Tag: Rescues

Xi Calls for All-Out Rescue After Coal Mine Explosion Kills at Least 82 in China

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China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, called on Saturday for a redoubled rescue mission in northern China after a gas explosion in a mine there killed at least 82 people, the Chinese state news agency said, in what appeared to be one of the deadliest Chinese mining disasters in years. Mr. Xi “stressed the need to make every effort to treat the injured, organize search and rescue operations scientifically and properly handle the aftermath,” the agency, Xinhua, reported. He also called for an investigation into the explosion, which happened Friday night,…

China Earthquake: In Bitter Cold, a Struggle to Help Survivors

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Rescue workers strained to plow through eight-foot piles of frozen sludge, which blocked the entrances to destroyed villages. Emergency vehicles struggled to navigate icy, damaged mountain roads. Victims with serious injuries were rushed to hospitals in cities, as demand for medical care overwhelmed the villages’ limited capacities. In the wake of China’s deadliest earthquake in nearly a decade, emergency workers raced to find survivors and distribute aid in Jishishan County in China’s northwest. They were running up against the challenges of rescue work in bitter cold in a remote part…

Defecting From North Korea Is Now Far Harder

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The North Korean software engineer was desperate. He had been sent to northeastern China in 2019 to earn money for the North Korean regime. After working long hours under the constant watch of his minders, he found an email address on a website and sent a harrowing message in 2021: “I am writing at the risk of losing my life,” pleaded the engineer. A young woman who had been smuggled by human traffickers from North Korea into China in 2018 contacted the owner of the same website early this year.…