China declares 3 days mourning for quake victims
BEICHUAN, China (AP) - China declared three days of national mourning for earthquake victims and ordered a suspension of the Olympic torch relay, as the search for survivors of the disaster grew bleak Sunday.
The State Council said the mourning period would start Monday and include three minutes of silence observed nationwide at 2:28 p.m., the time the quake struck.
Beijing Olympic organizers said in a statement that the torch relay would be suspended "to express our deep mourning to the victims of the earthquake."
The relay already had resumed last week after the quake on a more somber note, with runners starting with a minute of silence and asking for donations along the route. Organizers have said the relay would go on as planned in quake-hit Sichuan province next month.
In the disaster zone, efforts appeared to shift Sunday from searching for buried survivors to clearing corpses from shattered buildings as the government said the confirmed death toll rose to 32,476.
Another 220,109 people suffered injuries, according to a statement from the State Council, China's Cabinet. The government has said it expects the final death toll will surpass 50,000.
Near the quake's epicenter, few hopeful relatives were seen in Beichuan, where several dozen corpses in blue body bags lay in a street. Soldiers regularly pulled more dead from the wreckage.
"It will soon be too late" to find trapped survivors, said Koji Fujiya, deputy leader of a Japanese rescue team that pulled 10 bodies from a flattened school Sunday. "We hope with our hard work we will find more people alive."
A "slightly bruised" man was pulled out alive from a collapsed hospital Sunday after being trapped for 139 hours, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Experts say buried earthquake survivors can live a week or more, depending on factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink.
A Malaysian rescue team in the town of Muyu, further north, sifted slowly and methodically through the wreckage. However, they were not tapping on the debris in hopes that survivors would hear and respond as other crews had done earlier - instead using giant cutters to split steel girders.
Dozens of students were buried in new graves dotting a green hillside overlooking the rubble, the small mounds of dirt failing to block the pungent smell of decay wafting from the ground. Most graves were unmarked, though several had wooden markers with names scribbled on them.
Zhou Bencen, 36, said he raced to the town's middle school after the earthquake, where relatives who arrived earlier had dug out the body of his 13-year-old daughter, Zhou Xiao, crushed on the first floor.
Zhou cradled his wife in his arms, holding her hand and stroking her back while she sobbed hysterically. "Oh God, oh God, why is life so bitter?" Liao Jinju wailed, over and over. The couple's 9-year-old son survived.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged rescue teams to reach remote villages battered by the earthquake where the level of damage remained unknown, according to Xinhua.
That was reinforced by a group of about 15 people who surrounded an Associated Press reporter at a gasoline station in Mianyang city Sunday, appealing for help for their village, Xiushui.
"The government is doing nothing to help us," said one man, who identified himself only by his surname, Chen. "If I gave you my complete name the government would track me down."
Chen did not say how many people lived there. He handed over a note signed "by the people of Xiushui," reading: "Please go to our village of Xiushui to cover the situation. The government is doing nothing to help us get water or housing."
More international aid was arriving, with two U.S. Air Force cargo planes loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals landing Sunday in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.
The World Health Organization said conditions for homeless survivors were ripe for outbreaks of disease and called for quick action to supply clean water and proper hygiene facilities. Chinese health officials have not reported any disaster-related outbreaks so far.
Also in the quake area, three giant pandas were missing from the world's most famous reserve for the endangered animals.
All the pandas at the Wolong Nature Reserve were first reported safe Tuesday, but an official with the State Forestry Administration now says three are missing, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.
Panda houses at the reserve were severely damaged and five staff members there were killed, forestry spokesman Cao Qingyao told Xinhua.
The 60 other giant pandas at the Wolong Nature Reserve were safe, according to the agency. The reserve is 18 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.
Phone calls to the state forestry administration and to the forestry bureau in Sichuan province rang unanswered Sunday night. Fixed phone lines to the reserve remained down. Officials have been able to call the reserve only by satellite phone.
Meanwhile, flood threats from rivers blocked by landslides from the quake appeared to have eased after three waterways near the epicenter overflowed with no problems, Xinhua said. County officials diverted released water as a precaution.
The quake damaged some water projects, such as reservoirs and hydroelectric stations, but no reservoirs had burst, Liu Ning, engineer in chief with the Ministry of Water Resources, told Xinhua.
Nuclear facilities jolted by the quake were confirmed safe and troops were sent to reinforce security there, air force Maj. Gen. Ma Jian, deputy chief of operations for the military's General Staff Headquarters, told reporters in Beijing.
China has a research reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two atomic weapons sites in Sichuan province, the French nuclear watchdog has said, all located 40 to 90 miles from the epicenter.
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Associated Press writers Tini Tran in Muyu and William Foreman in Mianyang contributed to this report.
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China suspends torch relay for 3 days of mourning
BEIJING (AP) - China is suspending the Olympic torch relay for three days as part of a national mourning for earthquake victims.
Beijing Olympic organizers said in a statement that the suspension starts Monday - one week after the earthquake struck.
Aside from the relay, the government is ordering all flags be flown at half-staff and a halt to all public recreation activities.
The country will observe three minutes of silence Monday at 2:28 in the afternoon - the time the quake hit, killing an estimated 50,000 people.
- Re: China declares 3 days mourning for quake victimsposted on 05/19/2008
在美国的朋友,都为9.11中丧生的人们降过旗,默过哀。 - posted on 05/19/2008
今天下午两点二十,我们单位的同事都到楼下集合,党委书记放起了广播,有车的同事进了自己的汽车,准备着,从两点二十八分到两点半,全国默哀三分钟,汽车鸣笛,放空袭警报。自今日起,设国难三天,悼念四川地震受灾百姓。
做了一首古风,自己感到很多处用词不恰当,大家别笑话我,这是我第一次写古风。余溃溃耳。
此乃行为之艺术
发乎情止也乎礼
自得知震耗
心中惴惴
无窍可宣
伊默之哀
众响杂陈
昔我抑蕴
似得其窗
小响成众
风云龙虎
濯濯兮晴霆沁脾
恢恢然涤荡宿疴
普天同族
偕乎兄弟
血脉相连
暖然可触
一国气血
澈然无尘
己小矣然岂弗大矣欤
自京至川逾千里
而其痛波及身侧
其号呼响撼心隅
国家一方有难
一人伤其手足
其失离之情难以言表
唯默立而祷祝旃
善哉!万千一默哀出也
似天下已无萍水
若人心断绝隔阂
相濡吐哺兮广千万里
立地僻远兮情骛八荒
唱已痛已
呜呼尚飨
戊子年四月望 - posted on 05/19/2008
怎么写都好。同感同感。
朱老剑客 wrote:
今天下午两点二十,我们单位的同事都到楼下集合,党委书记放起了广播,有车的同事进了自己的汽车,准备着,从两点二十八分到两点半,全国默哀三分钟,汽车鸣笛,放空袭警报。自今日起,设国难三天,悼念四川地震受灾百姓。
做了一首古风,自己感到很多处用词不恰当,大家别笑话我,这是我第一次写古风。余溃溃耳。
此乃行为之艺术
发乎情止也乎礼
自得知震耗
心中惴惴
无窍可宣
伊默之哀
众响杂陈
昔我抑蕴
似得其窗
小响成众
风云龙虎
濯濯兮晴霆沁脾
恢恢然涤荡宿疴
普天同族
偕乎兄弟
血脉相连
暖然可触
一国气血
澈然无尘
己小矣然岂弗大矣欤
自京至川逾千里
而其痛波及身侧
其号呼响撼心隅
国家一方有难
一人伤其手足
其失离之情难以言表
唯默立而祷祝旃
善哉!万千一默哀出也
似天下已无萍水
若人心断绝隔阂
相濡吐哺兮广千万里
立地僻远兮情骛八荒
唱已痛已
呜呼尚飨
戊子年四月望 - Re: China declares 3 days mourning for quake victimsposted on 05/19/2008
让我想起《圣经》中,以色列人在大难来临时,总是披上丧服,坐在灰土里,表示哀痛和悔罪。 - Re: China declares 3 days mourning for quake victimsposted on 05/19/2008
很好。
“吐哺”典故似不妥,除非此语在握发吐哺之外还有别的用法。 - Re: China declares 3 days mourning for quake victimsposted on 05/19/2008
中国似乎在飞快地进步。民心民情和媒体已经做好准备迎接变革。同胞们让人感到自豪。 - Re: China declares 3 days mourning for quake victimsposted on 05/20/2008
八十一子 wrote:
很好。
“吐哺”典故似不妥,除非此语在握发吐哺之外还有别的用法。
您说的对,我昨天也感到这词儿用得唐突。“吐哺”除了“握发”外还有“养育”的意思,具体出处我不知道了,我是看《聊斋》里有过这样的注解。总之这词儿用得太唐突,等我想好了,我得改过来。谢谢哈:)
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