Meanwhile, senior government officials called yesterday for tighter international cooperation and better preparation to handle natural disasters in Asia in the wake of the crises in China and Myanmar.
At a high-level security forum in Singapore, ministers and other officials from around the world called for a global crisis management system and better organisation of relief efforts.
02 June 2008: The Peninsula
Beijing/SINGAPORE • A military helicopter carrying 10 people injured in China's devastating earthquake and four crew members crashed in fog and turbulence, and authorities were searching for survivors, state media reported yesterday.
The Russian-designed Mi-171 transport helicopter crashed on Saturday afternoon in Wenchuan county in China's southwest, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
There was no immediate word on any survivors or casualties. Xinhua said a search and rescue operation was under way.The confirmed death toll from the May 12 earthquake, China's worst in three decades, was nearly 69,000, with another 18,000 still missing.
Two injured miners who had been stranded in Sichuan province's mountains since the quake were airlifted out yesterday in a helicopter, Xinhua said. Six parachuting soldiers found the men a day earlier and treated them, Xinhua said.
Meanwhile, senior government officials called yesterday for tighter international cooperation and better preparation to handle natural disasters in Asia in the wake of the crises in China and Myanmar.
At a high-level security forum in Singapore, ministers and other officials from around the world called for a global crisis management system and better organisation of relief efforts.
"We talked about opportunities for higher preparation for the humanitarian relief," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters after meeting with Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
"It might be better organised regionally," Gates said on the sidelines of the gathering of military and defence officials and experts.
The May 2-3 cyclone that hit Myanmar has left nearly 78,000 dead and up to 56,000 missing, while the earthquake that struck southwestern Chian's Sichuan province three weeks ago killed 69,000, with nearly 19,000 unaccounted for.
Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay said he and his colleagues discussed "the need to pursue in real terms greater cooperation and collaboration around pre-positioning of relief and utilising assets."
He said they also talked about "partnering in a much more formalised way the necessary agreements and ingredients to make this happen". MacKay, Gates, and other officials at the gathering in Singapore severely criticised the Myanmar military junta's restrictions on foreign relief after the cyclone. Nearly one month on, only about 40 percent of people in need have received any foreign help, according to the United Nations.
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