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Two strong earthquakes shook a remote desert region of north-western China, killing at least four people and seriously injuring eight others, the government said Sunday. Local officials reported collapsed houses and scores of minor aftershocks.
The quakes -- with magnitudes 6.1 and 5.8 -- hit Gansu province at 8.41 and 8.48pm (1241 and 1248 GMT) on Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported from Lanzhou, the provincial capital. It said another 17 people suffered minor injuries. Gansu's seismological bureau said it expected more reports of injuries
It said the areas hit hardest were in Minle and Shandan counties near the city of Zhangye, about 1,400km west of Beijing, the capital.
Xinhua, quoting the provincial seismological bureau, said 30 per cent of houses near the quake epicentres were damaged severely and that 90 per cent of buildings in Yaozhaizi, a small nearby village, had collapsed.
An official reached in Shandan County said the area had experienced more than 200 aftershocks in the hours since the two big temblors. Most were minor, he said. The State Seismological Bureau in Beijing said the most severe aftershock was magnitude 4.0.
Officials in Minle and Shandan counties said they were still assessing damages on Sunday and had no details. They wouldn't give their names.
The area is located in a narrow corridor between the Gobi Desert and mountains that line the border between the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai.
The Hong Kong Observatory reported one 'intense' tremor at 8.46 p.m. (1246 GMT) on Saturday and said the epicentre was at the border of Gansu province with neighbouring Qinghai province. It estimated the magnitude at 6.1.
In Golden, Colorado, the U.S. Geological Service's Earthquake Information Center measured the quakes at 5.7 and 5.5, according to geophysicist John Minsch.
Earlier this month, a strong earthquake rumbled through a remote, seismically active area of China's mountainous south-west, killing three people and felling at least 50 houses in an ethnic minority enclave in Yunnan province. Fourteen people were seriously injured in Dayao County
SINGAPOREANS pressuring the Government to dip into the reserves received a sobering reminder from Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday of how much of the money it is already using.
It now spends half of the income from investing the reserves, he said.
Indeed, he admitted, the Government even slackened in its fiscal discipline during the good years and spent too much of its surpluses in some areas.
But it could no longer afford to do so, he told residents and community leaders at a South-east district dialogue.
'We now have to get into the habit of looking at the dollar and telling ourselves how we can best spend it,' he said.
What brought on the remarks?
Two opposing pleas by dialogue participants to the Government. Spend more, urged one. Spend less, cautioned another.
The first request related to the reserves. A participant wanted to know why the Government refused to use the reserves to help those struggling to support their sick and aged parents.
It was a variation of a call heard often in recent times [next page]