Chinese vice premier leads delegation to cities of Baiyang, Alaer in Xinjiang

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Tuesday led a delegation on a visit to Baiyang, a city under the 9th Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), and to Alaer, a city under the 1st Division of the XPCC, meeting local people and carrying out inspections.

He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that people must bear in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's instructions, vigorously promote the XPCC spirit, the populus euphratica spirit, and the spirit of veterans, and encourage people, through the power of role models, to devote themselves to the development of the XPCC, guard the border, and make greater contributions to building a beautiful Xinjiang, He said.

At the command center for construction projects in Baiyang, He said that it is necessary to build a modern city with the characteristics of the XPCC, and make Xinjiang a bridgehead for the Silk Road Economic Belt to connect to Central Asian and European markets.

He led the delegation on a visit to a cotton picking operation site in Alaer City where he urged that full advantage be taken of the amount of land available to the XPCC so it can play a greater role in ensuring the supply of important agricultural products in China.

At the 359th Brigade Reclamation Memorial Hall, He encouraged the cadres and workers of the XPCC to promote the Chinese path to modernization and build the XPCC into a stronger and more prosperous unit.

Chinese vice premier leads delegation to cities of Baiyang, Alaer in Xinjiang

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight