Jiaolong, China’s manned submersible, went through a dive simulation in Sanya, Hainan Province on Saturday to prepare for a deep descent in the South China Sea.

The submersible stayed underwater for 18 minutes in Saturday’s drill before returning to Xiangyanghong 09, the mother ship, completing tasks including underwater training for its crew.

Zhang Weijia, who participated, said she was very excited entering the submersible for the first time to learn about its facilities, practical operation and emergency escape.

Jiaolong’s South China Sea dive is part of the second stage of China’s 38th ocean scientific expedition. The expedition will last for about four months.

The drill was necessary for testing equipment and personnel, said Wu Changbin, general commander of the second stage of the expedition. Currently the Jiaolong’s “technological status” is stable and the cooperation among various departments is smooth, Wu said.

Jiaolong completed a deep-sea operation in the northwestern Indian Ocean earlier this year in the mission’s first stage. It will also conduct surveys in the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench in the third stage.

Named after a mythical dragon, Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012.

Three people were killed after a landslide hit a village Saturday night in east China’s Fujian Province, local authorities said Sunday.

At round 9 p.m., the government of Yongding District, Longyan City, received a report of three villagers trapped by a landslide. Nearly seven hours later, rescuers recovered the bodies of the victims.

The cause of the accident is being investigated. Local authorities are handling the aftermath.

China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) announced on Saturday that a criminal convicted intentional homicide had been executed after the SPC approved the death sentence.

According to a SPC statement, Chen Quansong killed two young women surnamed Wang and Xian on January 3, 2014 in Shiqian County, southwest China’s Guizhou Province after a disagreement. Chen then raped Wang’s corpse and covered the two bodies with tree branches.

In the review of the death sentence handed down to Chen by the local court, the SPC formed a collegial panel to review files, interrogate Chen, meet Chen’s lawyers and verify evidence, including DNA test results.

The SPC held that the death penalty was given on the basis of clear facts and solid evidence. Chen committed intentional homicide with serious consequence and vile social effect.

To punish serious crimes according to law and safeguard social justice and fairness, the SPC approved the death sentence, according to the SPC statement.

The Intermediate People’s Court of Tongren City in Guizhou Province executed Chen on Saturday.

China’s environmental authority found 2,808 companies in violation of standards during the first round of air pollution inspection.

Inspection teams in 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and nearby areas found 2,808 of 4,077 companies breaking the rules, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said in a statement.

Problems included unlicensed production, inefficient dust prevention and lack of or malfunction of pollution treatment facilities, the statement said.

Inspectors also found that some enterprises which had been closed for violations illegally resumed production and some reported fake monitoring data.

Some companies refused the inspection or prevented inspectors from carrying out their duties, said the statement.

The statement said the first round of inspection ended as of April 20and the second round had already started. There will be a total of 25 rounds this year.

The share of days with good air quality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei rose by 14.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 66.3 percent in March, even though the share declined in the first quarter, MEP data showed.

Police in southwest China’s Yunnan Province have arrested two suspects and seized 16.82 kg of heroin.

Police with the public security bureau of Longyang District of Baoshan City received reports on April 15 that two men had attempted to transport a batch of drugs to Kunming, capital of the province, according to the bureau on Saturday.

After investigation, police arrested the two suspects and seized the drugs in a car on a highway in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture at 7 p.m. on Monday.

The suspects confessed that they had obtained the heroin from Myanmar and planned to transport it to Kunming.

The investigation is ongoing.