18/5/08
China has today revised upwards the magnitude of last Monday’s devastating earthquake to 8.0 on the Richter scale. The May 12 earthquake, which was felt as far away as Bangkok, has killed an estimated 50,000 people, injured more than 220,000 and damaged more than 15 million buildings.
16/5/08
The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta, has reached 77,738, state television has said. It also reported on Friday that another 55,917 people are missing and 19,359 are injured. The news comes as Myanmar faces increased pressure to allow international aid into the country. The previous official death toll was 43,328, but independent experts say the actual number could be much higher. British officials say the total number of people dead and missing could be more than 200,000.
Nico Hines & Jane Macartney; 15/5/08
The Chinese Government rushed 2,000 troops to a dam above the devastated town of Dujiangyan, in Sichuan province, today in an emergency attempt to plug cracks caused by the earthquake. If the Zipingpu Dam were to collapse, torrents of water would surge downriver into some of the areas where more than 42,000 people are reported dead or missing. Rescuers finally reached some the worst hit of those areas in the Sichuan province today. The official death toll now stands at 14,866, but while the army and emergency workers battle to reach isolated areas and scour mile after mile of rubble, the scale of the disaster continues to rise.
