CHENGDU, July 12 (Xinhua) — Forty-two people died and 25 are missing in floods in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Governor Jiang Jufeng said on Thursday.

    Twelve million people in 55 counties have been affected by rainstorms and floods, causing estimated losses of 3.6 billion yuan, said Jiang.

    Rainstorms began to hit Sichuan on July 2, and 43 counties had recorded precipitation of more than 100 mm by July 11 and four counties received more than 400 mm, the governor said.

    Rainstorms caused floods in many areas and in Tongjiang county the flooding was the worst in 80 years.

    Rainstorms also triggered 1,690 landslides and mud-rock flows.

    Li Liguo, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, has arrived in Sichuan to oversee disaster relief work. He praised flood control and relief work of the Sichuan authorities.

    More than 150,000 people in Qujiang, seat of Quxian county, escaped early morning floods on July 7 thanks to timely warnings delivered by mobile phone text messages, loudspeakers and door-to-door visits.

    The flood peak hit Qujiang at 3:00 a.m., submerging two thirds of the town’s streets and inundating the ground floors of many homes, but no casualties were reported.

    The Sichuan provincial government has earmarked 10 million yuan to help residents of Bazhong city, which was also badly affected.

    BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) — China’s energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP was 1.206 tons of coal equivalent in 2006, down 1.33 percent from 2005, Xie Fuzhan, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said on Thursday.

    The revised figures compare with the earlier figure of 1.21 tons of coal equivalent, down 1.23 percent, released by the statistics agency in February this year.

    Unit consumption decreased because China’s GDP in 2006 was revised up by 146.4 billion yuan to 21.0871 trillion yuan, said an NBS official.

    It was the first time energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan of GDP has declined in China since 2003, indicating the country was developing in a way that is less wasteful and less damaging to the environment, said Xie.

    Twenty-nine of the Chinese mainland’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities saw their per unit GDP energy consumption decline last year, while northwestern Qinghai province reported an increase of 1.51 percent.

    Figures for the Tibet Autonomous Region are not yet available.

    Of the 30 administrative regions with figures available, all but Beijing missed the 2006 target of reducing energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan of GDP by four percent. Beijing achieved a 5.25-percent drop.

    Seventeen regions managed to cut their per unit GDP energy consumption by more than three percent.

    The failure was mainly a result of slow progress in industrial restructuring, said Xie.

    ”China is in the middle stages of industrialization. Heavy industry and raw material sectors dominant, and they consume a lot of energy and discharge a lot of pollutants,” Xie said.

    Also to blame were weak supervision and law enforcement and a lack of tax and financial policies that support energy efficiency.

    The Chinese government set a target of reducing energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan of GDP by 20 percent in the five-year period from 2006 to 2010.

    ”The mission ahead is tough but not impossible. We will definitely achieve the target if the whole country makes greater efforts,” Xie said.

    Total energy consumption in 2006 rose 9.61 percent year-on-year to 2.46 billion tons of coal equivalent, Xie said.

    The energy consumption of secondary industry declined by 1.98 percent to 2.53 tons of coal equivalent per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value, while that of primary industry and tertiary industry rose 0.14 percent and 0.13 percent respectively.

    YANGON, July 12 (Xinhua) — The Myanmar Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday opposing Taiwan’s bid for membership of the United Nations and reiterating Myanmar’s adherence to the one-China policy, according to the official newspaper New Light o fMyanmar.

    ”As a nation which has steadfastly nurtured the friendly relations with the People’s Republic of China, the Union of Myanmar has consistently adhered to the principle of one-China policy and regarded Taiwan as an integral part of China, ” the statement said, referring to the Taiwan authorities’ recent bid for a referendum on joining the UN as “Taiwan.”

    ”The Union of Myanmar is of the view that Taiwan’s push for referendum on joining the UN would raise tension in cross-straits relations and jeopardize the peace and stability in the region,” the statement said, adding that “Myanmar, therefore, opposes Taiwan’s UN membership bid under any appellation.”

    BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) — China and the European Union (EU) have reached an agreement to protect the geographical indication (GI) status of certain farm products sold in each other’s market in a bid to safeguard product quality.

    The two sides applied to protect ten GI products each, including Guangxi Honey Pomelo and Shaanxi Apples from China, and Prosciutto di Parma ham and Roquefort from Europe, a source with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said Thursday.

    Counterfeits and infringements against the products will be punished according to the laws of geographical indication, said Aldo Longo, director-general of Agriculture & Rural Development of European Commission.

    It is expected to take a year for the application process to be concluded after which product names from specific regions will be protected.

    Nearly 700 Chinese products are protected on the domestic market, including Longjing Tea and Shaoxing Maotai, a type of spirit.

    BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile said its exports quadrupled in the first half of the year, with overseas sales likely to top 100,000 vehicles for the whole year.

    Its exports soared to 52,712 vehicles in the first six months of this year from 13,548 in the first half of 2006, an increase of 290 percent, the company said in a statement.

    Chery, based in the eastern Chinese city of Wuhu, sold 30,638 vehicles in the second quarter, up from 22,074 in the first quarter.

    The 10-year-old flag-bearer of Chinese indigenous brands has accelerated its expansion in the overseas markets in recent years, with exports rising from 18,000 vehicles in 2005 to 500,000 in 2006.

    The company currently holds a 7.2 percent market share in the domestic market, while it has sold cars to 50 countries, with Russia, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia and Argentina its major markets overseas.

    To break into the North American and European markets, it signed a cooperation deal last week with Chrysler Group, which would select four to six compact models developed by Chery for exports under Chrysler Group brands.

    JINAN, July 12 (Xinhua) — Eight workers have been killed in an explosion at a fertilizer plant in east China’s Shandong Province, sources with local government said Thursday.

    The explosion happened around 11:50 p.m. Wednesday at the Shandong De Qilong Chemical Group Co. Ltd., in Pingyuan County of Dezhou City, when ten workers were adjusting a newly-installed compressor.

    Eight died at the scene, and the two injured workers have been sent to the county hospital. Local sources said the cause of the explosion was yet to be investigated.

    The Shandong De Qilong company is located 90 km northeast of the provincial capital Jinan. The company website shows its total assets as 3.5 billion yuan (460 million U.S. dollars) and it employs about 3,000 people. Its major products include carbamides and liquefied ammonia.