Image report°70

A worker looks on as Giant Pandas eat bamboo at a zoo in Beijing Monday, June 2, 2008. Eight pandas has arrived safely in Beijing after a long journey from their damaged reserve near the epicenter following the deadly earthquake. The pandas arrived last Saturday to spend the next six months at the Beijing Zoo on a special Olympics visit that had been planned long before the quake.(AP)


Children wearing panda costumes express their best wishes to the "Olympic pandas" at the Beijing Zoo June 5, 2008. Eight giant pandas selected by citizens to add cheer to the Beijing Olympics arrived at the zoo from their home in earthquake-devastated Sichuan province on May 24 and met the public on Thursday. REUTERS/China Daily


Workers install a window in a temporary house being built for residents affected by the recent earthquake in Shifang, Sichuan province June 4, 2008.REUTERS/Stringer

Quake causes huge damage to China's cultural relics

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- A total of 169 cultural relics sites under state protection and 250 provincial-level ones suffered damages of various degrees during the May 12 quake, official source said Friday.

Of the damaged relics, two were on the World Heritage List, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said.

In total, 2,766 pieces of relics were damaged, of which 292 were considered very precious, the administration said.

Image report°69

Nine-year-old Xia Xueyin, her face badly bruised from a fall during last week's earthquake, takes photos of her family's damaged home in Hanwang town of China's southwest Sichuan province.


Paramilitary policemen are disinfected after searching for bodies of victims in the earthquake-affected Dujiangyan, Sichuan province May 21, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer


Survivors collected supplies after they were unloaded from a helicopter in Songlin village in Sichuan's Shifang County. Several million survivors were left homeless by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake.Photo: Oded Balilty/Associated Press

Helicopter crashes while on duty in quake zones

CHENGDU, June 1 (Xinhua) -- A military transport helicopter engaging in quake relief work near the Yingxiu Township, Wenchuan County in Southwest China's Sichuan Province crashed on Saturday afternoon, according to military sources.

A crew of four and 10 injured local residents were on board for transfer when the Mi-171 helicopter with the quake relief troops of the Chengdu Military Area Command crashed at 2:56 p.m., the military sources said.

The helicopter was returning from a mission to carry epidemic prevention experts to Lixian county when it encountered strong turbulence and fog and crashed.

4-magnitude aftershock hits Qingchuan and ...

SICHUAN, May 31 -- A 4-magnitude aftershock hit Qingchuan, Sichuan Province at 14:22 pm Saturday according to Sichuan Seismological Bureau, China News Online reports.



BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- In the 24 hours ending Saturday noon, 215 aftershocks were monitored in southwest China's quake zone, according to the China Seismological Bureau.

No aftershocks above 4.0 on the Richter scale were detected and all the 215 aftershocks were measured below 3.9, the office said, adding that 9,519 aftershocks had been monitored since May 12 when the major quake struck.

The strongest aftershock, with a magnitude of 6.4, hit Qingchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 4:21 p.m. on May 25.

China Seismological Bureau has set up observation stations to continuously monitor diastrophism (deformations in the Earth's crust) and gravitational anomalies within the quake zone.