Chinese authorities began evacuating earthquake relief workers today from a flood-risk zone in a drill that put 1.3 million people on alert to quickly leave if an earthquake-spawned lake breaches a dam.
Hundreds of Chinese troops have been working around the clock to drain Tangjiashan lake in Sichuan province, which formed above Beichuan town in the Mianyang region when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the May 12 quake that killed more than 68,000 people.
Myanmar's junta today came under renewed international pressure from rights groups and the US defence chief who said its slow response to the cyclone disaster had cost “tens of thousands of lives.”
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticised the military regime's delay in allowing in foreign aid, saying US ships and aircraft could have swiftly brought much-needed relief to the cyclone-hit nation.
Truth is often said to be the first casualty in wartime. But if the real truth is told, it is women who are the first casualties. In conflict zones, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF recently observed, sexual violence usually spreads like an epidemic. Whether it is civil war, pogroms, or other armed conflicts, all too often women's bodies become part of the battlefield. The victims of large-scale sexual atrocities range from baby girls to old women.
Chinese authorities began evacuating earthquake relief workers today from a flood-risk zone in a drill that put 1.3 million people on alert to quickly leave if an earthquake-spawned lake breaches a dam.
Hundreds of Chinese troops have been working around the clock to drain Tangjiashan lake in Sichuan province, which formed above Beichuan town in the Mianyang region when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the May 12 quake that killed more than 68,000 people
Myanmar's junta today came under renewed international pressure from rights groups and the US defence chief who said its slow response to the cyclone disaster had cost “tens of thousands of lives.”
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticised the military regime's delay in allowing in foreign aid, saying US ships and aircraft could have swiftly brought much-needed relief to the cyclone-hit nation.
Truth is often said to be the first casualty in wartime. But if the real truth is told, it is women who are the first casualties. In conflict zones, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF recently observed, sexual violence usually spreads like an epidemic. Whether it is civil war, pogroms, or other armed conflicts, all too often women's bodies become part of the battlefield. The victims of large-scale sexual atrocities range from baby girls to old women. 