Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

More than 25,000 are still trapped in the rubble two days after the 7.9 quake struck, causing landslides and razing homes, schools and whole villages.

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has flown to the epicentre to see relief work, having met survivors elsewhere.

Soldiers have rushed to a dam above one city over fears for its stability.

Some 2,000 troops have been sent to plug cracks in the dam - near the hard-hit city of Dujiangyan - says the Associated Press news agency, citing official Chinese media.

The 2,000-year-old dam feeds the fertile agricultural plain of Sichuan province. The irrigation system it feeds and Dujiangyan would be swamped if it were to fail, authorities have said.

No damage has been reported to the massive Three Gorges Dam, also in Sichuan province.

Sichuan's Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said incomplete figures suggested 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746 had been injured, Xinhua reports.

Officials reached the town of Yingxiu, in Wenchuan County, to find the devastation was worse than expected - out of the town's population of 10,000, only 2,300 have been found alive.

The head of a police unit sent into the disaster zone said the losses had been severe.

"Some towns basically have no houses left," Wang Yi, told Sichuan Online news site. "They have all been razed to the ground."

Meteorologists are forecasting a small break in the poor weather that has hampered aid efforts.

Helicopters have now been able to fly into the quake zone to take food, drinking water and medicine to Yingxiu.

But the weather remains cloudy and more rain is expected at the end of the week, said the National Meteorological Centre.

Slow progress

Roads in the mountainous area have been badly damaged by the earthquake or have been covered by landslides.

Many soldiers and rescue workers have been making their way to cut off areas by foot.

Workers are digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings with their bare hands.

Officials for the ministry of transport and ministry of railways told reporters that road conditions were impeding relief work across the province.

"We may have 10 machines but, given the road condition, only one excavator can used at one time, and we can only push forward one metre by one metre," one said.

Lost generation

In Juyuan township, near Dujiangyan, more than 1,000 people are thought to be trapped in a collapsed school building. More than 50 bodies have been pulled out - but only one girl is reported to have been rescued alive so far.

Rescue workers now say hope is running out for the students underneath the rubble, says the BBC's Dan Griffiths in Juyuan.

Weeping parents wait for news as the victims are laid out in the playground.

Due to China's one-child policy, a whole generation of the town's children may be lost, says our correspondent.

At another school, in Qingchuan County, at least 178 children were confirmed dead, killed as they were having a midday sleep.

Among the rescue successes was 34-year-old Zhang Xiaoyan, who is eight months pregnant. She was pulled alive from an apartment that partially collapsed in Dujiangyan.

"It's a miracle brought about by us all working together," Sun Guoli, Chengdu's fire chief told the Associated Press. "It's a miracle of life, using one's life to save a life."

The earthquake on Monday was the worst to strike China since more than 240,000 people were killed in Tangshan in 1976.

A powerful earthquake has killed at least 10,000 people in China's south-western Sichuan province, up to 5,000 of them in just one county.

Many more have been killed and injured in other parts of the country after the 7.8-magnitude quake struck at 1428 local time (0628 GMT).

At least 50 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a school where an estimated 900 students were buried.

President Hu Jintao has urged "all-out" efforts to rescue victims.

Search teams were sent to the area but struggled to get through because routes were blocked.

The BBC's Michael Bristow, in nearby Chongqing, said torrential rains had also prevented helicopters gaining access.

With communication links down, he says there is still no real indication of the death toll at the epicentre, in Wenchuan county, about 92km (57 miles) from Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.

'Major disaster'

One of the worst-hit areas appears to be Beichuan county, part of the Mianyang city municipal area, about 50km from the epicentre.

Some 80% of buildings there were reported to have been destroyed, leaving between 3,000 and 5,000 people dead and up to 10,000 injured.

Meanwhile hundreds of people were reported to have been buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang in Sichuan, and at least five other schools were reported to be in ruins.

More than 150 people were killed in the other provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi, and in Chongqing municipality, Xinhua said.

The death toll could turn out to be much higher once the damage in Wenchuan county - the epicentre - is assessed, says BBC China analyst Shirong Chen.

The area is very rugged, full of mountains and valleys and a number of roads are connected with bridges from one mountain top to the next, he says.

A top official from the region, Wang Bin, appealed for outside help quickly.

"We are in urgent need of tents, food, medicine and satellite communications equipment through air drop," he said.

"We also need medical workers to save the injured people here."

There were fears that China's programme to save the endangered giant panda may have been affected.

Wenchuan county is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, the country's leading research and breeding base for pandas - but the centre could not be reached by phone.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Chengdu immediately, said China needed "calm, confidence, courage and strong leadership".

"We will definitely overcome this major disaster," he promised.

US President George W Bush expressed condolences to victims' families, while Japan offered to send aid.

The Chinese Red Cross has sent hundreds of tents and thousands of blankets to the afflicted area.

Cries for help

There were harrowing reports from the scene of a school collapse in Dujiangyan city - just south-east of the epicentre - where 900 students were buried and 50 dead.

Teenagers buried beneath the rubble of the three-storey Juyuan Middle School building were struggling to break free, while others were crying out for help, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Parents were watching as cranes excavated the site. Villagers rushed to help with the rescue.

Two girls said they escaped because they had "run faster than others".

Dozens of aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was felt in Beijing, 1,545km (960 miles) away, and the Thai capital Bangkok, 1,800km (1,200 miles) away.

The earthquake was China's worst since 242,000 people were killed in 1976 by the Tangshan quake.

Sichuan province is the most populated part of China - home to 87 million people.

The provincial capital Chengdu, which has a population of more than 10 million people, was comparatively lightly damaged - though Xinhua cited an official with the local seismological bureau saying 45 people were killed there.

Some 5,000 troops have been sent to help with relief work.

The BBC's Quentin Somerville says this is probably the most significant natural disaster to hit China in recent memory, but that the Chinese army has a good record of mobilising and getting people to safety.

He also says it is one of the most open and speedy responses to an emergency he has ever seen from Chinese state media.

The quake was felt as far away as Beijing, he says, meaning millions of people will feel connected to the disaster and will be watching TV screens closely to see how the government responds.

A series of numbers given in the exhibition themed on Tibetan Past and Present show the consistent progress in Tibetan education field: Tibet Autonomous Region is the first one to accomplish compulsory education with free-accommodation and free-tuition in urban and rural areas; 1,200-yuan assistance is provided for every pupil in per academic year, while every student in junior high school can receive 1,350 yuan; Up to now, 1,923 out of 10,000 persons are students at school.

These inspiring numbers are sharp contrast with Tibetan past: Accounting for over 95% of Tibetan total population,  herders have only 2% enrollment. For 50 years, Tibetan education has developed with numbers of schools surging from zero to thousands and people's equal right to receive education.

Modern informationized education has been introduced into schools in Tibet along with improved teaching method and facilities.

"Internet is like a treasure box and long-distance education is amazing," said a pupil sitting in front of a computer.

In the clean and modern classrooms, students are dreaming that they can build a more beautiful Tibet in the near future.

A team of climbers trudged through snow and ice to carry the Olympic torch to the summit of Mount Everest on Thursday, fulfilling a long-held goal of the Chinese government to have the Olympic flame lit on top of the world's highest mountain - Tibet/XiZang Qomolangma.

Overseas groups opposed to Chinese rule in Tibet quickly denounced the event, saying the Chinese government was simply using the torch relay to bolster claims of sovereignty over what should be an independent country.

The ascent of the north face of Mount Everest, whose icy summit is more than 29,000 feet high, was the most ambitious leg of the Olympic torch relay. The torch that climbers carried to the top at 9:18 a.m. on Thursday was a side torch; the main torch is making its way through the southern province of Guangdong and will continue through every province of China before arriving in Beijing in early August.

The Chinese government has tried to maintain tight control over every aspect of the Everest climb. Officials brought a group of journalists to the base camp to help publicize the ascent while barring foreign climbing groups from any summit attempts for fear of Tibet-related protests further marring the torch relay, which has already been beset by anti-China demonstrations in foreign cities. Nepal, prompted by Chinese leaders, has also kept climbing groups away from the mountain.

Mount Everest lies on the border of Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region. The capital of that region, Lhasa, and other Tibetan areas in western China were shaken by anti-Chinese protests and riots in March. China responded with what critics have called heavy-handed suppression. That in turn inspired Tibet supporters to protest as the torch passed through foreign cities.

The state-controlled Chinese news media have highlighted the fact that most members of the climbing team on Everest are Tibetans. The torch was lit at 9:12 a.m. by Norbu Zhamdu and then carried on a 98-foot relay to the peak, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. The team captain, Nyima Cering, was the third torch bearer and shouted the 2008 Olympic slogan, "One world, one dream."

Photos showed a team of climbers bundled in red down jackets and wearing oxygen masks standing next to Tibetan prayer flags atop the windy, snow-bound summit. The climbers held up the Chinese flag and two white flags with the Olympic rings. The summit attempt had been repeatedly delayed by bad weather, which forced the team to sit for days at high-elevation camps.

The ascent's conclusion came four days after brief talks in the city of Shenzhen between Chinese officials and two envoys of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. It is unclear whether anything substantive came of the first round, which lasted only a few hours. The two sides agreed to another round of talks.

On Thursday, one of the two Tibetan envoys, Kasur Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, said in a statement issued in Dharamsala, India, that "there were strong and divergent views on the nature as well as the causes of the recent tragic events in Tibet."

He added: "We made it clear that the events in Tibet are the inescapable consequences of wrong policies of the authorities towards the Tibetans, which goes back several decades."

Matt Whitticase, an organizer of the Free Tibet Campaign, based in London, said on Thursday that bringing the torch up Mount Everest was a political stunt on China's part.

"Given we've seen the protests in Tibet over the last few months demonstrating the Tibetans' emphatic rejection of Chinese rule over Tibet, what the ascent of the torch on the Tibetan side of Everest means is that China is trying to assert its baseless claim of sovereignty over Tibet," he said in a telephone interview.

The Free Tibet Campaign and other pro-Tibet groups have urged the International Olympic Committee and sponsors of the torch relay to prevent China from carrying the torch through Tibet, scheduled for this summer.

"Clearly the Chinese government has a huge military presence in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and it will do everything in its power to prevent protests by imposing curfews," Mr. Whitticase said. "We are being told by our sources that Tibetans are determined to protest."

Also on Thursday, a prominent advocate for human rights in China, John Kamm, urged China to grant an "Olympic pardon" to long-serving prisoners who are nearing the end of their sentences, saying that China now faced a "historic opportunity."

"A pardon for those who have served the great bulk of their sentences would result in the release of the remaining prisoners from June 1989 — symbolically putting that tragedy behind the Chinese people," Mr. Kamm said, referring to the brutal government suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests.

Mr. Kamm, the head of the Dui Hua Foundation, based in San Francisco, said a pardon would also free prisoners "still serving sentences for counterrevolution, a crime removed from China's criminal law in 1997."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/world/asia/09torch.html

The Chinese government has made impressive efforts to bring Tibet to the modern world of the 21st century and preserve its traditional culture, a U.S. journalist said on Sunday.

David Jones, the interim managing editor of the Washington Times, said in an email interview with Xinhua that he saw during his trip to Tibet last September that large sums of money had been put into repairing temples and building museums.

Traditional Tibetan singing and dancing were also kept alive as part of the government's efforts to preserve Tibetan culture, he said.

"Large sums have been spent to preserve and restore Tibet's temples and monasteries ... Almost 30 million U.S. dollars has already been spent on the Potala Palace alone," he wrote in a report about his trip to Tibet published in October.

"The government also sponsors professional and amateur dance and theater troupes and set aside up to one-third of Tibet's total area for wildlife preserves," he added.

In his October report, Jones said officials in Beijing and Lhasa seem to have come to the same conclusion that they could attract tourists to the region by preserving the world's most original culture.

Jones recalled that he had a "romantic picture" that Tibet was rather a backward and very religious place before he went there, but he was surprised to see a modern Tibet with first-class highways, many SUVs and good communication, and that even yak herders have cell phones and motorbikes.

"It is obvious to me that the government had spent a lot of money to build infrastructure," he said. "The mobile phone reception in some parts of Tibet is even better than West Virginia."

He also found the government of Tibetan Autonomous Region is "very much a mixture of Tibetan and Han officials at all levels."

Jones, a former reporter based in Hong Kong in 1980s, said that he has witnessed China's dramatic change in politics, economy and social life during several visits to the country from 1983 to 2007.

"Each time I went to China, I was amazed to see how much progress and development that have been (achieved) in such a short time."

Jones said that he was surprised to see how much more freedom Chinese people enjoy nowadays in choosing their professions and traveling abroad, among others.

He said he realizes westerners should not deny China's development mode based on its 5,000-year history. They should acknowledge how dramatically China has changed in such a short period and how challenging it is to undertake these changes in such a populous country.

Huang Guangxue, vice-director of the National State Nationalities Affairs Commission in the 1980s, still remembers his first visit to Tibet in 1954. Huang and his colleagues were on a State Council mission to assess the situation in the region.

The young man, who grew up in the countryside, was struck by the poverty of the Tibetans.

In the northern pasture areas, Huang saw Tibetans dressed in rags, huddled around fires of yak dung to keep warm.

When Huang visited Tibet again in 1959, it took him a week to travel from Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, to reach the remote Ngari region of western Tibet.

"The changes since have been tremendous," Huang said at the grand exhibition - Tibet of China: Past and Present - that opened on Wednesday at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing.

The cultural relics, pictures and other exhibits on display provide ample evidence of the changes in Tibet.

Before 1959, serfs comprised more than 95 percent of the population, but 80 percent of the assets were controlled by serf owners - officials, aristocrats and monasteries.

According to the Thirteen and Sixteen Statutes practiced in Tibet from the 17th century until 1959, it was stated that each noble was worth his weight in gold. People at the lowest level - women, vagrants, beggars, butchers and blacksmiths - were only worth a length of rope made of grass.

At the exhibition, the song Heavenly Road that praises the Qinghai-Tibet Railway can be heard in the background.

One picture shows a happy Tibetan family around a table covered with food during a festival. Alongside, is a 1950s photo showing a beggar taking shelter in a toilet in Lhasa.

A graphic on food production shows that in 1959 one-fifteenth of a hectare of farmland only produced 91 kg of grain. In 2007, production had increased to 364 kg. Over the same period, the per capita income of the rural and pastoral population had quadrupled from 175 yuan to 2,788 yuan.

Tashi, a sophomore at the Central University for Nationalities, was impressed by the cultural relics he was seeing for the first time. Tashi is majoring in Tibetology, taught by Tibetan and Han teachers.

Tuition at the university is free and each student receives a monthly subsidy of 52 yuan from the government.

Tashi comes from the Yushu Tibetan prefecture of Qinghai province. When he returned home last year, it took him only 24 hours to reach Xining, capital of Qinghai, via the second phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway which opened in July 2006. "It's quite convenient for me to go home. I do it once a year," Tashi said.

When I happily announced to my Chinese husband that I obtained a coveted ticket to hear the Dalai Lama, he frowned. To him, the Dalai Lama is a divisive political leader, not a compassionate holy man.

These days, I feel caught between widespread U.S. support for Tibet and an angry, pained reaction from my Chinese friends. Born and raised a Jones in Ohio, I am now a Yang, married to a man from China. Fluent in Mandarin, I often have long discussions with Chinese friends in their native language. As a journalist who covered China for eight years, I was trained to aim for objective coverage.

Recently, at a dinner party, my friend Li pleaded with me to be neutral. But I find there is no neutral ground on the subject of Tibet. Both sides view the other as manipulated. I can't explain the popular American perspective to Chinese people without being lumped in with the demonstrators who wave Tibetan flags because it's cool. And I can't explain the Chinese perspective without an American calling me an apologist.

What I am finding is that Chinese people -- not the government propaganda machine but flesh-and-blood people -- are angry and hurt at the world's increasingly negative portrayal of their beloved country. Through their eyes, American free expression can look ignorant and insensitive. What upset my friend Li was that a CNN commentator called China a "bunch of goons and thugs."

My hackles rise when I hear charges of media bias. I notice how often newspapers try to be fair, interviewing Chinese counter-protesters and identifying the Dalai Lama as a political as well as spiritual leader. Yet news analysts get away with vitriolic comments that sound like 1950s-style red-baiting.

This Olympics, meant to bring the world's people together in peaceful competition, is driving a dangerous wedge between China and the West. Deeply held antipathy to China is bubbling to the surface in the U.S. and Europe. That trend scares me. I have a child of mixed heritage. What future does she face if these two countries continue to pull apart?

Almost all Americans side with the Tibetans, and I understand why. They admire the ideals of the Dalai Lama and believe they are taking the morally correct position.

Yet to Chinese people, including many in the U.S., the central question is also moral: What right do foreigners have to interfere in Chinese internal affairs? Americans, who live on land stolen from native people, have problems of our own to solve, in inner cities, on reservations, in race relations, in Iraq. So why do we insist we know how to resolve theirs? When Chinese see Americans demonstrating to free Tibet, they see unwitting agents of a U.S. policy that aims to weaken their country by dividing up its territory. They cannot forget the "national shame" of the period when European colonial powers occupied parts of their country.

While most Americans see China as powerful, most Chinese do not see it that way. In the past 80 years, China went through starvation and drought, invasion and civil war, and destructive political campaigns. They see China just emerging as a country that can provide a good life for its people and hold its head up with pride. Just as China stands up, Americans seem eager to tear it down.

For 30 years, China has been on an upward trajectory toward greater freedom and prosperity. Each time I visit, I see modern buildings, highways, even new houses in poor farm regions. My husband's relatives, who suffered in earlier decades, are thriving. Never before in history has China enjoyed such a high level of prosperity, stability and even human rights.

It's true the Chinese do not have the freedoms we do here. Yet every time I visit China, I hear people vociferously criticizing their government. They can even protest in the streets, although not violently. What they do not have is the freedom to organize opposition to the government. But the realm of what is possible is wide.

As an educated American, I pride myself on having an open mind. I hope other Americans, too, will realize that they are subtly influenced by an anti-China bias. I hope Americans will listen to the anger of Chinese people and realize that there is another side to this story.

Lama Cedain, a Tibetan officer in charge of criminal investigations in the Public Security Bureau of Dari County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog, was wounded six times and died at about 6:30 a.m. on Monday, according to the Provincial Department of Public Security.

Following the March 14 unrest in Lhasa, a handful of people alleged to be insurgents seeking "Tibetan independence" incited herders in Hongke Town, Dari County, to riot on March 21, the department said.

After a month-long investigation, the police moved on Monday to arrest the suspected leader. The suspect resisted arrest and gunfire broke out.

The officer was killed in the gun battle, the department said, and other officers returned fire, killing the suspect.

The body of Lama Cedain was moved to Xining, Qinghai's capital, on Tuesday, and a memorial has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Under its claim of power division, the Tibetan "government-in-exile" sets up its legislative framework (the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies), executive body (the Kashag), and judiciary (the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission), but the Dalai Lama is still at the top with a firm grip on religious and executive power, said Bi Hua, senior researcher with China Tibetology Research Center.

The nature of its "integration of church and state" remains unchanged, she said. "It's just another medieval church of Europe under the disguise of present-day western democracy."

The Dalai Lama is the holy representative of Tibetan religious worship, however, both the "government-in-exile" and its constitution considers him the top leader, which shows that under the guise of power division and democratic politics, the "government" in fact features strong religious and feudal factors, she said.

"Its ridiculousness is self-evident, as an incarnated Lama who represents holy rule is considered a representative of civil rights and a fighter for democracy," she said.

In the "government-in-exile", both the Speaker of the Assembly and the Kalons (Ministers) in the Kashag are subject to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is both the "holy" and the "ruler" as he has the final say over resolutions of the Kashag and the Assembly and "government" officials appointment, she said.

The Dalai Lama even has the power to decide the suspension or the dates of the sittings of the Assembly meetings, she added.

The Dalai Lama's supreme power over religion and politics is enshrined in the constitution of the "government-in-exile", which is an important characteristic of its long-held tradition that integrates both politics and religion, said the expert.

The Dalai Lama is a religious figure but meanwhile performs his executive duty as a "head of state". His brothers DamCe Tubdainnorb and brother Dainzin Qoi'gyai are all living buddhas, but are appointed as officials in the "government", she said.

A number of monks also take posts in the "government-in-exile ",she noted, adding that the current Kalon Tripa (Chief Minister of the Cabinet) Samdhong Rinpoche is a living buddha.

The "government-in-exile" wants to secede Tibet from China, aims to restore its rule with political and religious power under the Dalai Lama's control, she said.

Both the 1963 constitution and 1991 amendments admit the supreme status of the Dalai Lama in the "government", said Zhu Xiaoming, a research fellow with China Tibetology Research Center.

The 1991 edition of the constitution merely added such words including "freedom", "democracy" and "peace" from its previous version, but in fact the two Constitutions are fundamentally the same as their spirit is to seek Tibetan independence, he said.

The Dalai Lama's backers' claim to reign over the "Greater Tibet", which covers an area of 2.4 million square kilometers and boasts Tibet, Qinghai and large areas in Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnanand Gansu, is groundless and seek the support of anti-China forces, he said.

As an important feature of theocracy, the Dalai Lama also practised cronyism when appointing officials, experts said.

The Dalai Lama's second eldest brother Gyalo Toinzhub held important posts in military, diplomatic and financial departments, Losang Samdain, the third eldest brother, now is in charge of health section, while his younger sister Jezuin Bai'ma is the chief of the education department. His brother-in-law was also "minister of security" 18 years since 1968. And many of relatives have held important posts in his "government."

As a result of theocratic rule, internal faction, religious persecution and assassinations have been rife in the history of his exiled "government." Many monks were expelled from monasteries just for believing in different gods.

Tibet will receive foreign tourists as soon as possible as all the conditions become mature, the Tourism Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region informed on April 27.

According to the Deputy Director of the Tourism Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the normal reception work of the tourism industry in Tibet was greatly disturbed by the 3.14 incident. The travel agencies in Tibet had suspended tours to Tibet for security concerns.

At present, normal social order has been restored, and the social security environment has been improved significantly in Tibet. To effectively meet the approaching "May 1" International Labor Day and the post-peak travel season, the tourism administrations and enterprises have all gotten well prepared, and the security conditions are able to meet the standards.

Travel agencies in Tibet have already begun to receive domestic tour groups. Domestic tour groups are continuously entering Tibet now.

The deputy director also said that Tibet will arrange to receive foreign tourists as soon as possible, and " it will not be a long time."

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90884/6400368.html