Bodies of plane crash pilots cremated

The bodies of three pilots were cremated on Monday, about three weeks after their plane crashed in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Their families each received about 1.4 million yuan (203,000 U.S. dollars) in compensation from the China Flying Dragon Special Aviation Company. It had leased the small plane to the region's land and resources administration for a geological survey mission, according to the company's party chief Li Changjun.

The eight-seat plane carrying three crewmen and an official with the Ministry of Land and Resources crashed into a hillside over a mining site in Chifeng City on June 15. It killed the pilots and critically injured the official who suffered serious head and chest injuries and was in stable condition in hospital.

Li said investigators were still trying to ascertain the cause of the accident.

China´s SOEs seek 16 executives from home, overseas

BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhua) -- China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are seeking 16 senior executives from either home or abroad, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

The SASAC, the industry watchdog, said in a notice on Monday the posts included three general managers, 10 deputy general managers and three chief accountants from various industries. These covered electricity, metallurgy, electronics, chemical engineering and trade enterprises.

Three Fortune 500 companies, including First Automobile Works, the most time-honored Chinese auto plant, Baosteel, the country's largest steel maker, and China Southern Power Grid were on the list.

Macao's Nam Kwong (Group) Company Ltd. would also launch a hunt for a general manager, making it the first centrally-administered SOE outside the Chinese mainland to look for such a senior position.

The SASAC has opened 103 senior management posts to domestic and overseas applicants since 2003 and selected 91 people out of 5,985 applicants for centrally-administered SOEs.

China currently has 150 central SOEs directly under the control of the SASAC, with total assets of 14.6 trillion yuan (2.12 trillion U.S. dollars) as of November.