Official says torrential rains, flooding kill 70 in southern China

clipped from www.foxnews.com Flooding caused by the heavy rains — which started a month earlier than normal — damaged more than 80,000 homes and damaging large swaths of cropland, affecting more than 10 million people across 13 provinces and cities, the State Flood Control and Disaster Relief Headquarters said on its website. "South China has already entered its flood season, one month earlier than in past years. The biggest floods have yet to come," Sun Jun of the National Meteorological Center was cited as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. The areas include the provinces of Guangdong, Chongqing, Sichuan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Zhejiang. In some areas, such as Guangdong province, the thunderstorms have cut power lines, toppled homes and bridges, submerged roads and caused rivers to overflow, forcing the relocation of 145,000 people in less than a week, Xinhua said. China's huge land mass means severe storms can cause floods in one region, while other parts of the country experience droughts.

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China Earthquake today - Earthquake in China: Tibet, Qinghai Earthquake [Video]

clipped from money.gather.com Earlier in the day a deadly earthquake struck in Western China at a magnitude of 7.1. The force of the quake brought destruction to human life and property. Reports confirmed 400 dead and 10,000 injured in Qinghai Province.       According the Chinese state media and Chinese officials the quake struck in a poor and sparsely populated area near the mountainous border with Tibet.  Almost two years ago a deadly earthquake hit the region causing great devastation and killing as many as 87,000 people in the neighboring Sichuan Province. The region where the earthquake struck is south of Qinghai province, borders Tibet and cover an area of 267,000 square kilometres with a population of about 280,000. The Qinghai province is approximately 12 hours drive from the capital of Xining.
16 hours ago	5.8	Southern Qinghai, China	Map
17 hours ago	5.3	Southern Qinghai, China	Map
17 hours ago	6.9	Southern Qinghai, China

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China says drought now affecting 50 million people

clipped from www.reuters.com BEIJING (Reuters) - A severe drought across a large swathe of southwest China is now affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters see no signs of it abating in the short term, state media said on Friday. The drought began last autumn, and is the result not only of less rainfall but also unseasonably high temperatures, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a central government meeting on the situation. It is affecting the provinces and regions of Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan and the municipality of Chongqing. These parts of China are known for their sugar and rubber plantations. More than 16 million people are having difficulty accessing safe drinking water, it added. "The drought has lasted for more than five straight months and is still developing," Xinhua said. "It is having a serious impact upon people's lives, industry and agriculture as well as general economic development. Losses are severe."

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China gives 5 years to activist who probed quake

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Chinese police officers blocked nine Hong Kong journalists from interviewing Pu outside the courthouse, Hong Kong's radio RTHK said. The reporters were led to a room inside the courthouse and released after the verdict was announced.

An officer from the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu was at the courthouse for Tan's sentencing but was not allowed in, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson.

"Persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights. The United States condemns these convictions," Stevenson said.

Lu, who lost his daughter, said he and other parents were still waiting for the government to properly investigate the school collapses.

clipped from www.usatoday.com BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese activist who investigated the deaths of thousands of children crushed in their schools during the Sichuan earthquake was sentenced Tuesday to five years, underscoring the government's determination to suppress questions about why the buildings fell. Many have asked whether poor construction was responsible for the staggering number of children killed in the May 2008 temblor, which took 90,000 lives. Parents have protested frequently, and authorities have reacted severely to such demonstrations, jailing, harassing and threatening participants. For months after the May 12 temblor, China refused to provide an estimate of how many children had been killed in schools, prompting Tan to start his own investigation in December of that year. He hoped to have a figure before the first anniversary of the quake but was detained in March 2009. His initial estimate was that at least 5,600 students were among the dead.

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