SHIJIAZHUANG Nike Air Max 90 Sale , May 23 (Xinhua) -- Twelve people were killed and 15 others injured in a truck collision in north China's Hebei Province Tuesday morning, local authorities said.


The accident happened at around 6:20 a.m., when an oil tanker rear-ended a coal truck in a tunnel of the highway linking cities of Zhangjiakou and Shijiazhuang, according to the government of Laiyuan County.


The collision caused an explosion and fire, killing 12 and injuring three on the site. Another 12 people were slightly injured when the explosion damaged their homes nearby.


Further investigation and response work are underway.


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by Maria Vasileiou


THE HAGUE, May 22 (Xinhua) -- More international students are opting to study at Dutch universities, allured by degree courses taught entirely in English, as Brexit threatens the international appeal of Britain's higher education.


"Applications from international students for both undergraduate and graduate programs have increased significantly this year," said Zoe den Boer, senior advisor of international marketing and student recruitment at Maastricht University. "Uncertainties relating to Brexit have influenced students, who are looking more actively into options offered elsewhere in English."


Maastricht University has experienced an increase of 35 percent in applications for its masters degrees and 10 percent for undergraduate courses from international students.


"The increase could be the result of how Brexit is influencing future students' choices," said de Boer, though she cautioned that figures of enrolment might change since not all students who apply end up enrolling.


The trend is not limited to Maastricht University, which is regarded as the most international higher education institution in the Netherlands with about half of its students and 40 percent of academic staff coming from abroad.


Total demand for bachelor programs at Dutch universities by international students has increased by 18 percent to 23,900 applications for the next academic year, according to VSNU, the association of universities in the Netherlands.


At the same time, in Britain, applications of EU students have switched from increases of five to seven percent per year to a 7-percent decline, while non-EU student applications have stagnated, according to the UK universities admissions service UCAS.


"Studying in the UK has become less attractive," said Adri Meijdam, executive director of the BSc program in international business administration at the Rotterdam School of Management, which is part of Erasmus University. He stated concerns over higher tuition fees and visa regulation constraints as the main reasons.


At Erasmus University, applications for bachelor degrees increased by over 500 from last year. At Rotterdam School of Management, in particular, some 2,300 students, most of whom are coming from abroad, want to study international business administration during the next academic year, but there are only 575 places.


"Applications for the next academic year point to continuing growth in the number of international students aiming to study at Dutch universities," said Freddy Weima, director-general at Nuffic, a Dutch organization for the internalization of education.


In 2016, 112,000 foreign students enrolled in Dutch higher education institutes, representing two percent of international students worldwide, a Nuffic report showed. More than 81,000 are enrolled in a full degree program, the remainder is for shorter stays such as Erasmus+, the European Union's (EU) student exchange program.


Among those in full degree program, Germans form the largest group with 22,000 students, though the number has been decreasing over the past five years. China is the second largest country of origin with 4,347 students, followed by Italy (3,347), Belgium (2,976), Britain (2,778) and Greece (2,370).