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6.1 magnitude earthquake leaves 22 dead in China
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100, state media said.
Rescue teams were headed to the quake-hit area but heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain hampered their efforts, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The quake killed 17 people in Sichuan and five others in the neighboring province of Yunnan, Xinhua said.
The agency said about 100 people in Sichuan and 35 in Yunnan were injured. The quake hit 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern corner of Sichuan on Saturday afternoon.
Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed in Panzhihua, and it was not known how many people were buried in the rubble, the report said.
The China Earthquake Administration sent teams and seismic experts while the Yunnan provincial civil affairs bureau and the Yunnan Red Cross Society sent 3,400 tents and 2,000 quilts, Xinhua said.
Also Saturday, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Xinhua said in a separate report.
No casualties were reported from the quake which hit the sparsely inhabited Tianshan mountains, it said.
On May 12, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in northern Sichuan killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. The region has been hit by scores of aftershocks, keeping people there on edge. A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100, s... more -
6.1 magnitude quake kills 22 in southwest China
BEIJING (AP) -- A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100, state media said.
Rescue teams were headed to the quake-hit area but heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain hampered their efforts, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The quake killed 17 people in Sichuan and five others in the neighboring province of Yunnan, Xinhua said.
The agency said about 100 people in Sichuan and 35 in Yunnan were injured. The quake hit 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern corner of Sichuan on Saturday afternoon.
Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed in Panzhihua, and it was not known how many people were buried in the rubble, the report said.
The China Earthquake Administration sent teams and seismic experts while the Yunnan provincial civil affairs bureau and the Yunnan Red Cross Society sent 3,400 tents and 2,000 quilts, Xinhua said.
Also Saturday, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Xinhua said in a separate report.
No casualties were reported from the quake which hit the sparsely inhabited Tianshan mountains, it said.
On May 12, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in northern Sichuan killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. The region has been hit by scores of aftershocks, keeping people there on edge. BEIJING (AP) -- A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring ... more -
China rocked by another earthquake
According to local state media, an earthquake measuring a possible magnitude of 6.1 has struck China's south west Sichuan province.
The US Geological Survey estimates the scale of the quake at 5.7, with a local news agency saying the quake's epicenter is about 20/30 miles from Panzhihua city, near the border with Yunnan province, and was six miles deep. According to local state media, an earthquake measuring a possible magnitude of 6.1 has struck China's south west Sichuan provinc... more -
Chinese teacher sent to labour camp for earthquake photos
A Chinese teacher has been sent to a labour camp over his internet photographs of schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake, a rights group said today.
Liu Shaokun was ordered to serve a year of "re-education through labour", according to Human Rights in China. The system does not require a formal charge or criminal trial and there is no appeal.
He is believed to be the third person held after posting material questioning why so many schools were destroyed in the May 12 earthquake, in which around 70,000 people died.
Scores of schools across the south-western province collapsed following the 7.9 magnitude shock. In many cases, other buildings around them remained intact, prompting questions about the quality of their construction.
The authorities initially responded to a wave of public outrage by promising an inquiry into whether shoddy building work was linked to corruption.
But they have subsequently silenced critics, ordering the state media not
to report on the subject and preventing parents from protesting.
In recent weeks, police have dragged grieving relatives away from demonstrations in some areas. Families have been pressed to sign contracts granting them compensation, which include commitments not to protest or attempts to sue the authorities.
"Instead of investigating and pursuing accountability for shoddy and
dangerous school buildings, the authorities are resorting to re-education
through labour to silence and lock up concerned citizens like teacher Liu
Shaokun and others," said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.
The group said that Liu, a teacher at Guanghan middle School in Deyang City, was detained on June 25 for "disseminating rumours and destroying social order". His wife, who has not been allowed to see him, was told last week that he had been sent to a labour camp.
He had travelled through the quake zone taking pictures of the ruins of
schools and circulating them on the internet, along with criticism of
shoddy building work.
The public security bureau in Deyang told the Guardian it was trying to
find out more about the matter and the propaganda department of the
Guanghan City people's government said it had not heard of the case.
But an official with the general office of the Guanghan school where Liu
worked told Reuters: "He was detained late last month by people from
national security bureau for deliberately inciting families of victims to
petition and disseminating anti-government rumours. They searched his home and found evidence."
China uses the labour camps to detain suspects for up to four years. Critics say it is unfair and is used to detain political
and religious activists.
The family of Huang Qi, a long-standing human rights activist from Sichuan, said this month that he had been formally arrested for "illegal possession of state secrets" after helping bereaved parents and posting articles about structural failings of schools on his website.
His wife, Zeng Li, told reporters he had not been allowed to see a lawyer or relatives since his detention on June 10.
One of his articles was about the detention of Zeng Hongling, a former
academic detained on subversion charges after she posted online essays attacking shoddy construction, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. A Chinese teacher has been sent to a labour camp over his internet photographs of schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake, a ... more -
Saving Sichuan's 'people in the clouds'
The devastating earthquake in Sichuan province has seriously endangered the 3,000 year-old customs of the Qiang people, writes the BBC's Nick Mackie.
It is a precarious drive some 10 km up a narrow, winding mountain trail to catch a glimpse of Zengtou and its fortress-like dwellings.
From about a kilometre downhill, the damage seems slight.
Surprisingly so, for this area is close to the epicentre of May's powerful earthquake. To the east, the huge Longmenshan range - the quake fault line - fills the skyline.
After China's choking, chaotic cities, the final climb past hillside blossoms towards this village in the clouds seems idyllic.
But on the rock-strewn path between high stone walls that serves as Zengtou's main street, the picture is different.
At the home of 60-year-old Zhou Libin the quake damage is clear.
Sections of the roof have caved in and supporting walls have collapsed. Huge cracks run down stonework that is still standing and the floor is dangerously unstable.
“We've no idea how to continue,” she says, crying. “We cannot harvest our plants, our peppercorns. We used to dry them on the roof, now we've either no roof or it's too dangerous.” The devastating earthquake in Sichuan province has seriously endangered the 3,000 year-old customs of the Qiang people, writes the BBC... more -
7 pandas remain at famed breeding center in China
BEIJING - Only seven pandas remain at China's most famous breeding center, after a final group of 13 animals were transferred from the earthquake-damaged facility, an official said Tuesday.
Most of the pandas at the Wolong Nature Reserve, tucked in the lush mountains of Sichuan province, had already been moved following the powerful May 12 quake that rattled Sichuan province and killed nearly 70,000 people.
The quake killed at least one panda and left the Wolong center vulnerable to aftershocks and landslides.
The 13 giant pandas arrived at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in the Sichuan province town of Ya'an on Monday night, said Li Desheng, research director at Wolong. Only seven 1-year-old cubs remained at the center.
"This is because the staff at Wolong really loves pandas, and they wanted to keep some little ones," he said in a telephone interview. "They are the hope for the future reconstruction of the panda base."
There were 63 pandas living at the Wolong center when the quake struck. The others have been moved to Bifengxia and a breeding center in the provincial capital of Chengdu. Facilities in the Chinese capital of Beijing, the eastern province of Fujian and the southern province of Guangdong are also keeping Wolong pandas.
The Wolong reserve is at the heart of China's effort to use captive breeding and artificial insemination to save the giant panda, which is revered as an unofficial national mascot. Plans for the facility's reconstruction have not been decided, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, an 8-year-old panda evacuated from Wolong gave birth to a set of twins on Monday at her new home in Bifengxia, state broadcaster CCTV reported. News footage showed a staffer holding a newborn panda, hairless and squirming, in an incubator.
Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity, many of them at Wolong, and scores have been loaned or given to zoos abroad, with the revenues helping fund conservation programs. BEIJING - Only seven pandas remain at China's most famous breeding center, after a final group of 13 animals were transferred fro... more -
Million flee south Chinese floods
Flooding in southern China has killed at least 55 people and forced more than one million to flee their homes, state media report.
Torrential downpours have affected some nine provinces with more heavy rain expected in the coming days, the official Xinhua News Agency reports.
Among those provinces badly hit is Sichuan, which is still reeling from last month's massive earthquake.
Some 87,000 people were killed or missing after the 12 May earthquake. Flooding in southern China has killed at least 55 people and forced more than one million to flee their homes, state media report. ... more -
A heart-breaking video about the shakiest and deadliest earthquake in the century.
Less than two weeks after the monster earthquakes hit Sichuan, China, the Western media have significantly cut back on, if not forgotten, the disaster coverage. Many have seen the horrific images of dormitory buildings shaking, people running for lives and soldiers digging rubble for signs of life. But this earthquake, along with its thousands of aftershocks, is very very different, and so much more brutal than any earthquake in recent history.
To present the disaster's visual destructiveness and ruthlessness isn't the most difficult job, as there are thousands upon thousands of video clips and images available on English and Chinese portal sites, TV network web pages, among other online entities. But how to get the viewers to understand the full magnitude of the destruction and, more importantly, the extreme challenges for refugee resettlement and reconstruction in less than 10 minutes is no easy task. (Most people nowadays don't have more than 10 minutes online for things they don't care much about any more.)
I set out to tell the earthquake story in a powerful video in a few minutes to the English speaking audience. By picking through over a thousand photos and dozens of video clips found on Chinese web sites, I managed to weave out a narrative of some major highlights with the help of a few Chinese classic tunes in the background. Strong components of this presentation includes:
The opening factoids - babies becoming orphans, parents grieving souls, 7,000 school buildings collapsed and one survey in a school found 90% students lost their friends.
Images of an anchorwoman running away from studio scared of shaking, continuous sound a minute's worth of studio desk trembling, and a clip of a security tape capturing people fleeing the building and sunshade umbrella shaking.
An emotional short conversation of an intact family describing how the father saved the daughter and what the daughter was thinking in the three hours buried under rubble. The daughter was so grateful for her survival that she kept saying "thank you" to her father, and the father kept telling her "don't mention it, stop crying." (This may not be something unusual for most Western viewers, but for those who understand Chinese culture, people often don't express emotions explicitly and saying thanks to parents or children is something rarely heard.)
Contrast photos of communities before and after the quake, photos of landslides, leveled landscapes, successful and failed rescues, satellite imagery, and a climactic string of photos that present a whole variety of difficulties for those who deal with the earthquake destruction, from 4 million Chengdu citizens sleeping on the streets to babies crying for parents.
At the end, I chose to have a moment of silence and, during this moment, open some thoughts about some of the questions journalists and many Chinese raised about shoddy buildings for schools, concerns about safety of many dams in this earthquake prone region, so on and so forth. As these will be some of the very important questions for China to address to rebuild stronger and better houses, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure projects.
This production is the most heart breaking piece I have done. But as a powerful video presentation, I hope it can help my nation and millions of those affected in their reconstructions by getting continued attention from outside China even though people here tend to forget about a most devastating earthquake in this century on the other side of the planet. Less than two weeks after the monster earthquakes hit Sichuan, China, the Western media have significantly cut back on, if not forgott... more -
When corruption works
Interesting take on the collapse of the schools in Sichuan - and how China's push for more and more institutes is what led to the faulty construction. Interesting take on the collapse of the schools in Sichuan - and how China's push for more and more institutes is what led to the... more
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Chinese government plans to build 1.5 million temporary homes in three months.
After the relief and rescue effort pulled 84,000 survivors out of the rubble in China's Sichuan province, the Chinese government is setting up a 70 billion yuan (~$10 billion US) fund to pay for the reconstruction in the disaster area. The "quake-resistant" homes are built to last three years and will help shelter the 5 million people left homeless. After the relief and rescue effort pulled 84,000 survivors out of the rubble in China's Sichuan province, the Chinese government ... more
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Over 8,500 killed in China Earthquake
80 per cent of the buildings in Sichuan's Beichuan county were destroyed in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake
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Pandas, Buddha, Mts.,Ladies. Chengdu China.
Part 1 of 2. We check out the Panda Park in Chengdu then head to Leshan for the biggest Buddha in the world. After that we head to Emei Shan, andeventually make it back to Chengdu for a night on the town with local ladies...mmm Spicy. Part 1 of 2. We check out the Panda Park in Chengdu then head to Leshan for the biggest Buddha in the world. After that we head to E... more
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