A local coroner says a teenager victim of the Asiana flight 214, which crash landed in San Francisco almost two weeks ago, died of multiple injuries consistent with being run over by a motor vehicle.

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault told a news conference that the victim, a teenager girl from China, survived the crash landing of the Boeing 777-200 on July 6 and then was struck and killed by a fire vehicle rushing to the scene. 

He said the finding was based on internal hemorrhaging of the girl.

Investigators believed the teenager was on the ground and not standing up when she was struck by at least one specialized fire- fighting vehicle deployed at San Francisco International Airport.

The victim was one of the two Chinese girls that were killed on the scene when the Asiana airliner crash landed at the airport. More than 180 others were also injured in the crash.

 

China vows to deepen friendship with Central Asian countries

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China will continue its good-neighborly relations with Central Asian countries and further deepen strategic mutual trust and cooperation with them.

Wang Yi made the remarks while attending the foreign ministers' meeting under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Bishkek.

Leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and SCO foreign ministers said they will strengthen coordination with China within the SCO framework.

 

1 dead, 1 missing as storm brings record downpours to E China 

Rainstorms have swept east China's Fujian Province after the landfall of tropical storm Cimaron.

The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters says torrential rain, the biggest in more than a century in cities of Zhangzhou and Xiamen, have left one person dead and another missing.

Rain also forced the evacuation of more than 89 thousand people to safety and inflicted direct economic losses of over 1.5 billion yuan (252 million U.S. dollars).

 

China frees lending interest rates 

China's central bank says it will further liberate lending interest rates for financial institutions so they can decide the rates themselves from Saturday.

A People's Bank of China statement says the floor limit for lending interest rates will be canceled and the financial institutions can decide their own rates following commercial principles.

Controls on bill discount rates will be scrapped and the ceiling limit for lending from rural banks will be eliminated. But the lending interest rates for personal homes will not be adjusted for the healthy growth of the property market.

 

China to raise fuel prices

The National Development and Reform Commision, the country's top economic policy-maker raised fuel prices starting today.

Retail prices of gasoline was raised 325 yuan per ton while prices for diesel was 310 yuan. 

This round of price increases is the biggest increase since the NDRC further liberalized the pricing mechanism of oil products in March.

 

Egypt on watch for possible chaos as nationwide protests planned

The Egyptian armed forces and Interim President Adli Mansour have vowed to crack down on any act of violence, on the eve of nationwide protests.

The protests were called by Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies.

Advocators called the planned protests "a battle" to back ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

 

At least 12 killed, 62 wounded in bomb attack at mosque in Iraq's Diyala

At least 12 people have been killed and 62-others are wounded following a bomb explosion in Iraq.

25 of the injured are in critical condition.

The attack happened at around midday while dozens of worshippers were observing the Friday weekly prayer at a mosque in the eastern province of Diyala.

 

Progress made in Kerry-Abbas meeting over resumption of peace talks: official

A senior Palestinian official says progress was made regarding the resumption of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks following a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Ramallah.

Meanwhile, a well-informed Palestinian source says Abbas and Kerry have agreed to hold meetings between Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators within the coming few days.

 

Fonterra dairy to cut milk powder price

New Zealand's Fonterra has become the latest milk powder maker to cut its product price following China's investigation into price-fixing by major infant formula makers. 

Fonterra, the world's largest dairy company, said it will reduce the price of its Anmum maternal milk powder by 9 percent starting from August 1.

 

Vice premier urges reform in food, drug administration 

Vice Premier Wang Yang has called for accelerating food and drug administration reform, asking for joint efforts from the government, enterprises and the public to ensure product safety.

He made the remarks during food safety and foreign trade inspections conducted in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces over the past three days.

Wang Yang said supervisory forces must be strengthened to ensure that supervision and management departments at all levels are fully capable of performing their duties. 

He called for an electronic tracking system for food and drug products, as well as special crackdowns and harsh punishments for food safety violators.