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An oil tank exploded at a chemical plant in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's restive Xinjiang region, on Sunday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported quoting firefighters. No casualties have been reported so far and the cause is being investigated, the report said. The explosion occurred around 10 a.m. at a refinery of China National Petroleum Corp. in northern Urumqi, Xinhua quoted city firefighters as saying.

China: 22 killed in chemical blast BEIJING, China (AP) -- The death toll in a chemical plant explosion in eastern China jumped to 22, with 28 people still missing, as thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday. Friday's blast at Fuyuan Chemical Plant in Jiangsu province shattered the facility, a joint venture between China and Germany that had not yet begun production, Xinhua said. Local workplace safety officials said 71 people were inside the plant when the explosion occurred and 21 managed to escape, according to Xinhua. Authorities had put the death...

WASHINGTON - U.S. troops have found a suspected chemical factory in Iraq and officials were trying to determine late Sunday whether it was involved in making chemical weapons, U.S. officials said. The plant is near the city of An Najaf, which U.S. troops reached Sunday on a push to Baghdad, the officials said. President Bush and other U.S. officials say ridding Saddam Hussein's regime of chemical and biological weapons is the main objective of the war. Saddam's government denies it has any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or programs to produce them. Asked at a news conference in Qatar Sunday...