At least 15 people were killed and eight were injured in Monday’s disaster in a township in Bijie city in Guizhou province, according to a report from China Central Television (CCTV).

But the official Xinhua news agency put the number found dead higher at 17 people on Tuesday.

The search is continuing, local authorities have said, adding that rescuers were carrying out relief efforts for affected locals.

The local government has not provided an updated death toll.

Video posted Monday on the Twitter account of the official People’s Daily showed the side of a hill collapsing, with dirt rushing across the outskirts of the town as onlookers shouted in fright.

Rescuers carry the body of a victim at the site of a landslide in Bijie in China’s southwestern Guizhou province on August 29, 2017. // AFP PHOTO

National authorities have issued a grade-IV emergency response for Bijie, the lowest in a four-tier alert system.

The designation mandates daily damage reports and the allocation of money and relief materials within 48 hours.

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly after heavy rain.

In June and August massive landslides in the southwestern province of Sichuan killed more than 30 and left scores missing.

In July, more than 60 people were killed by landslides and floods in the central province of Hunan. Some 1.6 million people were forced from their homes.

The relocation－part of a renovation of the century-old temple that has been going on since 2014, and the biggest change so far－will start on Saturday morning and is expected to finish within two weeks.

The temple, built in 1882 and named for two jade Buddha statues shipped from Myanmar, has been one of the most popular religious venues in Shanghai, with more than 2 million visitors per year.

On special occasions such as Chinese New Year’s Eve or Buddhist festivals, visitors can top 100,000 per day, as people go to the temple to burn incense and pray, leaving the all-wood structure at risk of fire and crowd-related problems, including stampedes.

After the relocation, the size of the open square in front of the Grand Hall, where most visitors gather to burn incense, will be doubled to almost 1,000 square metres.

All the statues and relics inside 750-square-metre hall will remain in place during the relocation, which is unprecedented in China and stands out as the most challenging task of the three-year renovation.

The construction team has already spent three months preparing for the relocation, with much of the work being carried out underground.

The original temple, located on the outskirts of Shanghai, was destroyed by fire in 1919. A replacement was built downtown.

Relics preservation experts from the Shanghai Museum are acting as consultants to help protect the artifacts inside. The experience relocating another Shanghai architectural landmark, the music hall, in 2003 has also been shared.

Steel frames will be set up around the statues inside the Grand Hall for protection during the move, and concrete will be injected in the foundations for added strength. It is believed that the hall will be more earthquake-resistant after the move because of the new base.

Other areas of the temple will be open to the public as usual during the relocation of the Grand Hall.

A joint venture including Viettel was granted a licence at the beginning of the year. However, Viettel has pursued the market since 2002.

Viettel said it planned to make a big investment in Myanmar, which has the largest population (55 million) among the 10 foreign markets in which it operates.

Myanmar’s telecom market is currently dominated by three network providers: MPT with 42 per cent market share, Telenor (Norway) with 35 per cent and Ooredoo (Qatar) with 23 per cent. MyTel is the fourth telecom provider in the country.

The centres are operating from August 28 until the end of February 2018. They will determine the exact number of people of Lao nationality working in Thailand, and provide assistance for Lao workers who do not have legal documentation.

The acting director-general of the Department of Labour Skill Development and Employment under the Lao Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Anousone Khamsingsavath, on Monday explained the function of these centres.

She said the ministry wanted to confirm the nationality of workers so officials would be better placed to uphold their rights and ensure they did not suffer from mistreatment.

For several years, Lao workers in Thailand have not received protection under Thai law because they have not upgraded their status.

Officials expect that these centres will register and upgrade the status of 300-400 Lao workers a day by confirming their nationality.

CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two cases that date back to 2002, said defence lawyer S K Garg Narwana.

He said both sentences will run consecutively for a total of 20 years in jail for the flamboyant guru who has millions of followers and counts politicians as well as celebrities as his friends. Singh also fined him Rs 15 lakh in each of the two cases, of which Rs 14 lakh each would go to the two victims who were part of his sect and were coerced into having sex with him.

Defence counsel sought leniency from the court arguing that Ram Rahim was active in social work and had health issues. He said he will appeal against the orders in a high court. The sentence was passed in a special courtroom set up inside the Sunaria jail where Ram Rahim, the 50-year-old self-proclaimed godman, is lodged since last Friday after he was convicted.

Media reports said he broke down and begged for forgiveness with folded hands when the first sentence was passed. The judge was brought to Rohtak by a helicopter from Chandigarh and landed at a helipad near the jail located on the outskirts of Rohtak.

No untoward incident was reported from Sirsa after the pronouncement of the quantum of sentence of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been convicted in a rape case, a senior Haryana government official said today.

Speaking to reporters here, IAS officer V Umashankar also said that the district authorities had ordered attachment of the Sirsa-based Dera’s accounts and compensation to those affected in the violence could be given from these.

“There was no report of any untoward incident and I hope that peace will be maintained,” Umashankar said.

He said that excluding the permanent residents of the area, many of whom were also Dera followers, the number of others in the sect’s headquarters in Sirsa now was not more than a thousand.

He also said that the deputy commissioner of Sirsa had ordered the attachment of the accounts of Dera Sacha Sauda and compensation to the people affected by violence during the episode may be given from these as per court orders.

Umashankar is presently posted as the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), but has been assigned special duty to assist the Sirsa administration, which is on a high alert keeping in view the Dera chief’s conviction.

Talking about the possibility of firearms being there in the sect headquarters, Umashankar said that some weapons were in the name of Dera and some were registered in the names of individuals.

He said from the day of Ram Rahim Singh’s conviction by a court in Panchkula on August 25, the state authorities had worked to ensure that the violent mob doesn’t move towards Sirsa where the Dera is headquartered.

Abe vowed to enhance pressure on the nuclear-armed state as tensions spike over Pyongyang’s weapons development ambitions.

“Their outrageous act of firing a missile over our country is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat and greatly damages regional peace and security,” he told reporters in Tokyo.

“We have protested to North Korea.”

Calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, he said Japan would “strongly call for increased pressure on North Korea in cooperation with the international community”.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that Tuesday’s missile was launched at around 2057 GMT Monday from Sunan, near Pyongyang, and travelled east “and over Japan”.

Japan on Tuesday deployed a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defence system at a US military base in Tokyo as part of a previously scheduled drill.

Tokyo has been on edge over North Korean launches since a mid-range ballistic missile flew without warning over the northern part of the country and into the western Pacific in 1998.

A decade later, in 2009, a North Korean projectile passed over Japanese territory without incident, triggering Tokyo’s immediate denouncement.

At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an ICBM.

Cambodia’s Information Minister Khieu Kanharith wrote in his Facebook: “Yingluck did not use Cambodia to escape: Hun Sen”.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen made the remarks during a closed-door weekly meeting with some 4,400 garment workers at Koh Pich Grand Theatre in Phnom Penh, the minister said. No further details were given.

Yingluck failed to show up at Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders last Friday to hear the verdict on her alleged negligence in the rice-pledging scandal.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said Yingluck had already left the Kingdom to a destination beyond neighbouring countries.

Several unconfirmed destinations have been reported for Yingluck.

However, in each scenario, Cambodia is the initial transit point.

Apart from Hun Sen, the Phnom Penh Post online reported that Cambodian officials also dismissed media reports, saying they had “no record” of such activity and calling the reports “rumours”.

Chhay Buna, who is in charge of border checkpoints, claimed it was just a “rumour, and not true”.

Sok Sophorn, deputy chief of the Passport Department, dismissed reports that Yingluck was issued Khmer passport.

Immigration Department’s spokesman Kerm Sarin, maintained there was no report in the system of Yingluck having departed to Singapore from Cambodia.