China seeks earthquake aid from Japan

(CNN) -- China is turning to its former enemy Japan for help as it seeks to boost its relief operations after the deadly earthquake that has devastated the southwestern Sichuan province.

China has begun talks with Tokyo about what would be the first significant military dispatch involving the two countries since World War II, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

"Given the magnitude of this disaster, if some countries or militaries are ready to provide us with material in urgent need, we will express our welcome," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, AP reported.

The Kyodo news agency said Japan plans to dispatch Self-Defense Forces aircraft to transport tents and other relief supplies to main airports, but the troops will not be allowed to go into the affected areas.

The Beijing regime has welcomed aid from the international community as it seeks to help the 158,000 people evacuated from nearly 170 areas.

The official death toll from the quake climbed to 68,516 on Thursday; another 365,399 people were injured and 19,350 missing. About 5 million are thought to be homeless, the government says.

However, its relations with Japan have been cold since the invasion by its neighbor in the 1930s, which caused a residual resentment among the Chinese population, especially as chemical weapons were abandoned there by Japanese troops, AP said.

China has criticized Japan for atoning for its war-time activities, but relations have thawed in the past two years, and leaders from each nation have since made symbolic visits to meet their peers.

One of China's main concerns after the May 12 earthquake is to deal with the effects of its aftershocks, with landslides having created dangerous "quake lakes." Video Watch footage of the landslides »

Thousands of people evacuated after the initial 7.9-magnitude quake face the prospect of having to be moved on again due to fears of massive flooding if the the lakes burst, CNN's Kyung Lah reported Thursday.

"They have had to move not once but twice, and this could just be the tip of the iceberg, the government says. Up to 1.3 million people could be affected by the quake lakes," Lah said. Video Watch report from tent city in Mianyang »

Efforts to drain the quake-created lake in Beichuan county were hampered by pouring rain Thursday, AP reported.

However, workers continued to dig a long spillway to relieve the water pressure building as the Jianjiang River fills in behind the massive pile of rock and soil.

"The government says if they are able to alleviate the pressure, then they will be able to save these towns from flooding over," Lah said.

"These residents are waiting without electricity, and they are exhausted. They say they are hoping for some good news." Video Watch how rain has caused further problems. »

The lake is holding 130 million cubic meters (170 million cubic yards) of water -- equal to about 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to Liu Ning, chief engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources.

Creating a spillway to relieve the pressure is expected to take 10 days, state media reported, allowing enough time if the lake continues to rise at its average of about 2 meters (6 feet) per day.
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Meanwhile, soldiers doing relief work in the already-devastated town of Beichuan were injured when a stockpile of chemicals being used to disinfect the rubble ignited in a storage building, AP reported.

A fire crew official said 61 soldiers were taken to a hospital in the town, which had been evacuated due to the quake, the agency said.

More than 100 Nations Approve Draft Outlawing Cluster Bombs

By VOA News
28 May 2008

Diplomats from more than 100 countries meeting in Ireland have agreed on a draft treaty outlawing cluster bombs, which have killed or wounded thousands of civilians.

The draft approved Wednesday would give signatory nations eight years to destroy their cluster bomb stockpiles.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his government will stop using cluster bombs.

But the United States, one of the world's largest builders of the bombs, opposes a ban.

The U.S., Israel, Russia, China, India and Pakistan are not present at the Dublin meeting.

Cluster bombs are fired from the ground or dropped from planes. They explode in mid-air and scatter hundreds of smaller bombs over a wide area. The bomblets that do not explode on impact can stay hidden for months before blowing-up.

The United Nations says the bomblets have killed or wounded thousands of unsuspecting civilians, including children who mistake them for toys.

Final approval of the draft is expected later this week. Participating countries plan to sign it later this year.

U.S. officials say they are also concerned about the dangers to civilians of unexploded bomblets. But they say the weapons are still useful in certain conflicts. They say cluster bombs should be upgraded so that the unexploded bomblets become harmless after a certain period.

Minister left classified NATO documents

By ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) — The Canadian foreign minister who resigned this week for a security breach had left classified documents about a NATO summit at the home of his ex-girlfriend, the government said Tuesday.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it appeared that no confidential information had gotten out.

The foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, resigned Monday after leaving the documents at the home of Julie Couillard, who has generated controversy for past ties to members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Harper called Bernier's security breach a "serious error."

Conservative lawmaker Peter Van Loan said Tuesday that the documents were a mix of classified and public documents relating to the April NATO summit in Romania where Canada sought reinforcements for troops in Afghanistan.

"Thus far we have no information that would suggest that any secrets have been revealed," Harper said in Paris. He said the incident would be reviewed.

Bernier wrote in his letter of resignation that he learned Sunday night that he had left behind classified documents at a private residence.

"Prime Minister, the security breach that occurred was my fault and my fault alone and I take full responsibility for my actions," Bernier wrote.

Couillard said she contacted a lawyer five weeks after he left the documents at her home in April. Couillard's lawyer returned them to the government on Sunday.

In an interview broadcast Monday, she denied ever reading the documents, saying "it was definitely not for my eyes."

"I was panicked by the fact that I had that at my house," Couillard said.

Opposition parties demanded that the government explain how it took them five weeks to realize the classified documents were missing. Opposition Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Harper showed "appalling lack of judgment" for dismissing security concerns over Bernier's involvement with a woman with past ties to gang members, and called for a public inquiry.

But Harper said that Bernier's resignation has put an end to the matter.

"As we've said, private lives are private lives and the government of Canada does not intend to get into the business of investigating private citizens," Harper said. "This has nothing to do with Madame Couillard. This was the unfortunate error, the unfortunate actions of the minister that are at issue here."

Bernier first drew the attention of Canadians when he appeared at his swearing-in ceremony in August with the provocatively dressed Couillard on his arm. Her former links to Hells Angels did not become public until recently.

Harper said Monday that David Emerson, the international trade minister, will take over as interim foreign minister.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

China Prepares to Blast Quake Lake to Stop Flooding (Update1)

By Dune Lawrence and Aaron Sheldrick

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese troops prepared to blast barriers caused by the country's deadliest earthquake in 32 years to drain lakes that are threatening to burst and inundate towns trying to recover from the disaster.

About 600 military engineers and soldiers were working on the barrier that created the lake upstream from Beichuan in Sichuan province by 9 p.m. local time yesterday, state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Bulldozers and other digging equipment were flown in and officials are preparing to evacuate people.

``Around 100,000 would be evacuated to ensure their safety according to the current drainage plan,'' Liu Ning, the Ministry of Water Resources chief engineer, was cited as saying.

The Tangjiashan lake is one of 35 caused by the earthquake on May 12 that killed 65,080 people and left 23,150 missing, according to figures released yesterday by the government. The earthquake devastated highways and roads throughout mountainous eastern Sichuan, forcing soldiers and engineers to trek to areas such as Tangjiashan carrying dynamite and equipment.

The water level of Tangjiashan, the most dangerous of the quake lakes, rose 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) yesterday, Xinhua said.

The lake contains 130 million cubic meters (34 billion gallons) of water and is about 26 meters below the lowest part of the barrier, which was created when a part of a mountain collapsed into the Jianhe River.

Reinforcing Barriers

As many as 1,800 engineers, soldiers and policemen are being sent to the barrier. Soldiers are bringing in 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of dynamite each to move as much as 100,000 tons of debris and drain the lake, Xinhua said.

Engineers are also working to reinforce barriers downstream to prevent flooding when the water is released. About 687 kilometers of embankments throughout Sichuan need to be checked, Xinhua said.

Evacuation plans have been prepared for communities near 19 lakes, E. Jingping, deputy minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, said May 25. Sixty-nine reservoirs were also in ``immediate'' danger of bursting and measures, such as draining the worst-damaged constructions, are being taken.

Areas around the disaster zone may experience light rain through May 29, according to the China Meteorological Administration's forecast today. Sichuan's rainy season will start next month.

Aftershocks Hit

Aftershocks are disrupting relief work and bringing more rubble down from mountains. A magnitude-4.6 quake hit at 8:46 a.m. yesterday in the region, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. A 6-magnitude quake in the area on May 25 left at least 8 people dead, Xinhua said yesterday.

The 7.9-magnitude temblor two weeks ago left more than 5 million people homeless.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs signed contracts with 75 enterprises to deliver 900,000 tents before June 20, it said in a statement. Almost 496,000 tents were delivered by yesterday, Xinhua said.

The government earlier called for 3.3 million tents and said it will build 1.5 million temporary houses for survivors.

Donations from overseas and at home stood at 30.88 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) by yesterday, Xinhua said.

The May 12 earthquake was the most powerful to hit China, the world's most populous country, since a magnitude 8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526 people.

A 7.5 magnitude temblor in Tangshan in the northeast killed 250,000 in 1976, according to the USGS. China's seismology department said the Sichuan quake had a magnitude of 8.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dune Lawrence in Beijing at dlawrence6@bloomberg.net; Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net.

U.N. urges Myanmar not to alienate cyclone orphans

YANGON (Reuters) - The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) is trying to convince army-ruled Myanmar not to place at least 2,000 youngsters orphaned by this month's cyclone into state-run homes, a senior official said on Monday.

"We should try and place children within family environments as a priority, and not in institutions," Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF's child protection chief in the former Burma, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

"We should try to keep them in their community and even in the interim, before we are able to trace families, we should be able to place children in temporary foster care families. That's the message we are sending," she said.

The junta said last week it would build orphanages in Labutta and Pyapon, two of the hardest-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, where the May 2 cyclone left 134,000 people dead or missing and another 2.4 million destitute.

In an attempt to reverse this policy, UNICEF is flying in its Asia head, Anupama Rao Singh, to speak in person to Welfare Minister Major-General Maung Maung Swe on Monday.

Despite government restrictions on aid workers in the delta, the United Nations says it has established that at least 2,000 children have lost both parents.

In Labutta, 282 children were separated from their families, and of those 50 now in the care of officials had no known family, UNICEF said.

Their story is repeated across the delta, where -- as in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami -- children made up a disproportionate number of the dead because they were unable to cling to trees or buildings when the storm surge swept in.

Even before Cyclone Nargis, children in Myanmar faced a challenge to stay alive. Infant mortality rates of 76 per 1,000 live births are among the highest in Asia and the U.N. says one in three toddlers is malnourished.

One of the few positives is that decades of military rule and international isolation have at least protected youngsters from the child trafficking networks that operate elsewhere in southeast Asia.

"If there is one area in Myanmar where we can say the government has taken positive steps, it is child trafficking," Dufay said.

Even though a trickle of aid is getting through, Dufay said Nargis would affect families for months to come as poverty forced children to leave home in search of work, causing a so-called "second separation".

"You have family breakdowns, poverty, single-headed households, women with five children and no husband to go fishing. Child protection issues tend to surface over many months," she said.

As with nearly all outside aid agencies, UNICEF has had problems with access to the delta, although said it had been fortunate enough to have some emergency supplies already stockpiled in the area.

(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Ed Davies and Alex Richardson)

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