BEIJING (AP) — A blind Chinese activist was hurriedly taken from a hospital Saturday and boarded a plane that took off for the United States, closing a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations.

Chen Guangcheng, his wife and their two children were on United Airlines Flight 88, which took off late Saturday afternoon from the Beijing airport. The flight was scheduled to arrive in Newark, N.J., Saturday evening.

LOS ANGELES – Drinking glasses depicting comic book and movie characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz” exceed federal limits for lead in children’s products by up to 1,000 times, according to laboratory testing commissioned by The Associated Press.

The decorative enamel on the superhero and Oz sets — made in China and purchased at a Warner Brothers Studios store in Burbank — contained between 16 percent and 30.2 percent lead. The federal limit on children’s products is 0.03 percent.

YUZHOU, China — Hopes were fading Monday for the remaining seven Chinese miners still missing after a deadly gas leak over the weekend that left 30 dead.

The State Administration of Work Safety announced on its website that as of 6 a.m. local time (5 p.m. ET on Sunday), rescuers had found another four bodies, raising the death toll to 30.

BEIJING — A dawn explosion in a Chinese coal mine killed 20 and trapped 17 workers underground Saturday in the country’s central region, a national work safety official said.

The blast came shortly after the world was riveted by Chile’s dramatic rescue of 33 trapped miners after they spent more than two months underground.

It wasn’t yet clear how far underground the 17 workers were trapped at the state-owned mine, a man surnamed Li with the state work safety administration said by telephone. He had no details on the cause of the 6 a.m. (6 p.m. EDT on Friday) blast in Henan province, a couple of hours outside the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, about 430 miles south of Beijing.

COPIAPO, Chile – Rescuers are lowering capsules containing rehydration tablets, glucose and oxygen down a long hole to 33 miners who surprised the world by staying alive while trapped a half-mile underground for 2 1/2 weeks.

Raising hopes further Monday, a second bore hole punched into the chamber where the miners are entombed and a third probe was nearing the spot, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne reported.

The hole that reached the miners Sunday will continue to be used to lower supplies, the second will be for communication and the third will provide ventilation, Golborne said.

Their ordeal, however, is far from over.

Washington (CNN) — The North Korean government informed the State Department on Friday that it is holding a second American citizen who the North Koreans say entered the country from China, a State Department spokesman said.

The American, who has not been identified, was detained Monday for trespassing on North Korea’s border with China, state-run Korea Central News Agency reported Thursday. The incident is under investigation, according to the agency’s report.

BEIJING – China announced plans Thursday to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its economic output — a commitment from the world’s largest polluter that builds momentum ahead of a widely anticipated climate conference in Copenhagen next month.

The announcement comes a day after President Barack Obama promised the U.S. would lay out plans to substantially cut its greenhouse gas emissions at the summit.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China must be alert to any mutation or changes in the behavior of the H1N1 swine flu virus because the far deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in the country, a leading Chinese disease expert said.

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s southern Guangdong province, said the presence of both viruses in China meant they could mix and become a monstrous hybrid — a bug packed with strong killing power that can transmit efficiently among people.

“China, as you know, is different from other countries. Inside China, H5N1 has been existing for some time, so if there is really a reassortment between H1N1 and H5N1, it will be a disaster,” Zhong said in an interview with Reuters Television.

“This is something we need to monitor, the change, the mutation of the virus. This is why reporting of the death rate must be really transparent.”