Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Aftershocks in China Destroy More Houses

· More than 420,000 houses collapsed in China's quake-ravaged Sichuan province yesterday after two large aftershocks hit the region. No deaths were reported.

Hundreds of aftershocks have rattled China since a devastating May 12 earthquake that killed more than 67,000 people. More than 20,000 remain missing, officials said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Chinese soldiers rushed to move 80,000 people in the path of potential floodwaters building up behind a quake-spawned earthen dam in northern Sichuan. Heavy equipment was called in to dig a long channel and release some of the water rising behind the barrier, which formed when a massive landslide blocked a river.

More than 30 towns have been emptied in the threatened valley. Yesterday's evacuation brings the number of people moved to almost 160,000.

· Scientists are enjoying their first peek at the unexplored northern latitudes of Mars, courtesy of the Phoenix Mars Lander, which arrived on the planet on Sunday.

Phoenix will study whether the site could have supported primitive life. The lander has an 8-foot-long arm that can dig into the Martian soil.

The mission has a time limit, however.

When winter comes later this year, the site -- and the lander -- are likely to be covered in frost.

· The percentage of U.S. kids who are overweight appears to have leveled off after a 25-year increase, a federal study has found.

In 2003-04 and 2005-06, about 32 percent of kids were overweight but not obese, 16 percent were obese and 11 percent were very obese. Those levels stayed the same after a steady rise since 1980, the study reported.

Correction: In our May 15 article about actress Georgie Henley, we misspelled the first name of author Malorie Blackman.