China set for world's first H1N1 flu shots
Teenage students in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong will be the first to receive from the government the so-called vaccine against the A/H1N1. Those participating in the National Day Parade on Oct 1 will get their shots before the national inoculation plan starts next month. Health Minister Chen Zhu announced this plan yesterday (September 8) as he unveiled the guiding principles of the government's inoculation plan that will begin in October. The nation's top drug authority ordered the release of the first batch of the vaccine on Tuesday, making China the first country in the world to have a vaccine.

Drunken driver spared death
Sun Weiming, a drunken driver from Sichuan who killed four people in a traffic accident learned yesterday (September 8) that his own life will be spared, following a successful appeal against his death sentence. Instead of facing execution, he will serve a life term in prison. Sun had initially been sentenced to death for "a dangerous offense against public safety". The courts' decision to commute the death penalty was supported by China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), which said the final judgment was "in accordance with China's criminal law". Yesterday, another drunken driver in Guangdong, Li Jingquan, escaped the death penalty and will also be incarcerated for life. Li, from Foshan, killed 2 people and injure one other in a traffic accident.

Blast in C. China illegal mine kills 35
An explosion at an illegal coal mine killed 35 miners and left another 44 men trapped in central China's Henan province yesterday (September 8). A spokesman from the Henan provincial bureau of work safety said the deadly gas explosion took place around 1 am on Tuesday in the Xinhua No 4 pit in Xinhua district, that's in Pingdingshan city. A total of 93 people were working in the pit when the accident occurred but only 14 people managed to escape. A preliminary investigation shows that the mining company in question hadn't received the authorisation to operate in that pit.