13 missing after fishing boat sinks in E China

NINGBO, July 3 (Xinhua) -- A search is under way for 13 seamen missing after their fishing boat sank off east China's coast early on Thursday.

Two crew members were rescued about 10 hours after a sudden tornado capsized the vessel just after midnight on the East China Sea, said the captain, Xu Bo, who was one of those rescued.

Xu said that the boat sank within just two or three minutes and all the 15 crew members fell into the water.

Xu and wheelman Ruan Mankang were pulled from the water by sailors from a passing vessel at about 10 a.m. near Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province.

The fishery and border defense authorities in Zhoushan have dispatched rescuers to search for the missing.

Shenzhen companies move to Hubei

Nearly 200 hi-tech companies from the Pearl River Delta Region are set to transfer their industrial operations to the central province of Hubei. Those firms are mostly Shenzhen-based, and they've already inked their deals worth a total of 24 billion yuan with Hubei's provincial authorities. And in preparation for this, Hubei has also established the Hubei-Shenzhen Industrial Park, as a center for these new companies.

Annual output for the park has been predicted to hit as much as 40 billion yuan by 2010. Hubei boasts several strategic advantages, such as transportation links and ample energy resources. For Shenzhen companies, the region could prove ideal not just for their own expansion, but also as a magnet for overseas investment.