BLAST KILLS SIX AT MINE IN CENTRAL CHINA

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 - An unexplained blast at a coal mine in central China has killed six people, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Wednesday. The explosion occurred at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Huainan, Anhui Province, according to an official with the local coal mine safety monitoring office. The official, who like others interviewed for this story asked not to be named, described it as "a localized explosion." "Six people were killed but no one else was injured. Bodies of the dead were retrieved from the mine right after the explosion. The cause is still being investigated," the official said. An administrator with the Huainan Mining Group told RFA that "both the province and the city have sent people" to the mine to investigate. Relatives of each victim will receive between 50,000 and 60,000 yuan ($6,000 and $7,000 U.S.) as compensation, according to a local union offical. "The state has a uniform policy on this. Everyone who has something like this happen to them demands more, but it just can't be," the union official said. RFA's complete report on the blast is available on the Web at www.rfa.org. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting news and information to those countries in Asia where full, accurate, and timely news reports are unavailable. Created by Congress in 1996, RFA aims to deliver such news reports - along with opinions and commentaries - and to provide a forum for a variety of voices and opinions. RFA currently broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, the Wu dialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Uyghur. It adheres to the highest journalistic standards and aims to exemplify accuracy, balance, and fairness in its editorial content.