nearly 540,000 cases recorded, the Ministry of Health said yesterday.

Last month, 408,714 cases of Class A and Class B infectious diseases occurred, which claimed 806 lives, and 130,919 cases of Class C infectious diseases occurred, which claimed 13 lives. In August, the top five infectious diseases, accounting for 86.6 percent of the total, were tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diarrhea, syphilis and gonorrhea.