DUJIANGYAN, China: The children who were considered fortunate escaped with a broken bone or a severed limb. The others, hundreds of them, were carried out to be buried, and their remaining classmates lay crushed beneath the rubble of the schoolhouse. "There's no hope for them," said Lu Zhiqing, 58, as she watched uniformed rescue workers trudge through mud and rain toward the mound of bricks and concrete that had once been a school. "There's no way anyone's still alive in there."

BEIJING: Tens of thousands of people throughout southwest China remained buried beneath rubble Tuesday as rescue workers struggled to reach areas cut off by a powerful earthquake that has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands injured and homeless. The authorities said that more than 18,000 people were still unaccounted for in the city of Mianzhu and that 2,300 were missing in the collapse of a school and two factories in the town of Shifang.

China began airlifting aid Wednesday to the areas worst hit by a massive earthquake, while reporting a huge jump in deaths certain to push the death toll close to 20,000

Japan will give 500 million yen worth of emergency grants and relief aid to quake-hit China, including blankets and tents, and is ready to provide additional assistance such as the dispatch of personnel if necessary, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura announced Tuesday evening. The aid will be distributed directly to the Chinese government as well as through international organizations. Komura said details of the breakdown have yet to be decided, awaiting specific appeals from international agencies such as the Red Cross. The death toll is believed to have passed 12,000.

Heavy rains pelted homeless cyclone survivors in Burma's Irrawaddy delta on Tuesday, complicating already slow delivery of aid to more than 1.5 million people facing hunger and disease. As more foreign aid trickled into the former Burma, critics ratcheted up the pressure on its military rulers to accelerate a relief effort that is only delivering an estimated one-tenth of the supplies needed in the devastated delta.

The fate of the world's most famous panda preserve remained unknown on Tuesday, more than a day after China's worst earthquake in three decades closed off the remote, mountainous area from the rest of the world. The Wolong National Nature Reserve and panda breeding centre is the only place in the world where the rare animals can be seen in such large numbers. But Chinese officials and zoo officials overseas are worried about the centre's 100 or so pandas, whose home is close to the heart of Monday's 7.9 earthquake in central Sichuan province.

US President George W. Bush has spoken by phone with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the powerful earthquake that hit central China. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Tuesday the President expressed his condolences on the thousands of deaths in the quake and offered to assist where possible. She said the US is offering an initial $500,000 in relief in anticipation of an appeal by the International Red Cross. Mr Bush also raised with Mr Hu the turmoil in Tibet and noted the recent meeting in China and Dalai Lama representatives.

More than five years ago, a seismologist had warned of a strong earthquake in China's Sichuan province, where the most devastating quake in more than three decades occurred on Monday killing thousands of people, the state media reported. Seismologist Chen Xuezhong of the Geophysics Institute of State Seismological Bureau (SSB) had made his forecast long ago based on historical records and animal studies, the state-run China Daily said.

More and more people are migrating to urban areas because of climate change as it is causing frequent natural disasters, making the disaster-prone areas unlivable, experts said at a seminar yesterday. It would be difficult to provide employment for the increasing number of migrants, but the government remains indifferent to this issue, they said. Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) organised the seminar on 'Climate change, migration and Bangladesh' at the RC Majumder Auditorium at Dhaka University.

The death toll from Chi na's most devastating earthquake in three decades has jumped to at least 11,921, a top disaster official said on Tuesday, as storms hampered rescuers in the most devastated areas. The state media reports indicated that the number of dead from the 7.9 magnitude quake was likely to soar. Xinhua news agency said 10,000 people were buried in the Mianzhu area of southwestern Sichuan province alone. Troops had also arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake.