China was poised on Saturday to dynamite a dangerous ”quake lake” to drain its waters as 1,3-million people nearby were kept on alert for possible evacuation. Workers set explosives on a dam formed by this month’s catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan province, after thousands of soldiers finished an enormous drainage channel after 10 days of frantic digging.
China has evacuated more than 150 000 people living below a swollen lake formed by this month’s devastating earthquake amid fears it could burst and trigger massive flooding, state media said on Wednesday. Tokyo’s Jiji news agency said China had called on Japan to send its military to help with relief operations.
China was preparing to dynamite rock, mud and rubble forming a dangerously large ”quake lake” on Monday, hoping to avert a new disaster two weeks after a catastrophic tremor struck Sichuan province. The official estimate of dead from the May 12 earthquake is now more than 60 000, but that number is certain to grow.
A woman was rescued on Wednesday after spending nine days in the tunnel of a power plant after China’s devastating earthquake, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. Zeng Changhui had been stuck in the water tunnel of the Shifang area hydropower plant since the 7,9-magnitude earthquake struck on May 12, Xinhua said.
China scrambled on Wednesday to deliver tents and other essential materials to the five million people made homeless by last week’s earthquake, as international aid began to flow in. With hope virtually extinguished of finding more survivors, soldiers and relief workers focused on the desperate plight of those displaced.
Thousands of terrified survivors of China’s earthquake huddled in the open with their meagre belongings on Tuesday as an aftershock struck and the government warned of more powerful ones to come. The panic, which reportedly gripped a vast area, came as China entered its second day of official mourning over the quake.
Police tried to stop anguished relatives from streaming into one of the worst-affected areas of China’s massive earthquake on Sunday, as another strong aftershock hit the area and the death toll rose to nearly 32 500. Hundreds of aftershocks have rattled Sichuan province following last week’s devastating 7,9-magnitude quake.
A Chinese lake damaged by an earthquake may be about to burst its banks, state media said on Saturday, as President Hu Jintao headed for the epicentre with the death toll expected to rise to 50 000. Meanwhile, survivors were found on Saturday, five days after the disaster, including a German tourist who was pulled from the rubble.
China struggled to bury its dead and help tens of thousands of injured and homeless on Friday when a powerful aftershock brought new havoc four days after an earthquake thought to have killed more than 50 000 people. Anger has focused on the state of school buildings, many of which crumpled in Monday’s 7,9-magnitude quake.
The death toll from China’s massive earthquake rose to at least 20 000 on Thursday as rescuers struggled to help survivors and hopes faded for a further 25 000 buried under rubble for more than three days. Three days after the quake, hopes of pulling survivors from the ruins dimmed.
China ramped up its massive military rescue effort in the quake-hit south-west on Thursday, where more than 40 000 people lay dead or buried under rubble and rescue teams fought to save the living. Premier Wen Jiabao ordered another 30 000 troops and 90 helicopters to the disaster zone to reinforce the rescue operation.
The toll from China’s deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15 000 on Wednesday as thousands of troops, firefighters and common civilians battled to save thousands of people buried under rubble and mud. The government sent 50 000 troops to south-western Sichuan province to dig for victims.
China’s biggest earthquake for a generation left tens of thousands dead, missing or buried under the rubble of crushed communities on Tuesday, plunging the nation into an all-out aid effort. Rescue teams struggled by air, land and water to reach the areas of south-western China stricken by the huge quake that demolished schools, homes and factories.
Heavy rainfall and wrecked roads hampered rescuers’ efforts to reach the areas hardest-hit by China’s worst earthquake in three decades on Tuesday as the death toll rose to nearly 10 000. State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to soar, with Xinhua saying 10 000 people remained buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province.
A massive earthquake stunned south-west China on Monday, killing more than 8 000 people and flattening schools, factories and homes in a powerful tremor that was felt across a swathe of South-East Asia. The quake, with a magnitude of 7,8, struck close to densely populated areas of Sichuan province in what Premier Wen Jiabao called a ”major disaster”.
A powerful earthquake in south-west China killed at least 107 people on Monday and buried 900 teenagers in a collapsed school as the tremor caused buildings to fall and left whole areas cut off. The death toll was expected to rise sharply as authorities and rescue teams make contact with the worst-hit areas of Sichuan province.
Five children were killed and more than 100 injured in a 7,8 magnitude earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday, causing buildings to sway and residents rushing out into the streets. China’s official Xinhua news agency said the deaths occurred when two primary schools toppled in Liangping county of Chongqing, a municipality of 30-million that neighbours Sichuan.
Speeding drivers in south China are getting clear away thanks to machines that switch the numbers on their licence plates in seconds, state media said on Tuesday. ”More than 50% of cars caught on camera for speeding and other offences either cover up their plates or use a fake licence plate,” a traffic policeman in the Guangdong city of Yangjiang said.
Fear of a virus that has infected thousands of children gripped parents in China’s capital and financial hub on Tuesday, as the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease mounted across the country. More than 11 900 cases of the virus have been reported in China this year, the official Xinhua news agency said.
China’s Olympic ticketing system appeared to suffer another meltdown as the final phase of sales for the Beijing Games got under way on Monday, fans and official media said. Long internet delays and system crashes were reported as the 1,38-million tickets went on sale, echoing last year’s fiasco in which the computer booking network completely crashed.
China’s state press on Monday accused the Dalai Lama of ”monstrous crimes,” a day after Chinese officials reportedly agreed with envoys of the exiled Tibetan Buddhist to keep the door open on dialogue. The Chinese officials and the envoys met in southern China on Sunday for their first talks in over a year.
A rapidly spreading virus that has already killed 22 children in eastern China has killed an 18-month-old boy in southern China’s Guangdong province, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The boy died in Guangdong’s Foshan city from a suspected case of hand, foot and mouth disease, which was probably caused by the enterovirus 71, or EV71.
A new railway line being built as part of an upgrade ahead of the Beijing Olympics was a factor in a train crash that left 71 people dead in east China, officials and state press said on Wednesday. The pre-dawn crash near Zibo city on Monday, which also left more than 400 people injured, was the most severe in China in more than 10 years.
Chinese authorities on Tuesday blamed excessive speed for the nation’s worst train crash in more than a decade, amid fears the death toll would climb past 70. After the line to the seaside town of Qingdao was quickly reopened, the official Xinhua news agency cited an investigation panel as saying ”high speed” caused the accident.
Two passenger trains collided in eastern China on Monday, killing at least 70 people and injuring hundreds as carriages derailed and toppled into a ditch, state media said. About 400 people were taken to hospital, with 70 in a critical condition, Xinhua news agency said.
China poured scorn on the Dalai Lama on Sunday and hailed protesters against Tibetan self-rule as patriotic heroes, suggesting the government is not prepared to give ground in talks proposed for coming days. China has blamed the exiled Buddhist leader’s ”clique” for unrest across Lhasa and other Tibetan areas.
China is to hold talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom it blames for a wave of unrest, state media reported on Friday, as the Olympic flame arrived in Japan. The move comes after concerted pressure from the West on China to talk to the Dalai Lama and marks the first serious step to defuse tensions.
The Dalai Lama on Friday welcomed China’s offer to meet his envoy for talks after weeks of protests over Tibet and repeated calls from the exiled spiritual leader for dialogue with Beijing. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that talks would take place in the coming days, which the Dalai Lama’s spokesperson described as "a step in the right direction".
China has surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest internet-using population, reaching 221-million by the end of February, state media said on Thursday. The number of internet users in China was 210-million at the end of last year, only five million fewer than the US internet users then, Xinhua news agency said.
Chinese people in several cities took to the streets on Saturday to denounce Tibetan independence and call for a boycott of French goods following anti-China protests on the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay. Pictures from the central city of Wuhan showed large crowds marching carrying banners reading: ”Oppose Tibet independence, support the Olympics”.
China on Tuesday denounced protesters who upstaged Olympic Games torch relays in London and Paris, with state media saying that saboteurs are bent on wrecking Games goodwill. An international Olympic official also criticised the protests, but said the relay would stay on its round-the-world course.
The Paris leg of the Beijing Olympic flame relay was cut short on Monday after citywide protests against China’s crackdown in Tibet forced the torchbearers to take refuge on a bus. The torch’s journey by foot ended outside the French Parliament, where protesting deputies hung a Tibetan flag on a railing.