tvnewswatch in China

tvnewswatch has been in China for the last week, hence the lack of reports. English speaking newspapers are hard to find unless you're at top hotels. On arrival Chinese news media were reporting on a 6.0 earthquake which occurred in Yunnan province. Yunnan experiences most of China's earthquakes, and China itself sufferers from a third of all earthquakes worldwide. But the last news here is the heavy rainfall, which followed by flooding and landslides, have killed 14 people and displaced more than 20,000 people in south China's Guangdong Province. 

 

The storms have led to the collapse of more than 3,000 homes, and some 26,000 hectares (64,247 acres) of cropland have been damaged. The hardest-hit areas are Heyuan, Shaoguan, Meizhou, Shanwei and Qingyan, but here in Kunming the capital of Yunnan, heavy rain persists and has been for the last 24 hours.

 

As for other news, from here it's difficult to pull information together, especially whilst on the move. But from an occasional read of an out of date China Daily and glimpses of CCTV-9 [China's only English speaking news channel] it appears the G8 is well under way with much being debated about the environment, with China coming in for particular scrutiny. China daily also reported recently on a foiled attempt to blow up JFK airport in the US and of several attacks in Iraq, one of which killed 7 US troops. The paper also reported that Britain's Home Secretary had indicated he would be strengthening terror laws in the country. Google was also a topic in the China Daily with an article about a street level mapping which some believe is going too far in regards to personal privacy. The new Google feature called Street View enables Internet users to view locations in full photographic detail. The photographs were taken by Google using vans roaming many parts of the US. At the moment the areas are confined to the USA but Google plans to extend its tentacles all over the globe. So keep your curtains closed if you have something to hide!