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Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:48 PM PDT

BEIJING: Flood-hit areas of central and southern China braced for more heavy rains Monday after millions of people were forced to evacuate or were otherwise affected by the early onset of the rainy season.

"Severe floods triggered by heavy rains will continue to threaten parts of southern China," Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei warned.

"There is an increasing possibility that downpours, with enhanced frequency and intensity, will continue to lash regions in the south," he said in a Sunday speech posted on his ministry's website.

Persistent heavy rains that began in the first week of June have swamped central and southern parts of China, with Chen saying more than 10 major rivers in affected areas were on the verge of bursting their banks.

The state weather bureau has forecast continued downpours over the next three days, and the summer typhoon season is approaching.

A recent three-hour downpour dumped a near-record of 312 millimetres (12.5 inches) of rain in Wangmo county in Guizhou province in the southwest, while over 200 millimetres of rain had fallen over short periods in numerous other regions, Chen added.

More than one million people in eight provinces, regions and municipalities were evacuated from their homes from June 9-16 due to flooding, according to the Beijing News.

More than six million people have been somehow "affected" by the rain and flooding in Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, while 2.65 million were affected in coastal Zhejiang province, it added.

The rains had left at least 168 people dead or missing as of last week, the Civil Affairs Ministry said at the time.

The rains have come as a jarring change for provinces including Hubei, Anhui, and Zhejiang, parts of which had until recently sweltered under the worst drought in decades.

Dykes stretching more than 70 kilometres (43 miles) along the Lan river in the city of Lanxi in Zhejiang province were at risk of bursting and authorities were preparing evacuation plans for local residents, Xinhua news agency said.

Heavy rains since Saturday caused the river's level to rise sharply, reaching its highest since 1966, it quoted a local official saying, with water already spilling over some sections.

In the southwestern province of Yunnan, five people were killed and another was missing after surging floodwaters swept through a pair of rural villages during a hailstorm on Sunday, the agency said.

China is hit by heavy summer rainfalls every year.

Torrential downpours across large swathes of the country last year triggered the nation's worst floods in a decade, leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing in floods, landslides and other rain-related disasters.

One devastating mudslide in the northwestern province of Gansu killed 1,500 people last August. - AFP

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S. Korea apologises for passenger airline mishap

Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:42 PM PDT

SEOUL: South Korea's military apologised to the nation Monday for last week's incident in which two Marines fired rifles at a civilian jetliner by misidentifying it as one of the North Korean military aircraft, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"The military sincerely apologises to our people for causing worries over the incident," Col Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told reporters.

The military won't reprimand the two Marines, he said, noting they acted in line with engagement rules. Instead, the military will strengthen training for soldiers at guard posts to better distinguish civilian planes.

"The Marines don't deserve punishment because they didn't do anything wrong," Lee said. "But we will map out ways to better educate soldiers of frontline units to prevent such incidents from happening again."

The two Marines guarding an island near the tense Yellow Sea border with the North fired their K-2 rifles at the Asiana Airlines plane flying in fog over the sea in a pre-dawn incident on Friday. The plane with 119 people on board was undamaged and no one was hurt, as the plane was flying out of range of the fire.

The incident illustrated high tensions on the Korean Peninsula, after South Korea blamed North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan warship and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island near the Yellow Sea border.

The two attacks killed 50 South Koreans, including two civilians. As a result, the South's military has vowed to take a tougher response than in the past if the North attacks again. -- BERNAMA

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Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Ahad, 19 Jun 2011

NST Online: Latest

NST Online: Latest

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