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Xinhua — more than 1,000 found

GUIYANG, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Six people have died and five others were injured after heavy rains hit southwest China's Guizhou Province from Monday evening to Tuesday, local authorities said.

From Monday evening to 8 a.m. Tuesday, downpours battered 18 cities and counties in Guizhou, affecting over 180,000 people, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

The rainstorms have damaged over 1,500 houses, including 207 that collapsed. Over 631 people have been relocated to avoid flood risks.

LANZHOU, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Floods have left one villager dead and two others missing in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province.

From 10 p.m. Sunday to early Monday morning, floods have ravaged several districts and counties of the city. In Yuzhong county, a villager has been confirmed dead and two others are still missing, according to the Yuzhong county government.

Rescuers are still searching for the missing, local government authorities said Monday.

English.news.cn 2012-05-17 19:07:20

LANZHOU, May 17 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,100 students in northwest China's Gansu province returned to class Thursday after their school was closed by hail and storms on May 10, according to local authorities.

The students of Hetuo School in Minxian county went back to school Thursday following hail and torrential rains that hit the county last week, killing 45 people and leaving 14 others missing, according to Wang Decheng, director of the local education department.

English.news.cn 2012-05-18 23:23:30

LANZHOU, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in northwest China have reported 57 deaths and 15 missing people as of Friday following hail and torrential rains that battered two mountainous counties in the region last week.

The government of Minxian county in Gansu province said the bodies of two more people have been found, raising the death toll to 47. Twelve of the county's residents remain missing and another 60 are receiving medical treatment at a local hospital.

BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Rainstorms have left 102 people dead and another 30 missing across China since late April, a national disaster relief agency said Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, heavy rains accompanying thunder, hail and strong winds have hit a large portion of China and affected about 13 million people, including 820,000 who needed relief efforts, said a statement from the Office of the National Committee for Disaster Reduction.

KUNMING, May 15 (Xinhua) -- A lingering drought has resulted in below-average water levels in 549 small and mid-size rivers and has left 673 small reservoirs dry in south China's Yunnan province, provincial drought relief authorities said Tuesday.

Affected by the drought, the total water inflow volume into all river courses in Yunnan is about 31 percent below the annual average, according to the Yunnan provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

CHANGSHA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Four of nine people who fell into a river following a Sunday bridge collapse in central China were found dead Tuesday, rescuers said.

The 120-meter bridge, which connects two townships in Pingjiang county in Hunan province, collapsed Sunday morning after being hit by three sand dredges flushed downstream in the worst floods experienced in the county in a century.

Nine people subsequently fell into the Changjiang River, with three rescued thus far.

LANZHOU, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in northwest China have reported 53 deaths and 18 people missing as of 4 p.m. Monday as a result of hail and torrential rains that battered two mountainous counties in the region last week.

The government of Minxian county in Gansu province reported 45 deaths and 14 people missing, as well as 114 hospitalizations, in relation to the storms.

Last Thursday's storms affected 358,000 people in Minxian, forcing the evacuation of about 30,000 local residents.

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Finance said Monday that it has allocated 20 million yuan (3.17 million U.S. dollars) to help relief work in storm-hit Gansu Province.

The funds will be used for disaster relief and restoration of destroyed water conservancy facilities in counties of Minxian, Zhangxian and Weiyuan, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Hail and torrential rain has battered parts of Gansu in recent days, wrecking havoc on people's lives, agricultural production and infrastructure.

CHANGSHA, May 14 (Xinhua) -- About 172,000 residents threatened by rainstorms in central China's Hunan Province have been relocated, local authorities said Monday.

Continuous rain has affected over 2.91 million people in 50 of the province's counties as of Monday, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Over 3,600 houses in Hunan have collapsed in the storms, which have also led to direct economic losses of about 2.87 billion yuan (about 456.3 million U.S. dollars).

BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China's ongoing severe drought has hit 13 Chinese provinces, having an adverse impact on agricultural production, the country's drought relief authorities said Thursday.

As of Thursday, the dry spell has left 7.82 million people and 4.58 million head of livestock without adequate drinking water in provinces including Yunnan, Sichuan, Hebei, Shanxi and Gansu, said an official from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- China will provide emergency humanitarian aid worth two million U.S. dollars to Syria, said Qin Gang, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Friday.

Qin said the aid money is offered to improve the humanitarian conditions in some regions of Syria and to demonstrate Chinese people's friendliness towards Syrian people.

Southwest China's drought-stricken Yunnan province is not expected to see any rainfall before March 10, the country's meteorological authority said Friday, adding that they will carry out artificial precipitation when weather permits.

Yunnan has seen little rain for almost three years, resulting in low soil moisture levels.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has assigned a special group to Yunnan, preparing for artificial precipitation to relieve the drought, said Chen Zhenlin, an official with the CMA.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has called for intensified efforts to battle droughts and ensure livelihoods in south China's drought-plagued Yunnan province.

Local governments must make every effort to ensure water supplies for daily use and agricultural production, Hui said during an inspection tour of the province from Tuesday to Thursday.

A brutal drought has wracked the province since late last year, leaving 3.15 million people without sufficient supplies of drinking water as of Monday, according to government statistics.

Severe drought has lingered in southwest China's Yunnan Province for three consecutive years, disrupting the lives of 6.3 million people at present, local authorities said Tuesday.

Direct economic losses reached 2.3 billion yuan (372 million U.S. dollars), according to a statement released by the provincial civil affairs department.

More than 651,000 hectares of crops were damaged or destroyed by drought in the province, the statement said.

China's central government on Wednesday announced funding for the use of water-saving irrigation technologies in major grain-producing regions, a move aimed at boosting grain output for the country's 1.3 billion people.

XINING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- The quake-hit Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai province has used over 20.8 billion yuan (about 3.3 billion U.S. dollars) for reconstruction projects since the quake struck in 2010.

A 7.1-magnitude quake struck Yushu on April 14, 2010, leaving nearly 3,000 dead or missing.

A total of 20.89 billion yuan has been spent on the reconstruction work so far, provincial Governor Luo Huining said on Friday, adding that 15.88 billion yuan was spent in 2011.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday pledged new measures to help people living with HIV/AIDS obtain affordable drug treatment, enjoy fair job and education chances and avoid being discriminated.

State Council, or the Cabinet, will soon send inspection teams to some regions with high HIV/AIDS prevalence to oversee the implementation of the central government's AIDS policies, he said.

GOV.cn Wednesday, November 30, 2011

China will continue to dispatch naval escort squads to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Spokesman Geng Yansheng made the remarks at a monthly press briefing, adding that China will further boost cooperation with international escort missions in accordance with the spirit of the United Nations Security Council.

KUNMING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- More than two million people are having trouble finding drinking water in Yunnan as the province's severe drought continues, according to the latest figures.

On Nov. 3, 2.35 millon people in Yunnan were experiencing "drinking water difficulties", said Kong Chuizhu, vice governor of the province, on Tuesday.