The New Nation - Internet Edition

Heavy storms hamper rescue operation in quake-hit China

Reuters, Dujiangyan

Heavy storms and wrecked roads hampered efforts to reach areas hardest-hit by China's worst earthquake in three decades on Tuesday as the death toll rose to around 10,000.

State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to soar, with Xinhua news agency saying 10,000 people were buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province and that troops had arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the quake.

A strong aftershock rocked Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, on Tuesday afternoon, one of more than 1,950 over the past day and keeping nervous residents on edge. "Office workers in downtown Chengdu took to the streets again after the quake," Xinhua said, adding it was thought to be the strongest since Monday's 7.9 magnitude tremor.

Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting Sichuan, ordered troops to clear roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100 km (62 miles) from Chengdu.

Damage from Monday's quake left the area, about 1,600 km southwest of Beijing, completely cut off.

And rain and thick clouds over a province famous for its giant panda reserves meant that military helicopters dispatched to the area could not yet land. Parachutists belonging to the People's Liberation Army cancelled a rescue drop because of storms, Xinhua said.

State television showed highways buckled and caved in from the quake and massive rockslides lining the roads.

In Dujiangyan-about midway between Chengdu and the epicenter-there was devastation, with buildings reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets. Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and military trucks able to do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residents simply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessions in their arms. Others huddled in relief tents under heavy rain.

"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well as children," said a hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to a building in ruins. Mattresses and household objects could be seen poking through the rubble. "How could they survive that?" she asked.

Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished by the quake, which rolled from Sichuan across much of China and was felt as far away as Bangkok and Hanoi.

Myanmar rejects global pressure to accept aid workers

AFP, Yangon

Myanmar's military rulers on Tuesday rejected growing international pressure to accept aid workers, insisting against all the evidence that it had the emergency

Even as US President George W. Bush and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon voiced their fury at the country's generals, and aid agencies again warned that time was running out, the regime remained defiant about letting in outsiders.

"The nation does not need skilled relief workers yet," Vice Admiral Soe Thein said in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the military which has ruled the nation with an iron grip for nearly half a century.

He said the needs of the people following the storm, which has left around 62,000 dead or missing since ripping through the southern Irrawaddy delta on May 2, "have been fulfilled to an extent".

But aid agencies tell a starkly different story, warning that as every day passes without sufficient food, water and shelter, as many as two million people are at risk of adding to the already staggering death toll.

Just hours after the United States sent its first aid plane into the country since the tragedy-following days of negotiations-Bush said the world should "be angry and condemn" the junta.

"Either they are isolated or callous," he said. "There's no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow response."

Lebanon army set to use force to halt fighting

AFP, Beirut

Lebanese troops were set to use force if necessary on Tuesday to disarm gunmen and enforce law and order after six days of deadly sectarian gunbattles that have thrown the nation into fear and chaos.

The military had said that as of 6:00 am (0300 GMT) its troops were ready to resort to force to bring an end to the violence pitting supporters of the Western-backed government against members of the Hezbollah-led opposition.

The fighting, which has left at least 61 people dead and scores more wounded, is the worst sectarian unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war and had stoked fears the country was headed for another all-out conflict.

US President George W. Bush warned Iran and Syria that the international community would not allow Lebanon to fall under foreign domination again and vowed to shore up the Lebanese army.

Fierce battles erupted for about a half hour overnight between Sunnis loyal to the government and pro-Hezbollah Alawites in the northern port city of Tripoli but by early Tuesday troops were reinforcing their presence in affected areas.

EU voices support for Georgia amid Russia row

AFP, Tbilisi

The European Union voiced support for Georgia on Monday amid tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow over Russian-backed separatists.

Separately, US President George W. Bush expressed "concern" at tensions over the separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia in a phone conversation with Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, the White House said. The message of European support was delivered by Slovenian Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU presidency, as the separatists in Abkhazia claimed to have downed two more Georgian spy planes. "The European Union reiterates its support for Georgia's sovereignty and its territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders," said Rupel, who was accompanied in Tbilisi by the foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.The ministers-three of them from east European states that broke from Moscow's rule in 1991 -- were holding talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi on a worsening Georgian-Russian stand-off.

Hillary poised for West Virginia win; Obama looks ahead

AP, Charleston

The Democratic presidential race runs on two tracks now, one snaking through the West Virginia primary Tuesday and the other mapped out by Barack Obama through battleground states in the fall. Hillary Rodham Clinton had every reason to expect a big victory over Obama in West Virginia yet scant hope it could turn around her presidential bid.

She campaigned, though, like it mattered, even as Obama did little more than a drop-by in a state that seemed poised to shun him.

Interest is keen in the primary, judging by a record turnout of more than 70,000 people who cast ballots in person before Tuesday in the state's liberal early voting system. The Illinois senator may be only a few weeks from clinching the Democratic nomination, no matter what happens in West Virginia or in another Clinton stronghold, Kentucky, a week later.

Israel agrees to ease W.Bank restrictions: Blair

Reuters, Jerusalem

Israel has agreed to ease travel and trade restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Middle East envoy Tony Blair said on Tuesday, seeking to bolster peace talks. "This is a first step but it is a significant first step," Blair told a news conference.

"It will make a marked improvement," he said, adding that the changes would over time "significantly" improve north-south and east-west movement within the West Bank. Blair said Israel would scrap one checkpoint near the West Bank city of Hebron this week, and remove or relocate several others, including one at Beit El near Ramallah, which would be moved "once Israel determines the security situation so allows."

Putin keeps his Kremlin chair

Reuters, Moscow

Dmitry Medvedev may be Russia's president but Vladimir Putin has kept his place in the Kremlin. When Putin came to his old office in the Kremlin on Monday to propose the names of ministers for his government, the former president made for his customary seat on the left of the desk.

But he paused before sitting down and told President Medvedev: "Now this is your place," Russia's Kommersant daily reported.

"Oh, what's the difference?" Medvedev answered and immediately sat on the right of the desk, where Putin's guests traditionally perched for the eight years of his presidency. A photograph of the two leaders published on the Kremlin's www.kremlin.ru website showed them smiling at the start of the meeting. Putin sat on the left and Medvedev on the right.