The memories of the Porvorim landslide last year have come back haunting as the mud from one of the benches has come down crashing posing a threat to the motorists. The landslide site on Mandovi bridge approach road at Porvorim was posing grave danger to the traffic even as possibility of a bigger landslide looms large. Sensing danger, the Public Works Department decided to construct a retaining wall 290 metres in length and three metres in height to prevent any further damage.

Chinese soldiers prepared on Monday to explode earthquake debris blocking a river where quickly rising waters threatened to flood disaster victims. Two weeks after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit central Sichuan province, lakes formed by obstructed rivers clogged by landslides were adding new complications to recovery efforts already strained to find shelter for millions of homeless.

China has recaptured a giant panda that made a bid for freedom after a massive earthquake devastated the research base where it lived, the official Xinhua agency said on Monday. The panda, named Xi Xi, was spotted on Sunday by a river not far from the Wolong research centre, but had disappeared into the woods by the time staff had got across. It did not get very far in its escape effort however, as they captured it on Monday just 200 metres (yards) downstream from its home.

Hundreds of Colombians huddled in makeshift shelters on Sunday afraid to go home a day after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake damaged scores of homes and triggered landslides killing at least 11 people. In the rural town of Quetame, the most seriously hit, families spent the night sheltered on the town's football field or in a public building after the quake knocked out water supplies and damaged or collapsed houses and its church.

Hundreds of troops carrying explosives trekked through a quake-devastated area in southwest China on Sunday, attempting to reach a "quake lake" that threatens a secondary disaster. Concerned by a steep rise in the water level of a giant lake at Tangjiashan, authorities want to blast a hole in the barrier before it bursts and causes a flashflood. Thousands have been evacuated below the lake as a precaution. Also on Sunday, state television reported an 80-year-old partially paralysed man had been pulled alive from rubble, 266 hours after the 7.9 magnitude quake hit.

Chinese engineers are starting to make headway against lakes that have formed behind landslides, threatening yet more devastation on the earthquake-stricken valleys downstream. Last week's big tremor changed the landscape of northern Sichuan province, as mountainsides were obliterated along the Longmenshan fault. In Hongguang, in northeastern Sichuan, the earthquake caused both sides of a valley to slide, burying three villages and 900 people. The Qingzhu River is trapped behind. "The mountains merged," said Gao Xiao, who barely escaped a landslide that roared past her house.