Briefly

YUNNAN

5-day fire extinguished, no casualties reported

The forest fire that broke out in Yunnan province days ago was finally extinguished early Thursday morning with no casualties, local authorities said. The fire had started at around 3:33 pm on May 9 in the city of Anning. On early Tuesday morning, the fire spread to neighboring Lufeng county under Chuxiong Yi autonomous prefecture. The fire in Anning was put out at noon on Tuesday, and the fire in Lufeng was extinguished at 1:10 am on Thursday. The local fire department said about 170 hectares of forest had been burned. About 5,800 firefighters, officers and soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, local officials and residents battled the fire.

JILIN

First seafood train from Russia arrives in China

The first seafood freight train this year departing Russia for Hunchun, a border city in Jilin province, has arrived at the Hunchun railway port, the local government said on Thursday. The train was loaded with nine containers of frozen codfish. Hunchun is located at the junction of China, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It is only 71 kilometers from Zarubino Port. The 80-km rail has slashed transportation time and greatly promoted imports of seafood, said He Yong, deputy director of the Hunchun port management office.

SICHUAN

Pandas in Chengdu test negative for COVID-19

All pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, the base said on Thursday. The base asked an authoritative organization to conduct nucleic acid testing on its pandas after media reported that several tigers and lions in New York City's Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID-19, according to Zhang Zhihe, director of the base."All the tests came back with negative results, and no panda in our base has been infected by the virus," Zhang said.

BEIJING

Online college courses attended by 18 million

A total of 17.7 million college students in China had taken part in online learning by May 8 since classes were moved to the internet in early February as college campuses were closed due to the COVID-19 epidemic, an official with the Ministry of Education said on Thursday. The courses these students attended were remotely delivered by 1.03 million teachers from 1,454 universities across the country, Wu Yan, an official with the ministry, said at a news conference.

Xinhua