Dozens more were injured and eight were reported missing after the blast in Panshan county, which is administered by Panjin.

The number of newborns in 2022 stood at 9.56 million, according to the NBS data, with the birth rate at 6.77‰. The number of deaths in 2022 was 10.41 million, with the death rate at 7.37‰.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragedy. At this time of grief, as a traditional, sincere friend of Nepal, our thoughts are with the Nepali people," Wang said at a regular news briefing, expressing deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families.

China will continue to support the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in uniting and rallying the international community to fight the pandemic, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday.

China's space industry had a busy year in 2022, the highlight of which was completion of one of the world's largest and most sophisticated orbiting infrastructures, the Tiangong space station.

As China and Vietnam embrace the traditional Spring Festival, President Xi Jinping and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, exchanged festive greetings through letters.

Didi Chuxing, China's most widely used ride-hailing app, announced Monday on its official Weibo account that the new user ban was lifted.

Beijing will set its GDP growth target at over 4.5 percent for 2023, said the city's acting mayor Yin Yong as he delivered a government report at the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Sunday.

Imports and exports by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan surged over 60 percent year-on-year to more than 166.9 billion yuan (about $24.91 bln) in 2022, hitting a new record, official data showed on Saturday.