420,000 homes were destroyed by the recent aftershocks and there are breaking reports that China has started evacuations. The details are not available in the UK yet but at a guess this may have something to do with the Dams that are already severely damaged. The breach of the Dams was a serious possibility and they may well be giving way soon. 

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The Dalai Lama today called for Tibetans to end protests against the Beijing Olympics, also telling MPs in London he would happily accept an invitation to attend the event if relations with China improved. The comments by the Tibetan spiritual leader came as his government-in-exile called for a temporary halt to all protests against Chinese rule over the territory while Beijing deals with the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake.

Dl4

On its website, the government, based in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, urged Tibetans not to demonstrate for at least a month. The statement said: "In order to express our solidarity with the great natural disaster that befell on China, Tibetans across the world should shun staging demonstrations in front of the Chinese embassies in the respective host countries they live in." - full details at the Guradian

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This report is from the Times on-line.......... Rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo believe that rising demand for ivory in China is to blame for an unprecedented wave of elephant poaching in one of the country's war-torn national parks. 14 elephants have been slaughtered in as many days as government soldiers and militias use ivory to raise money for guns. Conservationists believe that the ivory is being smuggled from Virunga National Park through Uganda and Burundi en route to China.

South Africa has lifted a 13-year moratorium on elephant culling, aimed at tackling a surge in population numbers, despite the protestations of animal rights activists. Alexandre Wathaut, provincial director of the ICCN, the Congolese wildlife authority, said that a solution to the region's political instability was crucial to protecting the elephants. “This is the worst month we have seen in a long time in terms of recorded elephant deaths,” he added.

The DRC has been racked by years of civil war. A United Nations peacekeeping force has helped to bring a degree of stability to much of the country but the east remains in the grip of fighting between militias and government forces. They have turned Virunga which is home to a population of extremely rare mountain gorillas into a battleground. Populations of hippos, elephants and antelope in the park have nearly been wiped out by gunmen who kill them for food. Part of the park is under the control of the rebel commander Laurent Nkunda, making it inaccessible to rangers.

african elephant

A report by the conservation charity WildlifeDirect says that the militias, which include armed Hutu groups responsible for the Rwandan genocide, have killed 14 elephants for their tusks in a two-week period, 4 were killed by the FDLR militia, comprising members of the former Rwandan Interahamwe, 5 by the Congolese military, 3 by the local Mai-Mai militia, and 2 by villagers. It is a high toll for a population estimated in 2006 to be no more than 350 but is probably far less. Emmanuel de Merode, director of WildlifeDirect, said that the elephants were the victims of international pressures. “The upsurge in elephant killings in Virunga is part of a widespread slaughter across the Congo Basin and is being driven by developments on the international scene: the liberalisation of the ivory trade, being pushed by South Africa, and the increased presence of Chinese operators on the ground who feed a massive domestic demand for ivory in their home country,”

A report last year suggested that as many as 23,000 elephants were being killed across the continent to meet soaring demand from a growing Chinese middle class. Much of it ends up in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where it is turned into chopsticks bought by Chinese oil workers. [source:times]

Elephants are on the threatened species list already and there is a really simple solution, make chopsticks out of another material, there is no need to use ivory at all. China will survive if plastic chopsticks replaced the ivory. I don't understand why these amazing animals have to suffer in this way. 

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A Chinese cargo ship carrying 77 tonnes of arms, including more than 3m rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe. The South African government confirmed this yesterday and claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship's papers were in order.

Copies of the documentation for the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang show that the weapons were sent from Beijing to the ministry of defence in Harare. Headed "Dangerous goods description and container packing certificate", the document was issued on April 1, three days after Zimbabwe's election. It lists the consignment as including 3.5m rounds of ammunition for AK47 assault rifles and for small arms, 1,500 40mm rockets, 2,500 mortar shells of 60mm and 81mm calibre, as well as 93 cases of mortar tubes. The carrier is listed as the Cosco shipping company in China.

That's one way to win the next election then, start a war and kill the opposition.

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An estimated 374 people will be executed in China during this summer's Olympic games in Beijing, Amnesty International has claimed. A new league table of the world's most frequent executioners showed China officially used capital punishment 470 times last year. But some campaigners believe the true figure may be 8,000.

The human rights group called on Olympic athletes and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to press for greater openness about executions by the host country. Amnesty's UK director Kate Allen said: "As the world's biggest executioner, China gets the 'gold medal' for global executions. "According to reliable estimates, on average China secretly executes around 22 prisoners every day - that's 374 people during the Olympic games.....Everyone involved in this year's Olympics, especially the IOC, should be pressing China to reveal the extent of its use of the death penalty, to reduce the 60-plus crimes for which it can be imposed and to move toward abolition."

full story @ www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/15/humanrights.olympicgames2008

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Fears that tomorrow’s Olympic flame relay through London could be disrupted by violence intensified after it emerged that eight Tibetan protesters had been shot dead by Chinese police. Campaigners vowed to redouble their protests after hearing of the deaths yesterday during one of the bloodiest clashes since pro-independence protests began last month. They said that they would target the Chinese Ambassador to London, Fu Ying, who is scheduled to take her turn carrying the torch as it makes its way from Wembley Arena to Canary Wharf.

olympics demo

Last night the Chinese Embassy declined to confirm whether she would take part. A number of celebrities have withdrawn from the event or made themselves unavailable in protest at China’s heavy-handed crackdown on Tibetan protesters who are demanding independence. Police fear that there will be clashes between Tibetan demonstrators, who plan to gather at strategic points along the 31-mile route and Chinese students, who are being mobilised to defend China’s stance. [source - times on-line] www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3686139.ece

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Chinese paramilitary police have killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers. Full Story in the Times - www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3683878.ece

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China’s Great Firewall must be lifted during the Olympic Games to ensure free access to the rest of the world. That was the message from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Beijing organisers of the Games during meetings that will be the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the Games open on August 8. Kevan Gosper, vice-chairman of the IOC co-ordinating commission, said blocking the internet during the Games would reflect very poorly on the host nation. “Even this morning we discussed and insisted again. Our concern is that the press is able to operate as it has at previous Games — at Games time.”

China routinely blocks access to certain sites on the internet and can implement at will a blacklist of words that cannot be found and will crash a search engine, barriers to certain parts of the internet have been enforced with even greater vigour. [source-times on-line]

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China is sealing off Tibet and other areas of unrest from outside scrutiny by expelling all foreign media as its midnight ultimatum to protesters to hand themselves in approaches. Thousands of troops and paramilitary police are flooding into Lhasa and in provinces with large Tibetan populations, amid reports that arrests have already begun in the Tibetan capital. Journalists have been removed from Tibet and turned away from other areas where anti-government protests have broken out. The region's governor, Qiangba Puncog, said that protesters who turned themselves in would be "treated with leniency within the framework of the law ... Otherwise, we will deal with them harshly." He offered no more details.

chinese riot police

His remarks came as the authorities began a propaganda counter-offensive, issuing graphic descriptions of the anti-Chinese violence which took place in Lhasa on Friday as protests against the government turned into attacks on Han-Chinese and Hui Muslim businesses and individuals. The Tibetan governor said the authorities' response had been "restrained" and insisted riot police had not opened fire. There have been widespread accounts of gunfire, although possibly used to keep people off the streets. He said that 13 "innocent civilians" had died while three rioters had jumped from rooftops while fleeing. But the Tibetan government in exile claims that at least 80 have died in the capital. [source - guardian]

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