Death toll from China earthquake nears 12,000
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.